EXCERPT FROM BOOK
This Biography and Family History of John B. And Nancy Cameron Roark is part of a project of the Roark-Conner Association for the preparation of a Biography and Family History Album of the descendants of James P. Roark (1798-1877), John Roark (1800- 1870), Maximilian Haney Conner (1806-1893), and Joseph Roark (1813-1876) all of whom settled and lived most of their lives in the Salem Community in Hamilton County, Tennessee, south of the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee rivers. These four men fathered 45 children, 34 of whom lived to maturity. The Biography and Family History Album will recognize the contributions of these 34 ancestors.
JOHN B. ROARK FAMILY
John B. Roark, born January 19, 1829, was the second child and second son of James P. and Jerusha Blythe Roark. John was named after his father’s younger brother and his birth was recorded by his father in a copy book given to him by his parents to encourage his writing practice. In this copy book, James also later recorded the births of all his children. In recording the birth of his second son, James Roark wrote:
John Roark was born the 19th day of January in the year of our Lord 18291
At the time of John’ s birth, it was not the practice of parents to give their sons or daughters middle names. If a middle name was given to his second son, James did not find it necessary to record it in his copy book. Perhaps, and it is only speculation, John assumed the middle initial “B” to differentiate him from his uncle who lived nearby as John reached maturity. John may have assumed a middle name or middle initial for the first time when he entered military service with his cousin, also named John Roark. If, however, a middle name was given by his parents, or later assumed by John himself, it nevertheless has been lost to history. Family records and surviving correspondence only refer to the second son of James and Jerusha Roark as “John B.”
His older brother, Timothy, was also recorded in their father’s copy book without a middle name or initial Timothy, named for his paternal grandfather, was born October 23, 1826. Both sons were born in the James Roark cabin located in the extreme southern portion of Rhea County north of the Tennessee River.
James P. Roark had left the family home in Claiborne County, Tennessee in 1822, arriving that year in Rhea County and establishing himself as a businessman and farmer. On September 1, 1825, he had married Jerusha Blythe, sister to the William Blythe who owned Blythe’s Ferry on the Tennessee and Hiwassee at the confluence of the two rivers. After his marriage, James Roark made his living as a tenant farmer but the year before John B.’s birth, he purchased 184 acres in southern Rhea County.2 By the time John B. was two, his father had purchased 200 acres on Sale Creek, north of the Tennessee, and established it as his family’s home for the next eight years.3
John B. was nine when his father sold the Sale Creek farm and purchased lands on the south bank of the Tennessee River in the Ocoee District of public lands. James relocated to the south bank of the river and in 1839 moved into a two-story log cabin with his family which then included son William, born in 1832 , and daughter Martha Jane, born in 1834. James would complete his family with another son, Joseph, born in 1842, and a second daughter, Sarah, born in 1845. This was to be the home and family of John B. during his adolescent years.4
Unfortunately, a picture of John B. Roark has not survived. His best description, at the time he reached maturity, was that he was five feet-eight inches tall, dark skinned, with brown hair, and grey eyes. In 1850, when he was 21, John married Nancy Cameron of the local Salem Community, 1with the ceremony conducted by the Honorable Hiram Cornwell, local ju4stice of the peace. History has success fully hidden the names of Nancy’ s parents. While census recor4ds reveal4 no Cameron family in the local Salem 44community or surrounding area between 1850 and 1870, records of the Salem Baptist Church beginning in 1872 (the earliest surviving records) list a James Cameron Sr. and a James Cameron Jr. as members. Most likely, James Cameron Sr. was the father of Nancy, and James Jr. was her brother. Later census records and the grave marker for Nancy Cameron Roark indicate that she was born in December 1831, so we know that she was almost three years younger than her husband.5
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