Hamilton County’s Roark-Conner family takes history, genealogy to the next level
October 1, 2023, at 4:19 p.m.
by Sam Still
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Cliff Kent (right) with the Sons of the American Revolution talks to the Roark-Conner family at the Conner cemetery Saturday. The Sons of the American Revolution held a reflagging ceremony honoring patriot veterans William Moore and Thomas Palmer. The Roark-Conner family celebrated its 65th reunion Friday-Sunday.
For decades, the Roark-Conner Association has been preserving the familial connections and history of the Roark and Conner families of Birchwood, Tennessee, by publishing newsletters, maintaining historical sites and hosting annual family reunions. This weekend the organization celebrated its 65th reunion.
While the Roark and Conner families’ histories began long before they settled in the Birchwood area, many of the association’s members trace their lineage to the union between the two families, according to the organization’s website. Brothers James, Joseph and John Roark settled in the area in the 1830s around the same time as Maximilian Haney Conner and his wife, Martha Palmer Conner. Sometime later, three of the brothers’ sons married three of the Conners’ daughters, the website said, thus ushering in the dawn of the Roark-Conners.
William Marion Roark, one of the sons, married Virginia Ann Conner, one of the daughters, in 1878, according to the association’s online family trees, and, of their 11 children, they had a daughter named Laura born in 1878. Laura Roark Shropshire called for a family reunion in 1959 since several of her family members had moved to various parts of the U.S. by that time, association President Johanna Eggers Roark said in a phone interview.
This first reunion took place in the summer at Lake Winnepesaukah, according to association Vice President Debbie Lee Johnson, whose grandfather was one of Laura’s brothers. Johnson attended the first reunion and has attended others over the years despite now living in Chicago. She finds the stories of her family fascinating and said her co-workers are amazed by the history the family has managed to preserve.
“To have the history of how people survived hard times can be an encouragement to us, and it’s just something valuable to me knowing where I’ve come from,” Johnson said in an interview.
Since 1959, various family members have served as organizers for the family reunions, and, in the 90s, the Roark-Conner Association was officially established as a nonprofit organization with a president and board of directors who have taken over the responsibility for organizing the reunions, Johanna Roark said. Additionally, the association publishes a newsletter three times a year that chronicles family events, and it maintains several historical markers and sites such as the Joseph Roark Homestead and Conner Cemetery, both in Birchwood.
“We strive to communicate and develop and advance the knowledge of the Roark-Conner family’s ancestry and encourage participation in the association among the descendants,” Johanna Roark said of the association’s mission. “We encourage genealogical research of the families. We try to encourage publication and sharing of family genealogical and historical information and preserving of artifacts, family history, records and the like; and also to preserve … the historical sites and maintain cemeteries and gravesites.”
At this year’s reunion, relatives from several states gathered in person and virtually, some for the first time, for a three-day celebration of the Roark-Conner family and its history. Friday and Sunday offered opportunities to meet and celebrate family, worship, and take self-guided tours of historic sites. Saturday morning featured a gathering for featured presentations on family history, prize giveaways and lunch. Saturday afternoon, some family members visited the Conner cemetery before heading to the Joseph Roark homestead for tours.
At the cemetery, members of the John Sevier chapter of the Tennessee Society of the Sons of the American Revolution presented a brief ceremony to retire and replace weathered American flags that were placed at the grave markers of two Revolutionary War veterans. The John Sevier chapter claims Bledsoe, Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie counties as its areas of support, according to the Tennessee Society website. Prior to and after the ceremony, Roark-Conner family members walked up and down the rows of graves looking at the named, and often unnamed, grave markers indicating their ancestors’ final resting place.
At the homestead, Terry L. Roark, a former association president, gave tours of Joseph Roark’s cabin that was built in the 1830s with hand-cut walnut boards. The original home was 20 feet by 20 feet, he said, but as the family grew, expansions became necessary. Terry told the history of the homestead and offered his own memories of spending time at the cabin with his family.
Much of the family’s documented history derives from a trunk from the homestead that Reba Shropshire, Laura Shropshire’s daughter, inherited. The trunk contained a vast assortment of materials, including documents, letters, newspaper clippings and photos, some dating back to the 1700s, according to Johanna.
The trunk materials were acquired by John J. Roark, one of the association’s founding members and former presidents, who organized and converted them into files that could be shared with others. The original materials were donated to the Chattanooga Public Library, and the association now offers a flash drive containing copies of the materials to its members. John J. Roark also used the materials to write two books, one about Joseph Roark and one about Laura Roark Shropshire, that are considered to be “historic treasures” by the association, Johanna Roark said.
The scale of the association’s work is larger than what is typical for family historians, according to Jessica Sedgwick, a librarian in charge of the Chattanooga Public Library’s local history and genealogy department. However, she said it’s better to be organized instead of isolated when it comes to conducting historical and genealogical research.
“If you’re doing all this in isolation, you’re just out there reinventing the wheel and retracing the steps someone’s already made,” Sedgwick said in a phone interview.
The local history and genealogy department offers a variety of resources for people to research their family’s history, Sedgwick said. That includes, among others, county records, military records, local newspapers, obituaries, and resources for researching Native American and African American history. One of the library’s resources is the library edition of Ancestry.com, featuring an extensive digital collection of genealogical records, which is free and accessible from any library branch, Sedgwick said.
Any family historian is likely to run into hurdles when researching, Sedgwick said, but it’s important to keep exploring to learn more about one’s history and the interesting stories that come with it. Speaking from experience, Sedgwick said her own research revealed that her cousin twice-removed was Dean Reed, a “socialist folk singer” known as the Red Elvis.
One of the challenges with preserving family history is the lack of participation among younger generations, Johanna Roark said. Priorities for younger people are different, and they may not value their family’s history until they are much older, she said. However, the Roark-Conner Association intends to use modern technology and social media to reach out to younger family members and get them involved, she said.
“We try to encourage everyone to share their family stories, because, once a family member dies, their stories basically die with them,” she said. “So, if they are not documenting their family history and sharing their stories with their children and with others in the family … that story gets lost.”
Staff photo by Olivia Ross/A sign is posted to a tree in the Conner Cemetery. Sons of the American Revolution prepare for a Reflagging Ceremony in the distance.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross/ Elaine Chirino (left) and Missy Rolufs take a photo of a headstone in the Conner Cemetery.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / On Saturday, Elaine Chirino, Connie Perrin and Steve Perrin look at names written on the wall at the Joseph Roark homestead.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / A reunion banner hangs outside of the Joseph Roark homestead Saturday. The Roark-Conner family celebrated its 65th reunion Friday-Sunday
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Staff photo by Olivia Ross / The Joseph Roark homestead is seen Saturday.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross/Terry Lynn Roark points to names written on the wall at the Joseph Roark homestead. Ross / Terry Lynn Roark points to names written on the wall at the Joseph Roark homestead. The Roark-Conner family celebrated their 65th reunion on Saturday, September 30, 2023.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Hymn books are seen on top of the piano at the Joseph Roark homestead Saturday. The Roark-Conner family celebrated its 65th reunion Friday-Sunday.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross/An old piano is seen at the Joseph Roark homestead.
Staff photo by Olivia Ross/Names are seen written on the wall at the Joseph Roark homestead.