William Robbins was born in 1824 in Oswego, County, New York. In 1844, he came to Illinois with his parents to McHenry County, Illinois. After some teaching appointments and a clerkship in a dry goods store, he went to California with some friends to the gold mining fields in 1850.
Rather than spending his remaining funds to return home after finding gold nuggets were not so easy to come by, Mr. Robbins opened a general store in Shasta. This venture was successful and other stores followed. He formed a company named Bull, Baker and Robbins, with headquarters in San Francisco (presumably with two partners). The company turned to banking and also built and ran the first steamship line on the Sacramento River. After six years, Mr. Robbins sold out and moved back east to St. Louis with his wife and children.
Still a relatively young man of wealth, he began searching for a plot of land that would be his final home. In 1862, he bought 640 acres of land between what is now Chicago Avenue, 55th Street, Madison and County Line Road for $9,000, out-bidding other interested parties. He must have had some connections because he immediately ceded a right of way to the railroad and began to plan and develop what would become Hinsdale.
In 1865 he plotted the village. Thus, the town of Hinsdale was founded. One of Robbins’s claims to fame was his trees. He planted maples and elms in orderly rows along the streets, and that legacy lives with us today. Robbins Park is named for William Robbins.
His home, “Woodside”, was completed in 1864, constructed of stone from a Lemont quarry. After the rail line was completed, he used the train to commute to his office in Chicago.
Information from this article was taken from History of DuPage County, Illinois, 1882 and an article from the Hinsdale Doings, 9/16/73.
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