(Background for this profile:
From September of 1987 until May of 1992 I wrote a genealogy column called “Rootbound in the Hills” which ran in several newspapers (seventeen at one time) in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, and northeast Oklahoma. On weeks when the mail was light, or when I just took a notion, I would write about various branches of my own family. In July of 1988 I received a letter regarding “Rootbound” and family history from a cousin of my mother, a woman that I had never met and who has since passed away.
Cousin June ROARK JOHNSTON lived in Oklahoma City. Her letter of July 5, 1988, introduced herself, noted that she was a first cousin of my mother, Ruby “Florine” SREAVES MACY who had passed away less than two years previously, and said that she had received copies of some of my “Rootbound” columns that dealt with the ROARK family from her and Mom’s mutual cousin, Sam NUNN of Seneca. Cousin June said that Cousin Sam had told her that he thought I was planning on writing a column about her father, Samuel Lafayette ROARK.
At that time I knew almost nothing about Samuel Lafayette ROARK or his family, and had no plans to research his life. In fact, though I have quoted Sam NUNN in this space on several occasions recently, I don’t think that I actually ever met him. I’m sure that I sent June a nice, but noncommittal, reply. Then I filed her letter away, only to have it surface thirty years later when I was sorting through my files researching her grandparents (and my great-grandparents), Samuel James and Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK.
As I began digging into the lives of Sam and Nancy ROARK, I also started finding some interesting nuggets about June’s father, and eventually came to the realization that Cousin June and Cousin Sam NUNN were still nudging me, from beyond the grave, to do some family research on June’s parents, a well educated and popular young couple who had each passed away when their only child was just an infant. This time I decided to take that challenge!
Today’s “Ancestor Archives” takes a break from my straight-line ancestor research and instead explores the lives of my maternal grand-uncle, Samuel Lafayette ROARK, and his wife, Bertha E. BAILEY ROARK, who were well known educators in southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma just a little over a century ago.)
Samuel Lafayette ROARK was born on November 30, 1886, at his parents’ home near the community of Hart in Buffalo Township of McDonald County, Missouri. He passed away on December 7, 1918, at the very young age of thirty-two, in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma – probably in the city of McAlester.
Young Sam, who became known as "Fayette," would have been included in the 1890 census, but because almost all of those census records were lost in a fire, his first observable entry into the public record is the 1900 US Census. At that time he would have been going on fourteen, although the census recorded his age as twelve. His name was listed as “Saml. L. Roark.” Also in the household at that time were siblings: Lue C., John F., Robt. A., Nancy J., Lillie, Martha C., Claud S., and Mary M.
Fayette appears to have been a studious youth who didn’t aspire to spend the rest of his life following a mule and a plow. After finishing the eight grades at the Hart two-room school near his home, he moved to the larger nearby community of Seneca, Missouri, for further schooling. The newspaper column, “Hart Happenings” which ran in the “Pineville Democrat” on March 15, 1907, mentioned him twice:
“Fayette Roark who has been attending school at Seneca has returned home.”
And, once he was back home, Fayette had to catch up with his friends. A week later that same column carried a notice that he had spent Sunday at Jno. Cook’s.
Nearly two years later there was a mention of the young and increasingly independent young man in the “Neosho Daily Democrat” on March 26, 1909, which might have raised eyebrows a few generations later, but was just a mundane news item at the time. It read:
“Fayette Roark of Seneca and J.W. Bennett of Fairview are registered at the Central Hotel.”
Soon after that Fayette’s circle of friends had expanded to include females as well as males. This item ran in the renamed community column, “Hart Beats” in the May 21, 1909 issue of the “Pineville Democrat” newspaper on page five:
“Misses Della Williams and Orpha Pogue and Messrs. Will Cook and Fayette Roark spent Sunday at the Grand river railroad bridge.”
And, having enjoyed his spring break, a week later the same column in the May 28th issue of the “Pineville Democrat,” reported that Fayette was back at work in Seneca. Although the nature of his job has been lost to time, it does seem that about this time he was pursuing an interest in education and teaching.
On March 26, 1910 the “Vinita Chieftan” newspaper out of Vinita, Oklahoma, reported on page three:
“Prof. and Mrs. Buckmaster and Fayette Roark came down from Seneca last night to attend the teachers’ convention.”
The 1910 census found Fayette back in Seneca where he was a 24-year-old boarder in the home of Pinson E. and Nancy J. Wiles, who were both in their seventies. He was listed as “Lafayett Roark” and his occupation was given as a teacher.
Perhaps it was the trip to the teachers’ convention in Vinita in 1910 that introduced Fayette to the community that was to become his home for the next several years - as well as his final resting place. Fayette ROARK was teaching in Vinita not long after that, and by November of 1914 he was one of 1,200 attendees at the Northeastern Oklahoma Education Association's convention in Muskogee. According to an article on page one of the “Muskogee Times Democrat,” “S.L. Roark of Vinita was elected President of the ‘Intermediate and Grammar’ section. “ Young Fayette was clearly an educator on the rise.
The following year Fayette, by then generally referred to as S.L. ROARK, had left Vinita and been employed as the Manual Arts (Industrial Education) instructor at the high school in McAlester, Oklahoma. According to an article in the January 1916 issue of “Industrial Arts Magazine,” a national publication out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, S.L. Roark, the Director of Manual Arts for McAlester, Oklahoma, was one of four presenters from across the state to address the Manual Arts Section of the Oklahoma Educational Association at its state convention in Oklahoma City on November 26, 1915. Director Roark gave a presentation entitled “Possibilities of Hand Tool Equipment. “ (A note in that article mentioned that more than eighty “men” were specializing in Manual Arts instruction in Oklahoma at that time.)
Less than a year after speaking at the Oklahoma Teachers’ Convention and being mentioned in a national publication, the upwardly mobile young Manual Arts teacher made a trip back to Vinita to marry his sweetheart, a teacher in that community named Bertha BAILEY. By that time the former farm boy from Hart, Missouri, was being referred to as “Professor” ROARK.
The marriage between Professor ROARK and Miss BAILEY took place the home of the Baptist minister in Vinita on a Saturday night (June 2, 1916), and the couple then boarded a train for their new home in McAlester. The following article is from page one of the “Vinita Evening Sun-Herald” on June 5, 1916:
“Roark-Bailey Wedding”
“Prof. Samuel L. Roark and Miss Bertha Bailey were united in marriage Saturday night at 10 o’clock at the Baptist parsonage by Rev. W.E. Guy in the presence of about 40 of their relatives and intimate friends.
“Earnest Bailey, brother of the bride, acted as best man, and Miss Effie McDaniel was maid of honor.
“The ring ceremony was used.
“The happy couple left at once for the M.K. &T. depot followed by a host of their friends and plenty of rice. They took the train at 10:39 for McAlester, where Prof. Roark is instructor in the manual training department of the high school, and where he is teaching manual training in the summer normal now.
“The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Roark of Seneca, Mo., and was a resident of Vinita for five years during which he taught, first in the eighth grade and later had charge of the manual training course in the high school.
“Prof. Roark was also active in church work, and at the time of leaving here last fall for McAlester he was superintendent of the Baptist Sunday school.
“Miss Bailey is the daughter of Mrs. Julia Bailey of this city. She has been a teacher in the Vinita schools for eight years, having had the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. She, also, has been one of the most active workers in the Baptist church, having led the singing in both the Sunday school and church for several years.
“Among the beautiful presents was a cut glass ice tea set with coaster set and spoons presented by the B.Y.P.U.
“Both the bride and groom have won a large number of friends through their long association with the young folks of Vinita and all join in wishing them much joy and happiness.”
The next time Fayette ROARK appeared in the public record was when he registered for the military draft in 1917 or early 1918. At that time he was a resident of Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, where McAlester is located. The draft registration stated that he was married and living at 526 E. Main (although the name of the town was not given on the form). The draft registration listed his name as “Samul L. Roash." His date of birth was correctly given as November 30, 1886, and the location of his birth as “Missouri.” He was described as being of medium build and medium height with dark brown hair and blue eyes.
Fayette and Bertha were living in Greely, Colorado, in June of 1918 where he was possibly teaching at the Colorado State Teacher’s College for the summer. (His wedding announcement in the Vinita newspaper had stated that in addition to teaching at the McAlester high School, Prof. ROARK also was teaching “manual training in the summer normal.” At that time “normal” schools were places that trained people to teach in the public schools. So it is possible, and perhaps even likely, that he had become a summer instructor at Colorado State Teacher’s College – which up until 1911 had been known as the State Normal School of Colorado. Teaching at a “normal” or teacher’s college might also explain the use of the term “professor” in describing the young educator.)
It was there, in Greely, on June 14, 1918, where Bertha gave birth to a daughter whom the couple named “Julia June.” (That baby girl grew up to become June ROARK JOHNSTON, the cousin who wrote a letter to me seventy years later.) The announcement of her birth ran on the front page of the “Vinita Evening Sun-Herald” three days after the big event:
“GIRL FOR S.L. ROARK’
“Word was received here this morning of the birth of a seven pound girl Friday, June 14 to Mr. and Mrs. S.L. Roark at Greely where Mr. Roark is teaching. Mrs. Roark was formerly Miss Bertha Bailey who taught in the schools here, as did also Mr. Roark.”
But the euphoria over a new baby did not last long. Bertha was seriously ill soon after the birth of the baby, and the illness forced the fledgling family back to Vinita, Oklahoma, where she could be looked after by relatives in the home of her sister, Mrs. W.R. GILES.
Bertha passed away at the home of her sister in Vinita on September 2, 1918, less than three months after giving birth to her only child, Julia June. Her obituary on page 7 of the “Vinita Leader” on September 5, 1918, had this to say about the popular former teacher from Vinita:
“DEATH OF MRS. S.L. ROARK”
“Mrs. S.L. Roark, nee Bertha Bailey, died Monday at the home of her sister, Mrs. W.R. Giles. For some years Miss Bailey was a teacher and for some time taught in the Vinita schools. Some time after her marriage to Mr. Roark, who is a teacher in the McAlester Schools, her health broke down and for some months she and her husband have been at Greely, Colo. They returned only a few days since. Mrs. Roark was popular and deserved it. She was a consistent member of the Baptist Church and Rev. O.L. Smith came up to conduct the funeral service. The funeral was held Tuesday at 10 o’clock from the Baptist church. The family have the sympathy of a host of friends.”
Samuel Lafayette ROARK passed away three months and five days after his wife. Sam died on December 7, 1918, in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, probably in the city of McAlester.
At this point the cause of the deaths of Bertha and Fayette remain unclear, but Bertha’s death could have been related to the birth of the baby or perhaps post-partum depression, and Fayette’s death could have been tied to the emotional trauma of losing a spouse. A more likely scenario for both deaths, however, could be the "Spanish" flu pandemic that was raging around the world in 1918-1920. It is estimated that between 50 and 100 million people lost their lives to that pandemic worldwide, with at least 675,000 of those deaths occurring in the United States, and more than 7,500 of those happening in the state of Oklahoma. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, where Fayette was living after his wife died, created an emergency hospital to handle influenza cases at the First Presbyterian Church in October of 1918 - and there were 291 flu deaths in Pittsburg County that same month.
By the time of the 1920 census, little June was living with her grandparents, Sam and Nancy ROARK near Hart, Missouri, in the same farmhouse that had been the home to her father in his youth. June remained in her grandmother’s care after her grandfather died in 1925, and when Grandmother Nanny ROARK passed away in 1935, June stayed on in the residence with her paternal uncle, Claude Smith ROARK. She was still at that residence in 1940, but soon after that was out on her own. Julia June ROARK STOKE-JOHNSON passed away on Sunday, November 5, 2006, and is buried in Oklahoma City, the place where she raised her family and the same city where her father had given a presentation to a group of educators more than ninety years earlier – a presentation that garnered a mention in a national education journal.
June outlived two husbands and two daughters. According to her obituary, June was survived by a daughter and a son, five grandsons, one granddaughter, six great-grandsons, and four great-great granddaughters. That’s a sizeable family for a woman who was an orphan – without siblings – when she was barely six-months-old.
That’s it, June. I’ve done what I can to keep the memory of your parents alive. Admittedly there are lots of holes in my brief narrative, but maybe it will help some of your descendants when they begin the process of learning more about the remarkable pair of educators who brought you into the world – and maybe some of them will come back and fill in the holes of this saga.
Give my best to Cousin Sam NUNN. He did more during his ninety years on this earth to preserve the ROARK family history than all of the rest of us combined. Sam NUNN was one of our family treasures – as were you – and as were Samuel Lafayette and Bertha (BAILEY) ROARK.
May you all be resting peacefully!
