Genealogy of John Waller Robinson of Fredericksburg

In 1772, Michael and Mary Robinson sold their house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to George Washington. He purchased the house for his mother, Mary Washington. Mrs. Washington received in her house from time to time not only her son George Washington but also George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, several of the Lees, and General Lafayette.In 1826, John Waller Robinson, the great grandson of Michael and Mary, immigrated with his family to the then new state of Missouri. The journey was performed in the only way then practicable, overland, the old-fashioned emigrant wagons covered with canvas, top loaded with provisions for man and beast, containing the cooking utensils, bedding and such other housekeeping conveniences as have to be transported to a primitive country. Having the whole state before him, he selected, for a farm, land about seven miles north of Fulton, in Callaway County, Missouri.About 600 French Huguenots came to Virginia in the years around 1700. Many settled near Richmond, Virginia. John Waller Robinson's wife was Mary Bondurant Ayres, a descendant of the noted Huguenot Dr. Jean Pierre Bondurant, born in France in 1677.The honorable Michael Waller Robinson was a judge in Chicago. He was the son of John Waller Robinson. Charles F. Foster, a cousin, was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. He was involved in the acquisition of exhibits for the Fair. The Mary Washington house in Fredericksburg was scheduled to be disassembled and transported by rail to the Chicago World's Fair for display. However, ladies from Fredericksburg were successful in preventing the house from being disturbed. Today the beautiful old house is operated by Preservation Virginia and is open for visitors.John Waller Robinson's grandson E. Arthur Robinson, as an engineer at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, learned firsthand from Nikola Tesla. At the fair Tesla introduced a new technology, namely alternating current, which made electric power transmission a reality. In 1894 E. Arthur Robinson formed Robinson Company, which electrically staged the Vitascope, the first moving picture ever put on in Chicago. Robinson Company designed and made electric-light signs that hang over the street. In 1896, Robinson Company jumped from being theatrical engineers to being manufacturers of X-ray apparatus. This book contains illustrations of x-ray images taken by Robinson Company in 1896.John Waller Robinson's great grandson Enders Anthony Robinson, as director of the MIT Geophysical Analysis Group in 1952-1954, developed the first digital signal processing methods to analyze seismic records used in oil exploration.