10 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



sold without reserve." 1 Our knowledge does not cover 

 public answer to this ingenious appeal, but the presump- 

 tion is that Robinson, as a good auctioneer, rose to the 

 occasion and in due season provided the "wherewithal" 

 for the lady's journey. 



February saw no lessening of these activities, either 

 in number or in scope of property offered for sale, but 

 on June 5, due to persistent illness, he announced a tem- 

 porary discontinuation of the auction business and did 

 not again resume this profession. 2 



Discouraged, perhaps, by failure to set the world afire 

 with the town of Solon, and likewise by the confinement 

 of town life and the effect of the damp climate of the 

 Ohio River upon his health, Robinson now resolved to 

 seek his fortune anew as a pioneer in northwestern In- 

 diana. Accordingly, in the fall of 1834 we find the Robin- 

 son family slowly wending its way with ox team and 

 horses toward the lands bordering the southern end of 

 Lake Michigan. The story of that journey, momentous 

 for Solon and others to follow — how he found his first 

 destination, Door Prairie, unsuitable for a new home, and 

 how, by deflection as it were, he took up his abode in the 

 region later known as Lake County — is told with interest 

 and charm in his letters of December 16, 1834, and 

 February 25, 1835, published in the Madison Republican 

 and Banner. 3 



It is enough to say here that while Robinson was not 

 the first to settle in that locality, he was among the first, 

 and from the time of his arrival things began to hap- 

 pen. Other settlers soon followed — among them Solon's 

 brother Milo 4 — and the business of building log cabins, 

 clearing land and planting crops, living, loving, and hat- 

 ing, went forward seriously, if not merrily, on every 

 side. A born leader of men for such a frontier com- 



1 Republican and Banner, Madison, January 23, 1834. 



2 Post, 50. 



3 Post, 51-57, 57-64. 



4 Milo Robinson was born March 13, 1801. He came to north- 

 western Indiana in November, 1835. 



