​Founder of Whitewater Falls Stock Farm, home to prize-winning Percheron horses, James W. Robison was born in Scotland on March 19. 1831. His family immigrated to America the following year.

 

Robison grew up in Illinois, where he attended local schools in Tremont, followed by the Illinois College at Jacksonville. Already a successful farmer and senator in Illinois, he bought land in Butler County, Kansas in 1879, and moved his family here in 1884.

 

Northwest of Towanda, Kansas, J. W. established what would become one of the largest Percheron draft horse ranches in America, known far and wide for the quality of its prize-winning stock.

 

Robison was elected as Republican senator from this district of Kansas in 1897. He died on July 2,1909.

Among the many awards his horses received were 14 silver cups and more than 60 gold medals, many bearing seals of world fairs in the U.S. and national shows in foreign countries.