From the March  7, 1895 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Patchogue, L.I.–David Robinson, a resident of East Moriches, is dead. Robinson weighed 500 pounds and was buried in a coffin large enough to hold four ordinary men. Mr. Robinson showed signs of great strength and rapid growth before he was 21 years of age. For some years he was a whaler and sailed on several ships from Sag Harbor. He was a giant in strength. Though the whalers, as a rule, were pretty tough characters in those days, it was said that Robinson was more than a match  for the roughest of them. It is said that he could at one time life a dead weight of 2,000 pounds with his neck and shoulders. Of late years, Mr. Robinson had grown tremendously in size and moved about very little, owing to his weight. He had amassed quite an estate.”