Individual Details

The following is excerpted from two sources: (1) Chilton County and Her People: A Brief History, originally written in 1940 by T. E. Wyatt, revised 1975 by Carlos W. Wyatt, Times Printing Company, Montavallo, AL, 1976, p. 54; (2) small pamphlet entitled "Genealogy of the Wyatt Family", a brief history compiled by T.E. (Jean) Wyatt, editor of the Union-Banner, Clanton, AL, 1939, p. 7.

During the War Between the States the territory that is now Clanton, the County Seat of Chilton County, was a part of a large estate belonging to Joseph Williams of Mulberry Community. A son, Tom Williams, had the land in charge; it consisted of old fields, marshes and canebreaks, and was used as a pasture for the hundreds of cattle belonging to the Williamses. The marshes and creeks were fine places for wild ducks, and it is said that many hunters from down on the [Coosa] river and other parts of the county came to this section to shoot ducks. On the spot of ground where the Clanton Baptist Church now stands, then stood a dilapidated old log house, in which lived the wife and children of William Riley Robinson; the latter was serving as a private soldier in the Confederate Army. Margaret Headley Robinson and her small children, one of which was Riley Robinson, then 12 years old, did the daily chores of attending to the cattle for the Williamses. Margaret Robinson was one of the kindest and most devoted Christian wives and mothers of her day and time, her loving and fenial disposition having been emulated in the lives of her children and later descendants.
The immediate community where Clanton is now located was known a Goose Pond before the railroad came through and before there was any development. A cotton gin, owned and operated by Tom Williams, was then located about where the old W. I. Mullins home now stands. That was Clanton during the dark days of the Civil War; but soon things were to begin happening. Shortly following the close of the Civil War, Tom Williams and his aged father sold out all of their possessions in the area and moved to Jones Valley where Birmingham is now. They were among the first settlers of what is now Birmingham. Some of these family moved on to Arkansas. Following ownership by the Williamses, the land about Clanton was acquired at one dollar per acre by Alfred Baker. The County was first named Baker County, for this same Alfred Baker, when the county was formed in 1868. The county was formed from parts of Autauga, Bibb, Perry, and Shelby counties. What is now Clanton was in Autauga County. The County was renamed Chilton in 1871, in honor of William Parrish Chilton, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Clanton was laid out in 1872 and named for a Confederate soldier and statesman, Brigadier General James Holt Clanton. William Riley Robinson served as a private in the Confederate army. He did not return home until four years after the close of the war, and then stayed with his family only a short while. He was said to have been very cruel to his family after he returned from the war. He was never heard of by his people after he left the area.

Spouse	William Riley Robinson (1827 - )
Child	Malissa Robinson (1849 - )
Child	Riley Robinson (1851 - 1956)
Child	John Robinson (1853 - )
Child	Gilmore Robinson (1856 - )