Reverend "Fighting Joe" Robinson*

Though too broadly known and identified with every part of our county and its neighboring territory, was "Fighting Joe" Robinson, to be considered merely as of a single community; yet because his domicile was in the Acton neighborhood, therefore the mention of him is appropriate to the present place in our story. He settled in Parker county quite early in the fifties, but soon made his final location in the neighborhood of Acton. His character was most single in its kind. Inspired by deep conviction, of the righteousness of the doctrines of the Baptist church, he vehemently preached that it had its inception on the Jordon, under the ministration of John the Baptist, upon Christ the head; that its apostolic succession had been duly and divinely preserved through the dark ages in the mountains and caves of Europe and handed down to the present; that besides this, there was no other way, and that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," was specially applicable to the Baptist church; and being of a mentally combative temperament, he early acquired the soubriquet of "Fighting Joe" Robinson, given to him by the adherents of other denominations who held a distaste for him, because of the constancy with which he preached his doctrines and denounced others not in harmony therewith. But among his most intimate neighbors and acquaintances "Fighting Joe" became too well known as a brave, out-spoken, true man, for everything just and honest, to long remain under the ban of even the most zealous of his religious opponents. He was not only ever ready, but zealous in hunting down crime, which, about the time the civil war commenced, began to be severely felt on the frontier settlements; and as the conditions of war induce a lax administration of the civil laws in these parts remote from the court house, the citizens here, for their protection organized a committee of "Vigilants," which seems to have served a most useful purpose in checking to some extent a disposition among bad men to take advantage of such condition of the country in plying their unlawful occupation of branding and driving to market stock belonging to others. Joe Robinson, with many others of the best and most law abiding citizens here, belonged to the "vigilants," and not a few suspected persons were hunted down, the evidence collected, carefully examined, and when it seemed to warrant, measures taken commensurate with the case; most usually the offender got a warm invitation to "vamoose," which he quickly accepted. Sometimes when the evidence of guilt was only of a slightly suspicious character, he would merely get some good advice, resulting frequently in making a reasonably good citizen of him. One instance only is known to have occurred within our territory, where the extreme penalty of hanging was inflicted, by the vigilants; this occurred somewhere on Squaw creek, toward the close of the war.

After the close of the war, and when the statute laws began to be more effectively administered, the vigilants disappeared with the seeming necessity which brought them into being, and instead thereof a law and order association was formed, composed of the same men, with others. This was a secret organization, having for its object the aiding of the officers of the law in ferreting out and pursuing crime and offenders, and by their secrecy and circumspection, inspired the lawless element with a dread of their presence, for while the criminal laws only punished cattle stealing as a fineable offense, this class of criminals not aware of the full purposes and counsels of this secret organization, dreaded it more than the statutes, till time began to allay this fear, after which, for a time, cattle stealing became so prevalent, not only here, but throughout the state, as to arouse the legislature into the passage of more stringent laws making cattle stealing a felony. Many of the very best and most law abiding citizens of the vicinity of Acton were members of these secret organizations, and among them Joe Robinson was known as the most out-spoken, fearless and active member; and by his zeal in behalf of honesty and against crime, he fully redeemed himself with all good citizens, in spite of his religious combativeness.

Rev. Robinson was not of such narrow material as to be confined in his desire and ambition to be useful alone to the domain of ecclesiastics, but he found much fault with the civil laws and so earnestly desired to mend them, that for about twenty years or more, he regularly stood a candidate at every election for the legislature. He contended that we had a great deal too much law; that it was in the interest of lawyers rather than the people in general; and boldly proclaimed from the stump that if elected he would endeavor to condense all the laws of the state, as contained in voluminous statutes and court decisions, into one small book not larger than a Texas almanac. Alas his views, though pointing in the right direction, were too extreme to meet with general approval, and he was invariably defeated. But this veteran frontiersman, who, according to his own favorite expression, was among "the fust to break the bresh along the Brazos," began to wear out and fail in physical strength. Some ten years ago, suffering the loss of his oldest son, as he stood weeping at the grave of his boy, surrounded by his sympathizing neighbors, he reminded them that he and his good wife would very soon pass away and desired them to see to it that their bodies were placed to rest beside that of their son. He seemed here to realize that the good fight was finished; and true it proved, for very soon the aged pair passed to their reward, the wife outliving him but a short time. Thus the Acton cemetery received into its sacred bosom the dust of another "hero in the strife." "Fighting Joe" Robinson lived not for himself, but for humanity, and with all of his labors he was as poor a man at his death as when he commenced life. Two of his children are now living, a son, Joe, about Alvarado, and a daughter, Mrs. Kemp, about Joshua, in Johnson county.