John Moore Robinson

John Moore Robinson (born in Hustonville, Wellington County, Canada West in December 1855

He was elected to the Manitoba assembly for the Woodlands constituency in 1886 as a Conservative. Robinson was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1888.

Work in British Columbia Robinson arrived in the Okanagan Valley from Manitoba in 1897 as a prospector. Inspired by early local ranchers such as John Carmichael Haynes and James and Fred Gartrell, Robinson purchased a ranch, which he renamed "Peachland", and took up selling parcels of arable land for the establishment of orchards. Unlike other ranchers of the time, who grew but a few fruit trees on their property to serve the family and workmen, the Gartrells harvested some of their fruit for sale, and expanding on this concept with dedicated orchards, Robinson is credited with founding the soft fruit industry.

After establishing the town of Peachland in 1899, Robinson founded Summerland, south of Peachland, in 1902, under the patronage of then-CPR president, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy. In 1907, Robinson founded the hillside town of Naramata.

Robinson employed the same land development formula in Summerland and Naramata, encouraging other land development companies to follow in his footsteps, heralding a new era of corporate land management and irrigation.