My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM ROACH. A man who has lived in Gibbon township, Buffalo county, sufficiently long to be called an old settler and a man who has been one of the most successful, as he is one of the most highly esteemed, citizens of the locality where he resides, is William Roach, the subject of this biographical notice. Mr. Roach is an Englishman by birth, having been born and reared to the age of seventeen in that famous island, which has furnished the world more navigators, explorers, pioneer settlers, empire makers and city builders than any other spot on earth. He comes of good old English stock, the Anglo-Saxon strains running through his ancestral line from time immemorial. He is a native of Cornwall, and was born October 20, 1830. His father was Thomas Roach, a native also of Cornwall, and his mother bore the maiden name of Jennie Hare, being a daughter of William Hare, and a native of the same county. His parents immigrated to Canada in 1847, bringing their family, but remained there only about one year, when they came across into “the states,” settling in Erie county, Pa. There, after a residence of a few years, the mother died, leaving, surviving her, her husband and nine children, her father, accompanying his son, the subject of this sketch, to Nebraska, died here the 12th of June, 1888, at the advanced age of seventy-nine. He was a plain man of quiet tastes and orderly habits, having led an industrious, upright, useful life.

William Roach, our subject, was reared on the farm and adopted farming as the calling of his life. He married in Erie county, Pa., having grown to maturity in that county, the lady whom he selected for a life companion being a native of Pennsylvania, reared mainly in Erie county — Miss Caroline Ames. As his family began to grow up around him, like a thoughtful parent solicitous for the welfare of his children, Mr. Roach decided to move West, where opportunities were better for getting on in the world than in the more thickly settled communities of the East. He came to Nebraska in the fall of 1871, settling in Gibbon township, where he took a homestead about three miles north of the town of Gibbon, and where he has since resided. Starting with the limited means at his command, Mr. Roach has steadily progressed from year to year in spite of the obstacles, failures and discouragements that fell to his lot in common with most of the old settlers at an early day, and also since, until now he is one of the best-to-do farmers in Buffalo county, owning more than seven hundred acres of land, mostly in this county, a large part of which he has under cultivation, well stocked and otherwise well improved. He gives particular attention to the raising of horses, having several Norman and Clydesdale thoroughbreds and a number of high-grade animals on his place. He is a thoughtful, industrious, progressive farmer and deserves all the success he has attained.

Mr. Roach has a pleasant home, and is surrounded by an interesting family of children, having been the father of eight — Charles, George, Frederick, Julia, Perry, Mark, Clinton and Pearly. Of these, three are deceased. The third, Frederick, was born in Erie county, Pa., September 1, 1868. Coming to Nebraska with his parents in 1871, he has been reared mainly in this state, growing up on the old home place in Gibbon township, Buffalo county. He has received a good common-school education and has been reared to habits of industry and usefulness. He has always taken great interest in farming and stock-raising, being a great fancier of good horses; and with the energy, thrift and self-reliance born to his nature and encouraged by the judicious training of his father, he began to accumulate when small, and his savings have gradually grown until now; although he is but little past his twenty-first year, he is in a much better condition financially than the majority of men who are many years his seniors in age. He is a sober, intelligent, hard-working young man, and will one day be a man of wealth, position and influence.