Metuchen Edison History Features

Recollections of

Boyhood Days

In Old Metuchen

By

David Trumbull Marshall

Published by The Case Publishing Co., Flushing NY 1930

(Second Edition)- (c) 1930

 

Wright Robins.

When I was a very small boy Wright Robins owned a beautiful place on Woodbridge Avenue at Metuchen.

I have never been inside the house, but the grounds outside were extensive and to us children very grand, with their long, neatly trimmed hedges and marble statues.

Mr. Robins built a fine fountain on his lawn and ran a pipe from his pond about a quarter of a mile away to this fountain.

To reach the pond one went up quite a hill and down the slope on the other side.

Everybody supposed that the pond was higher than the fountain.

When all was ready the water was turned on. No water came.

Mr. Robins sent for my father, who ran a level to the pond and found that it was lower than the fountain. Mr. Robins was not to be cheated of his fountain by a trifle like that. He built a tank of bricks on top of the hill and over this a housing and on top of that a wind-mill.

This Dutch wind-mill was a landmark for many years.

When the wind-mill was in order and the wind blew and kept the tank full Mr. Robins had plenty of water for the fountain and the house and for his large stable.

Wright Robins was a good deal of a humorist.

He came to the village one day and announced that he no longer wished to be known as plain Mr. Robins, but that his name was the much more aristocratic "Row-beans" and by that name he was to be called in future.

When it came time for Mr. Robins to die he sent for my father to draw up his will.

After making various and sundry bequests he gave directions for his funeral. He particularly directed my father that Mrs. Robins was to be instructed to put a whole pair of socks on his feet as "he did not want his immortal soul to show through holes in his socks."

 

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Lasted updated 6/8/99 by Jim Halpin.