Walter Robson

WALTER ROBSON, a former representative of Pottawatomie County in the Legislature, is a man of large and important business interests in and around Westmoreland. His chief business is farming, but whether as a farmer, legislator, merchant he has played a forceful and virile part in every one of his numerous interests.

Reared in Kansas from early infancy, Mr. Robson was born at Wilmington in Will County, Illinois, February 26, 1875. His father, John Robson, is and for many years has been a prominent factor in Pottawatomie County and is still living on his farm two miles northeast of Westmoreland. He possesses the characteristic qualities of the Scotchman. He was born at Hawick, Scotland, in 1838, grew up and learned the trade of stone mason in his native country and married there Miss Eliza Scott, who was born in Hawick in 1839. In 1867 they came to the United States and for a number of years John Robson followed the contracting and building business at Wilmington, Illinois. In November, 1877, he brought his family to Kansas and then bought the farm two miles northeast of Westmoreland where he still resides. His business interests have constantly grown and he is now owner of 700 acres of rich farming land in Pottawatomie County, owns and built in 1901 the Robson Building on Main Street in Westmoreland and has a three-quarter section of land in Lipscomb County, Texas, in the Panhandle near Higgins. Politically he is an independent democrat and served as county commissioner three years. For the past ten years he has been president of the Farmers State Bank of Westmoreland. He is an active member and deacon of the Congregational Church. His wife died on the old home farm in 1902. Their children were: Elizabeth, who died unmarried in 1906; William, bookkeeper for the Lord Milling Company at Wamego, Kansas; Andrew Scott, a partner with his brother Walter on the farm; Anna, wife of J. H. Plummer, postmaster at Westmoreland; and Walter.

Walter Robson attended the public schools of Pottawatomie County, also the city schools of Westmoreland, and graduated from a business college at Lawrence. For twelve years he was associated in the mercantile business with his brother William. Since then his energies have been chiefly occupied with farming. He rents 500 acres of farming land from his father and he and his brother William own 640 acres six miles south of Westmoreland. Like his father he has invested in Texas Panhandle land and owns a quarter section in Bailey County. He also has a tract of ten acres in Florida and some town lots at Kenefick, Oklahoma. Mr. Robson is a stockholder in the Independent Packing Company of Kansas City, Kansas, in the Wichita Independent Consolidated Oil and Refining Company, and with all this large property to look after he still finds time to work for the public welfare.

In politics he is a democrat. For some years he served as a member of the city council of Westmoreland. He was elected to the Legislature in November, 1912, serving in the session of 1913 and refused to make the race for a second term. While in the Legislature he was a member of the insurance and other important committees. He was also a district delegate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis in 1916. He is a trustee of the Congregational Church, is past master of Westmoreland Lodge No. 257, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, has filled the chair of patron several times in Veritas Chapter No. 109 of the Eastern Star, and is a member of the Kaw Valley Chapter No. 53, Royal Arch Masons.

Mr. Robson married in Westmoreland September 11, 1900, Miss Katharyn Arnold. She is a daughter of J. W. and Jennie (Tremper) Arnold. Her parents live at Westmoreland and her father is well known in real estate, insurance and banking circles there.

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