The Robinson family settled this property in 1793, two years after Vermont became a state, and four consecutive generations lived and worked here until 1961, when Elizabeth Donoway Robinson died. Over that time they were farmers, artists, writers, naturalists, and radical abolitionists. The farmstead was once very different from the landscape seen today. By the mid-19th century, Vermont was almost completely deforested for building materials and farmland, and after clear-cutting, stumps and large stones were removed so the land could be plowed. Stonewall fences were built across the property to keep livestock from grazing in planted fields. In 1810, Thomas R. Robinson imported some of the first Merino sheep to Vermont. By the mid-1840s, Addison County had 373 sheep per square mile, the highest concentration in the United States, but within a few years the sheep industry began to decline, and the family turned to an orchard as an alternative. In 1849, they planted 76 varieties of apples and 63 types of pears. The fruit trees on the property today are mostly self-seeded descendants rather than the original trees. The landscape still preserves the memory of the four Robinson generations who lived at the farm they called Rokeby, including paths once used by sheep and dairy herds and fields where grains once grew abundantly.
