Tales From the Grove

The Robinson home at Dresden

by Tim Campbell · first published 22 June 2017 · his original post

Those who may have been around BG as early as the 1940s might remember the grand old home in these photographs, which was purchased in the 1860s and then improved in 1874 by William Simpson Robinson (1823-1887). It sat in the southeast quadrant of the four corner stop in Dresden, 5 miles south of BG. I never saw the home but my father would tell of its grandeur when we passed that spot and say that it belonged to a wealthy doctor and that stagecoaches stopped there sometimes in the old days. This blend of photographs shows an artist rendered likeness of Dr. Simpson, a copy of a dark old tintype of the home in its heyday, and a later photograph taken not long before the home was demolished in the 1950s. Dr. Simpson was born in Roane, Tennessee, married Mariah Adelaide Riggs, and this couple had 10 children. One of the children was John Bell Robinson who was a prominent citizen in Blooming Grove in the 1890s where he tried his luck at several things from proprietary medicine to photography. (more to come about John in a separate post).

This piece was published without a title. The one above was written here; the words below are his.