EXCERPT FROM BOOK
Thomas Jefferson Roark, son of William Marion Roark and Virgina Ann Conner Roark, was born November 7, 1889, in his father’s ancestral home begun as a log cabin by his grandfather, Joseph Roark, in 1837, on the banks of Grasshopper Creek. “Tom,” as he was known throughout his life, was the eighth child and sixth son born to Will and Virginia. When he was born that winter, the crowded household consisted of: Laura, age 11; Luther, 10; Joe, 8; Luke, 7; Lilly, almost 5; Berry 2, and John Mark, twenty-one months.
Tom’s father, Will Roark, along with his two brothers, had inherited 840 acres from the Joseph Roark estate in Hamilton County along the south bank of the Tennessee River. By 1881, Will had purchased his brothers’ share of the estate lands and was to farm, with the help of his sons, the lands assembled by his father in the Ocoee District of southeast Tennessee.
West of the Roark ancestral home, across Birchwood Pike and on Grasshopper Creek, downstream from the home, stood the remains of the saw and grist mill built and operated by Tom’s grandfather before the Civil War. Some of Tom’s early memories were centered on the old mill and the mill race that took its water from Grasshopper Creek. Of these memories, Tom later wrote:
Luther and me went to the old mill and I was afraid I would fall through it. He held my hand as I stood by the old water wheel and looked it over. Lilly and me picked blackberries on the mill race a lot. She watched for snakes and wouldn’t get far from me.2
Tom grew with the family. A younger brother, Grover, was born in June 1892, and a third sister, Rosalie Vivian, was born in October 1896 when Tom was almost seven. Unhappily, Vivian died after only three months and was buried in the Conner Cemetery, located a mile from the family home.
Tom entered the nearby Salem School when he was six. He later wrote about his first day in school:
Mossy Creek Academy [later Carson and Newman College] was where Dan Roark, Uncle John’s oldest boy, went and he was my first teacher that I went to school to at Salem. In my first day at school, about 9:30, I got hungry and jumped out the window and went home. Dan boarded at our house at dinner and Mother told him not to whip me—that I got hungry. He said, “I’ll manage that, Aunt Virge.” So I loved him thereafter.3
Tom apparently was a precocious child and an exceptional student. His second teacher was Frank H. Slover who taught at Salem for two terms before moving to Park Springs, Texas. In July 1897, Slover wrote a memorial letter “To the students of Salem” in which he provided scholarly advice “to be obedient” to the direction of teachers and “to be diligent in your studies.” Slover identified only a few students by name but recognized Tom as one of the brightest:
Be smart as crickets, act like little men and women, and learn your lessons well so that your teacher will love you, for school teachers love smart children. I will have someone to write and tell me who are the smartest little boys and girls in the school this year. Some of you must watch Sam Alexander, Tom Roark, and Will McClanahan, and—well I haven’t room to number all the smart ones.4
Tom later credited his early teachers, Dan Roark and Frank Slover, as being the persons most influential in his decision to attend Carson-Newman. He wrote: “Frank Slover and Dan Roark both advised me to go to Carson and Newman College. I went three terms and didn’t have the money to go all the way. My desire was to be a farmer.”5
* Number in parentheses signifies the generation under William Marion Roark and Virginia Conner Roark.
END OF EXCERPT