Brower-Robinson Home

Ariah Coates Brower was born Jan 13, 1817 in Phelps, New York. Ariah married Margaret Elizabeth Hussey on Sep 7, 1838, in Spring Point, Illinois. In 1840, Ariah was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. After crossing the plains and living in the Salt Lake Valley for 13 years, the Brower family moved to Richmond.

The location where Ariah would build his home was the place where the "Old Fort" was located. The Fort was the first official settlement made by the Early Settlers of Richmond. In 1862, the William M. Harris family secured the land and Old Fort and built a home. They lived in the home until 1864 when Ariah purchased the property.1 It is likely that Ariah deconstructed the home and built this one sometime around 1869.

Behind the home is a natural spring that the Founders used. Ariah was practicing polygamy at the time he built his house. Usually, men who practiced polygamy built different homes for their wives and families. Family histories state that the east and west wings of the home were separate before Araih had them connected.

After his death in 1884, it is unclear who owned the home. The home was purchased by Franklin Gregson and Selina Ellen Griffin Robinson on an unknown date. They raised their children in the house, and it was passed to their son Julian L. Robison, who passed it to his son Jed Stoddard Robison. He used the northeastern corner of his property to create Jed's Burger Bar, today's Big J's.

Jed and his wife Helen owned the home until their deaths in 2003 and 2014. After Helen's death, the home was passed to their children.

1. Alice Marguerite Fisher. (Year made Unknown) EMELINE WHITTLE HARRIS, MY MOTHER'S MOTHER, Uploaded to FamilySearch.org by Carol Y Williams, June 9, 2013. https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/1312071?cid=mem_copy