Robert P. Aitken (February 5, 1819 – April 3, 1905) was an American politician. He was a member of the Republican Party and served in the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...

from 1865 to 1868. He was also a township supervisor, a fire insurance company secretary, and a farmer.

Early life

Aitken was born on February 5, 1819, in what is now

Perth, New York Perth is a town in Fulton County, New York, United States. The population was 3,646 at the 2010 census. It is in the southeastern corner of the county, north of Amsterdam. The town is named after Perth, Scotland. History The land was first set ...

to William Aitken and Helen Aitken (née Chalmers), both of whom were born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He was raised as an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

and remained a devout follower of this denomination for his entire life. He was the fifth of six children. As a teenager he worked in his uncle William Hinton's office. In 1842, he moved to

Flint Township, Michigan The Charter Township of Flint, also known as Flint Township, is a charter township of Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 31,929 at the 2010 census. The City of Flint is adjacent to the township, but the two are adm ...

Career

Political

In 1865, Aitken was elected to the

for Genesee County's 2nd District, and was re-elected in 1867. He also held the office of Supervisor of Flint Township for twenty nine years.

Other

He also acted as secretary of the Genesee County Fire Insurance Company.

Personal life

On March 12, 1843, he married Sarah Johnstone. They had ten children, five sons and five daughters. One of their sons was David D. Aitken, also a politician.

Death

Aitken died on April 3, 1905. He is buried in historic Glenwood Cemetery in Flint, next to his wife and children.

Legacy

Aitken's 1843

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

style farmhouse at 1110 N. Linden Rd. in

was added to

The National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as an example of high-quality 19th century architecture on November 26, 1982. It was later owned by his son David D. Aitken and remains a private residence.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitken, Robert P 1819 births 1905 deaths Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives People from Fulton County, New York 19th-century American legislators