My Genealogy Hound

REV. W. M. ROE. The Roe family, whose historic records can be traced nearly a thousand years in the past, has grown to be quite large in this country, and in some of its branches it is represented in most of the States of the Union, as well as in several European countries. The name Roe seems to have had its origin in Norway, and like all other proper names commencing with R in the old Norse language was preceded by the letter H. The first known historic mention of the Roe family is to be found in a book entitled “Chronicles of the Kings of Norway,” which was written in Iceland probably about the beginning of the twelfth century. From this work we learn that Bishop Roe, a man of great learning, who had been an Icelandic priest, was stationed on the Faroe Islands in the latter part of the eleventh century.

From Bishop Roe, through Astrid, his daughter, a woman of charming beauty, there was a line of six kings in Norway. These kings ruled from 1202 until 1314. Eric, who occupied the Norwegian throne from 1280 until 1299, and who was in the fifth generation in the line of descent from Bishop Roe, married Margaret of Scotland, daughter of King Alexander III. She died about a year after her marriage, having given birth to a daughter, who, on the death of Alexander, was acknowledged the rightful heir to the throne of Scotland. While yet in her childhood the “Maid of Norway,” as she was called, embarked for the country of which she expected to be the ruler, but she died before reaching her destination. Eric afterward married Isabella, sister of Robert Bruce, who subsequently became king of Scotland. In the latter part of the ninth century Rolf the Younger was banished from Norway by Harold Fairhair, the king, on account of illicit viking cruises made by him along the southern shores of that country. Among the vikings that he induced to go with him to England and Normandy were some members of the Roe family, who, it seems, established themselves at Rouen, in France.

The English line of descent came from Le Rous (Roe), who settled in England in 1066. The Roe family in England was finally enlarged by immigration from both Scandinavia and Normandy. In England every child bore the family name of its father, but in Norway, and in fact in all the Gothic race, only the eldest son could wear the father’s family name. Sir Thomas Roe, who was a distinguished man in many ways, died in England in 1644. In a register of Oxford University there is a record of graduates of the Roes, commencing with William Roe in 1440, and ending with a William Roe in 1569. Within one hundred and twenty-nine years thirteen members of the Roe family were graduated from this university. Five of these bore the Christian name of William, and four that of John.

The Roe family penetrated Iceland as early as the eleventh century, and from McGee’s “History of Iceland” we learn that the Roes were quite numerous in that country from 1260 to 1642. At the last-named date Owen Roe was the General-in-Chief of the Catholic army and fought against Cromwell. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth some members of the Roe family were sent into unhappy Ireland for the purpose of quelling a disturbance among its turbulent inhabitants. The Roes of Ireland were not Celts, but were originally vikings from Norway and Denmark, or Anglo-Normans from England.

About 1630, or perhaps a little later, John Roe and David Roe emigrated from Iceland to Long Island, N. Y. John settled near Sotauket, but David located in what is now the town of Flushing. Whether these men were brothers, or how near of kin they were, is not now certainly known, but it appears that many, perhaps even a large majority, of the Roes in the United States can truly claim one or the other of these men as their progenitor.

Charles Roe, a descendant of David Roe, was born on Long Island about the commencement of the Revolutionary War, and died at his home on the west bank of the St. Joseph River, about four miles north of South Bend., Ind., August 18, 1838. His wife, whose maiden name was Barsheba Watson, also died the same season, August 13. She was of Irish descent. Eli Roe, the third child of Charles and Barsheba Roe, was born in Kentucky July 25, 1800. He had five brothers and two sisters. In 1802 he emigrated with his father and mother to southern Ohio, and not many years thereafter the family removed to Wayne County, Ind. Here in 1819 he was married to Miss Margaret Martindale, the sixth child and second daughter of John and Mary Martindale. She was born in Warren County, Ohio, January 30, 1803. Her father, John Martindale, was born in South Carolina October 12, 1772, and died in Delaware County, Iowa, July 22, 1852. Her grandfather, William Martindale, died in Indiana January 24, 1854, aged one hundred years, ten months and sixteen days. Her great-grandfather, William Martindale, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., to which place his father emigrated from England about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Burns, was born in South Carolina September 2, 1775, and was married to John Martindale in 1791, and in 1801 she removed with her husband to Warren County, Ohio. Her grandfather, Robert Burns, was born in South Carolina about 1748, and his father, Lawrence Burns, emigrated from Iceland to South Carolina in 1736. Lawrence Burns, it appears, was of Scotch descent, and it is believed was a kinsman of Robert Burns, the distinguished poet.

Eli Roe lived in Wayne County, Ind., till 1823, when he removed with his wife and two children into the adjoining county of Henry. In the month of October, 1830, he left with his family for St. Joseph County, Ind., where he secured a home on Government land on the east side of Portage Prairie, about four miles north of South Bend. He remained on this farm about five years, when he sold it and purchased land about one mile farther north. Here a home was prepared, in which the parents, nine sons and two daughters were cheered by the sunshine of prosperity for many years. This is the place where these children passed from childhood into manhood and womanhood, and this place is sacred in their memories as the old homestead.

In 1856 Eli Roe removed to Buchanan, Mich., where his wife passed away January 28, 1870, and where his death occurred January 1, 1883. William M. Roe, the sixth son of Eli and Margaret Roe, was born in Henry County, Ind., April 26, 1830. In the fall of 1830, when about six months old, he was carried on horseback by his mother to St. Joseph County, Ind., a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles. At this date South Bend contained but few families and had only one shop, a variety store, and Chicago, now the second city in the United States, had still less. About the 1st of December, 1837, William Roe commenced going to school. His first teacher was David Fisk, from Vermont, who was very successful in his chosen profession of school teaching. Within two weeks he graduated from the English alphabet, and before the close of the three-months term of school he commenced the study of geography. Under the tuition of Mr. Fisk he attended school three successive winters and became very proficient in spelling. He was called in every direction to attend spelling-schools, in which he almost invariably scored a signal victory. With the aid of his two elder brothers, John and Elijah, and his associate, Thomas Morrill, the school which he attended was invincible in the art of spelling. He attended school during the months of winter, and engaged in light farm work during the summers until the year 1845. During the summer of this year, and for five successive summers, he studied at home, designating the room occupied with his books as “Portage Seminary.” Here he commenced to study the Greek language, and not infrequently wrote for the public press. During the spring and summer of 1846 he attended school at a seminary in South Bend, Ind., conducted by Prof. C. M. Wright.

Under the preaching of Elder Peter T. Russell he confessed the Savior, and on the following day, August 1, 1847, he was immersed in the St. Joseph River by Elder Reuben Wilson. Commencing October 11, of this year, he taught school for two months on the west side of Portage Prairie. He taught school for the following five successive winters, and also taught one summer term at Mt. Pleasant, Ind., in 1853. In the spring of 1851 he left the parental roof to attend what was then styled “The Eclectic Institute,” at Hiram, Ohio. This institution is now known as Hiram College. While at this school he was called to teach two classes in algebra and one in anatomy and physiology. James A. Garfield, who subsequently filled the highest office in the gift of the American people, was at that time a student in this school and was a member of the advanced class in algebra taught by Mr. Roe, who returned to Indiana in time to teach a winter’s term of school.

Before going to Hiram, Ohio, arrangements had been made for him to become a law student in the office of Judge Stanfield, of South Bend, Ind., but by the counsel of Elder Corbly Martin, an able minister of the Christian Church, he was induced to abandon this project and to prepare to preach the Gospel of Christ. He delivered his first sermon in the country schoolhouse about seven miles southeast of South Bend in the spring of 1849. He spoke occasionally at different points until the fall of 1854, when he was employed to evangelise in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren Counties, Mich.

On the 10th of April, 1853, he was married to Miss Harriet Elizabeth Whitman, of South Bend, Ind. She was born in Mentor, Ohio, January 13, 1833, and went with her parents to northern Indiana in 1844. Her father and mother were formerly residents of the State of New York, and her paternal grandfather, it appears, was a native of Long Island. To William M. and Harriet E. Roe four children were born, two boys and two girls.

In the fall of 1854 they removed to Buchanan, Mich., and Mr. Roe, devoting his full time to the ministry, planted churches at various points in southwestern Michigan. In 1855 he established a church at Buchanan, Mich., which under his care developed a membership of over two hundred souls. After laboring one year under the direction of the general Christian Missionary Society he took a pastorate of the Christian Church at the following places successively: Rolling Prairie and Westville, Ind.; Eldora and De Soto, Iowa; Paw Paw, Mich.; Greeley, Iowa; Hoopeston, Ill.; Davenport and Marion, Iowa; Dowagiac and Millburg, Mich.; Galena, Ind.; Bryan, Ohio; Buchanan, Eau Claire, Sodus, Cassopolis and Galien, Mich. He has been actively engaged in the ministry of the Gospel for about thirty-nine years, and although of frail constitution, and much of his life afflicted with dyspepsia and nervous debility, his labors have been almost constant and often arduous but, by the blessing of God, under his preaching a large number of souls have been converted to Christ and cheered by the glorious hope of a blissful immortality beyond the grave. He devoted much time and study to the preparation of a work entitled “Bible vs Materialism,” which was published in 1859. A second edition of this work, revised and enlarged, was published in 1886. In 1865 he was associated with D. A.Wagner in editing a religious periodical entitled “The Christian Proclamation,” published in Buchanan, Mich. Mr. Roe is still devoting a portion of his time to preaching, but is gradually retiring from ministerial labor and is spending most of his time at his pleasant home in the beautiful village of Buchanan, Mich.