John C. and Mary Robinson Farmstead

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

From the record

One of 141 National Register listings published here for Rock County · listed in 2010 · category: Building.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 10 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Robinson, John C. and Mary, Farmstead - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 18002 W. Co. Trunk Hwy C, Union, 53536
When was it listed? January 2010
Category. building
Town. Union town
National Register reference number. 09001221 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

8,068 words

The chapter on Union Town in History of Rock County, and Transactions of the Rock County Agricultural Society and Mechanics' Institute, published 1856; The History of Rock County, Wisconsin; Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., published 1879 names Union. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Is the most North-western town in the County, and 16 miles North- w«st from Janesville. ' The face of country is similar to that of Magnolia, except that it has less prairio; and the land generally iiot so rolling. ' The earliest settlers were Ira Jones, Stephen Jones, Boyd Phelps, Charles McMilleB, Hi- i-am Griffith, John Sayles, Erastus Quivoy, "Washington Higday, Samuel Lenis, Jacob West, John T. Baker, Levi Leonard, Willis T. Bunton. This town was organized in 1842, and at that time included what is now Union, Porter, and north half each of Center and Magnolia.

Passage source: History of Rock County, and Transactions of the Rock County Agricultural Society and Mechanics' Institute, published 1856.

This is the most northwestern town in Rock County, and sixteen miles northwest of Janesville. It was incorporated by act of the Legislature, approved February 17, 1842, and at that time included what is now Union, Porter, and the north half each of Center and Magnolia. Its present limits are included in what is known as Township 4, north of Range 10 east.

Passage source: The History of Rock County, Wisconsin; Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., published 1879.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Union Town - 8,068 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

13 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of John C. and Mary Robinson Farmstead between 1999 and 2020, burning about 1,932 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Smoking	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Arson/incendiarism	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	83
14 July 2012	Arson/incendiarism	26 acres	Leopold Wetland Management District	BIGLOW RD
11 July 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	2019135
5 May 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	TRAILER DRAGGING
5 April 2006	Debris and open burning	41 acres	Leopold Wetland Management District	LUND CONVERSION
28 April 2018	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	201823
21 April 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	55
18 April 2004	Smoking	169 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Rock County

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of John C. and Mary Robinson Farmstead: 7 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Brunsell Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Brunsell Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Kauk Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Knutson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Liberty Pole Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Thickpenny Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Union Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Wealti Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Rock County

Storms near this property

8 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Union, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2006	Hail	Union	$4,360,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	$75,000	Trees and power lines down in a large swath from northwestern to southeastern Rock County. In the city of Janesville, at least 3 cars were damaged by felled trees or tree branch debris. Several roads were temporarily blocked by tree debris.
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	$20,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	$1,000	no account filed
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	Trees down in the Town of Union.
March 2007	Hail	Union	-	no account filed
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Union	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Rock County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Evansville Standpipe	2.2 miles	2008
St. John's Lutheran Church	2.7 miles	2012
Leonard-Leota Park	2.7 miles	2012
Grove Street Historic District	2.8 miles	2011
Evansville Historic District	2.8 miles	1978
South First Street Residential Historic District	3.0 miles	2011

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09001221 in Record Group 79.
Rock County	All 141 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.