Camp Dick Robinson - After The Civil War

After The Civil War

The government lease of the Richard M. Robinson farm ended on June 1, 1865. The following month, friends and associates of William Nelson commemorated his service by raising a huge silk flag up a 130-foot pole beside his grave on July 4. Two years later, citizens angered over Federal policies in Kentucky cut that massive flagpole down. The monies due Colonel Robinson for the use of his home and land from 1862 to 1865 remained due, and he filed claim right after this incident. In June 1869, he died bankrupt at age 51. The claim had not been satisfied, and a Congressional committee recommended that his widow, Margaret P. Robinson, be paid $7,420 for rent. The Quartermaster General denied the rest of the claim, and it took a joint resolution to approve the payment of $5,878.30 on July 15, 1870. By 1872, the great significance that once surrounded Camp Dick Robinson was gone, and Matilda Nelson Stockton had the remains of her brother, Maj. Gen. William Nelson, removed to the family plot at Maysville Cemetery. Margaret P. Robinson sold part of the farm in 1884, and eleven years later Lynn Hudson sold the home and 335 acres. In 1905, Hudson sold the last parcel of land associated with Camp Dick Robinson. The year before, Margaret P. Robinson had sued the U. S. Government for reimbursement of $1,030.15 for lodging of troops, pasturage of cattle, and 980 bushels of salt supplied to troops in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In late 1906, the court decided that $227 represented a "reasonable" amount still due her.