Ask anyone who shopped at Robeson’s Department Store, and they’ll tell you that it was a special place, a true relic of the past. Started by a young, ambitious man named Frank Kern (“F. K.”) Robeson in 1874 as a small dry goods store, Robeson’s became an iconic shopping center in downstate Illinois. A true visionary and innovator who turned his back on larger markets and potentially greater fortunes, Frank Robeson didn’t believe in the word “impossible.” He saw endless possibilities inherent in the fertile, growing community he lived in...