From his obituary published July 1, 1911. Publication unknown.
Rev. William Peter Robinson was born in Farmville, Virginia, May 28, 1853, and was married to Sarah E. McCoy on July 11, 1875, in Danville, Virginia. They had 10 children.
William, or “Brother Pete” as he was familiarly and lovingly called, was converted at the early age of 13 years and was engaged in constant work for the Master’s service until the very moment he was stricken down by a sudden affliction.
Soon after his marriage, he moved with his family first to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and to Pittsburgh when he joined the Wylie A. M. E. Church under the pastorate of Rev. Wheeler. Here he filled various positions: steward, trustee, class leader, and local preacher.
Holy Spirit Baptism
Through reading a little pamphlet entitled “A Guide to Holiness” by Phoebe Palmer of New York and presented to him by “Aunt Mary” Murray, a member of Wylie Avenue Church, he saw and accepted the truth of the “second blessing” or entire sanctification, and later in the dining room of the Monongahela House, God marvelously baptized him with the Holy Spirit.
A few years after this he was wondrously healed of organic heart trouble, Bright’s disease, and inflammatory rheumatism, and to this power of God he was always a faithful and constant witness, both in pulpit and pew.
Later, he began conducting weekly night meetings in his home of Congress Street to teach and spread the doctrine of holiness. This work was finally organized as the C&MA Branch No. 2. For a number of years the services were held on Tuesday evenings at the home of Superintendent E. B. Nichols on 31st Street. Rev. Robinson then became president.
Annual meetings or conventions were held in the different African-American churches throughout the city. During this time, services were also being conducted Sunday afternoons in the lecture room of the Wylie Avenue church. After some years the Fulton Street church building was then secured and later purchased. Here, many whites and blacks were saved, sanctified, and healed to the honor and glory of God, and many of them were later engaged in active ministry, evangelistic or missionary work.
Going Home
On the second Sunday of the 16th Annual Convention shortly after supper, while conversing with one of his fellow workers, an almost then fatal stroke came. Loving hands bore William tenderly to his room, and prayers began to ascend for his recovery. He rallied to the seeming point of his former self, but He who rules wind and water and does all things well knew best and had sent the summons for his son to come home.
Wednesday afternoon came the last and fatal blow, and while sorrowing relatives and sympathizing friends stood around his bedside, he laid aside his sickle, and shouting, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Jesus is victor! Jesus! Jesus!” he passed over the line of time to be with his Lord forever.
Born of slave parentage, with but little educational advantages, he pushed forward with indomitable will to the great objective point God had set before him when he spoke pardon to his soul. In his endeavor he was ever faithful, not infallible, but walking in the light as revealed to him by the blessed Holy Spirit, and as a result, his ministry has extended from the far south to Canada and from the east and throughout the middle west to the Pacific slope. Always spreading the testimony of the “Fourfold Gospel. Jesus Christ—Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Yesterday, Today, and Forever the Same.”