Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
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Dallas Bogan on 4 September 2004 |
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original article by Dallas Bogan |
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Before outlining Roachester, the writer will briefly give a short history
of Salem Township. The township was formed from Hamilton Township on June 24,
1813. Harlan Township was formed from Salem by an act of the Legislature on
March 16, 1860, and the same statute gave to Salem the name of Corwin Township.
It reserved this name until June 6, 1860, when the commissioners again returned
the name Salem. A part of Union township, in 1860, was added to Salem, thus
giving it its present layout.
The portion of the township taken from Union is called North Salem. It is divided
into two sections. The part lying south of the river is called South Salem and
has surveys of highly irregular sizes and shapes. The explanation for this feature
is that the part of the township lying south of the Little Miami River was included
in the Virginia Military Lands.
Slight controversy was apparent during the sub-dividing and adding-to of the
townships. All said and done, Salem Township's shape is a significantly common
right-angled triangle that consists of over twenty miles.
Roachester, a small town at present, was once a thriving community with a onetime
population of about 300 inhabitants. It contained at this time two or three
dry goods stores, grocery stores, a post office, three hotels, cabinet, blacksmith
and wagon-making shops, along with physicians and lawyers. (The population had
dwindled to about 100 in 1882.)
It was the first town laid out in Salem Township. The first tract incorporated
forty lots and was recorded October 12, 1816. The owners were Mahlon
and James Roach.
Some controversy arose as to how the name Roachester came about. An assumption
was that the town name came from the name "Roach."
However, some folks related that there was a girl in the family named "Esther"
which added to "Roach" comes up with Roachester, if the "h"
was dropped from Esther's name.
The village was suitably located, it being on the Cincinnati, Montgomery and
Hopkinsville Turnpike, now Routes 22 & 3. This road was originally named
the Cincinnati-Zanesville Road and was established before 1804. The other main
road that intersected the town, now St. Rt. 123, was originally named the Lebanon-
Morrow Road, it also being established prior to 1804.
Roachester was situated about half-way between Wilmington and Hopkinsville.
It is said that the latter catered to a tavern on the southwest corner of the
highway intersection.
Dr. J.L. Mounts states in his write-up in Beer's 1882 history
of Salem Township that Roachester was the center for the mustering days with
the purpose of military drilling of the locals. Also mentioned was that personal
differences were always settled with "fisticuffs," whiskey playing
an important part. Dr. Mounts made no mention of local saloons,
but possibly one of the hotels maintained one.
Among the foremost citizens about 1840 were: Lewis Fairchild,
merchant; James Turk, gunsmith; Isaac Patterson,
cabinet maker and undertaker; Dr's. Hunt, Starbuck,
Thacker, Leever and Roach, State Representative James Scott;
J. Phillips and S. Parker, blacksmiths; John
Harford, shoemaker; and Judge Mickle, Joseph
Thacker and Captain Gilham, hotel keepers.
Roachester, like most small communities in Warren County, had a post office.
The following postmasters and dates are: Oliver Cook, 13 Sep
1825; John B. Ayres, 2 Nov 1830; William S. Mickle,
18 Oct 1833; Jehu Trimble, 21 July 1840; Lewis Fairchild,
7 Mar 1844; William N. Kirkwood, 2 June 1845; Henry
W. Coughanour, 21 Feb 1850; Isaac H. Stout, 8 Mar
1851. The post office was discontinued 16 July 1853. (Morrow's post office was
conceived on November 5, 1845, and so for a few years both towns provided the
mail.)
Twenty-eight years after the founding of Roachester, its neighbor to the west,
Morrow, was founded. The Little Miami Railroad entered the area of present Morrow
in 1844, and soon the businesses of Roachester began moving down over the hill
to the new settlement. (The writer inserted into the Sunday Star a short history
of the L.M.R.R. November 24, 1996.)
Morrow sprung up at the confluence of the Little Miami River and Todd's Fork.
The railroad had taken the place of the stagecoach, and thus another transportation
era had created yet another town.
Another rail line entered Morrow named the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville
Railroad. Local residents more commonly knew it as the "Sheepskin"
line. The charter was graded February 4, 1851. Actual track laying began at
Morrow in the latter part of March 1853. The line ran directly south of Roachester
on the lower plain.
This line fell by the wayside, as did many other lines in the early days of
railroading. Only so much traffic in the middle of the 19th century was available
because of the lack of dollars in which to invest in new railroads. (An article
on this railroad was inserted into the Sunday Star August 20, 1995.)
This line, along with the LMRR, certainly helped limit the population and business
flow to Roachester. The farmers and merchants, who came from near and far, with
their animals and produce, merely passed through Roachester on their way to
the market, via the railroads.
In 1818 a one-story brick building was erected in Roachester that was A Friends
Meeting House. It was constructed on one acre of ground deeded October 17, 1816,
by James and Mahlon Roach to Isaac Thomas, Jr.,
Benjamin Nincle, Jonah Cadwallader and Andrew
Whitacre, trustees of the Friends of Hopewell Meeting. The building
and property was designated for church and burial considerations.
Heads of families who belonged to the early church were: Benjamin Butterworth,
Robert Whitacre, Thomas Cadwallader, Ruth
Tribbey, Elijah Thomas and Jesse Williams.
Several years prior to the construction of the Meeting House, Robert
Whitacre organized the Meeting that was named Hopewell, the name being
taken from a Meeting of Friends of Virginia.
Their first worship meetings took place in a small log house which stood just
southeast of the new building. (The writer cannot find the exact location of
the building. Perhaps someone can help me pinpoint it.)
As the Civil War was coming to an end the Society became ineffective and the
Meeting was "laid down." At any rate, in 1872 it was reestablished,
but it again was suspended in the spring of 1882.
Because of the division of the Society of Friends, the Meeting at some time
became a Hicksite congregation.
The Roachester Methodist Episcopal Church was a one-story brick structure constructed
in 1830, Mahlon Roach deeding the ground to the congregation.
It later became a part of the South Lebanon Circuit. It was one of the earliest
established churches in Salem Township.
The 1875 Warren County Atlas displays a layout of Roachester. Residents of the
town include J. Young, J. Phillips, J.J.
Robinson, C. Hart, and E. Tribbey.
G.M. Ward, J.A. Robinson, Dr. J. Moore,
B. Paxton and R. Rhoades owned land surrounding
the town.
In the 1891 Atlas Roachester residents' names are Jasper Ayers,
Robert Kind, Lucinda Robinson, Elizabeth
Philips, Hannah Simpson, Theodore Couden,
John Anderson, R.B. Gilmore, Percy
Pickett, Elizabeth Mulford, and J. Hart.
Wm. W. Andrews, Louis Tribbey, J.
Hammel, L. Brown, J.H. Gilmore, A.
Jenkins, Henry Dempsey, Louis Tribbey,
W.H. Lewis, and B.F. White.
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This page created 4 September 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
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