Orvin J. Roe Biography This biography appears on pages 1780-1782 in "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ORVIN J. ROE, editor and publisher of the Eureka Post, at Eureka, McPherson county, was born at Larabee's Point, in Shoreham township, Addison county, Vermont, on the 13th of November, 1851, said village being twenty-five miles north of Whitehall, New York. His father, Ambrose Thomas Roe, was born July 2, 1817, at Williamstown, Massachusetts, and his death occurred in 1873, while his wife, whose maiden name was Helen Mar Payne, was born at Alden, New York, and died in 1870. The father was a carpenter by trade and vocation, and about 1860 removed from New York to Michigan, locating finally in the city of Battle Creek, Calhoun county, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. He was the tenth in order of birth of the eleven children of Elisha and Electa Roe, the maiden name of the latter having been Hill. So far as authentic data is accessible the first generation of the Roe family in America was headed by Hugh Roe, who was married in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1655, to Abigail her maiden name not being recorded. They later removed to Hartford and finally to Suffield, Connecticut. Their son, Peter, was married in 1689, to Sarah Remington, and they had ten children. He died February 4, 1739. The ninth of the children,- and the one through whom the direct line is traced to the subject of this review, was Thomas Roe, who was born July 28, 1708, at Suffield, Connecticut, and was married, December 26, 1728, at Enfield, Connecticut, to Elizabeth Purchase. Their seventh child was Thomas, Jr., who was born in November, 1739, and who died in 1823, his wife dying about the same year. Her maiden name was Mary Welles. They removed to Williamstown, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. Thomas Roe, Jr., the great-grandfather of our subject, was a private in Captain Jeremiah Pettibone's company at the time of the French and Indian wars in 1755, and also rendered valiant service as a Continental soldier in the war of the Revolution, having been a member of a Berkshire county regiment and having taken part in the battle of Bennington, on the 16th of August, 1777. His first child was Elisha Roe, grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Elisha Roe was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on the 5th of December, 1768, and on the 5th of March, 1798, married Electa Hill. He died on the 12th of January, 1830, at Medina, New York. Mary (Welles) Roe, great-grandmother of the subject in the agnatic line, was born August 7, 1739, and was a daughter of William and Mary (Hume) Welles, the ancestry in the paternal line being traced back to Thomas Welles, Sr., who came to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629. He was born in Rothwell, England, in 1598, and his first wife bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Hunt, and was a native of Rutland, England. Said Thomas Welles was the second governor of Connecticut, and also its first treasurer and secretary. He died January 14, 1660. His son, Captain Samuel, was killed by Indians, on the 15th of July, 1675, having commanded the Weathersbury, Connecticut, training bank in the great fight with King Phillip and having been killed in this historic engagement. He married Elizabeth Hollister, and their son, Captain Thomas Welles, who was born July 29, 1662, died December 7, 1711. For his second wife he married Jerusha Treat, a daughter of Lieutenant James Treat, a son of Richard Treat, who was one of the nineteen men to whom the charter of Connecticut was issued and who was a brother of Governor Robert Treat. Ambrose Hill, the great-grandfather of the subject in the maternal line, was born March 1, 1744, and was of the fifth generation of the family in America. He made an honorable record as a patriot soldier in the Revolutionary war. He became captain and he served at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, under General Paterson. Orvin J. Roe was about nine years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Michigan, and the circumstances of the family were such that he was soon thrown upon his own resources,. while his early educational discipline was secured in the public schools of the city of Battle- Creek. He early manifested a predilection for mechanical pursuits, and in 1864 secured a position in the woolen mills at Battle Creek. He re- moved with his parents from Shoreham, Vermont, to Lockport, New York, in 1858, and two years later to Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1868 he went to Kalamo, that state, and in 1877 removed to the city of Jackson, where he continued to reside until 1883, when he came as a pioneer to what is now the state of South Dakota, arriving in Leola, McPherson county, on the 28th of May, and there continuing to make his home until October, 1896, when he removed to Eureka, where he has since resided. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits from 1869 until 1883, when his health became much impaired and this was the primary cause of his coming to South Dakota, since he hoped that the change of climate might prove beneficial. At Leola he was engaged in the general merchandise business from the autumn of 1885 until 1888, being associated with L. H. Moulton, under the firm name of Moulton & Roe. He was clerk of the courts of McPherson county from November 2, 1889, until January 1, 1896, having been appointed to this position upon the admission of the state to the Union, and having thereafter been three times elected to the office. In October, 1896, he purchased the Eureka Post, which is published in both English and German editions, and which was at the time enlisted in support of the Populist party. He changed the political policy of the papers, making them expo- nents of the cause of the Republican party, and they exercise important functions in a political way, and also in the furthering of local inter- ests, while he has succeeded in increasing the circulation from three hundred and fifty to eighteen hundred copies, showing the popular esti- mate placed upon the man and his efforts. He has ever been an uncompromising advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and is one of its leaders in McPherson county, where he is held in high regard as a citizen and business man. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church in, their home town, and fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, in each of which he has passed nearly all the official chairs in the local organizations. On the 21st of August, 1872, Mr. Roe was united in marriage to Miss Dilla M. Sears, of Bennington, Vermont, a daughter of Benjamin F. Sears, who owned the property known as the State Arms, in that place, and upon whose grounds now stands the Bennington monument Mrs. Roe was summoned into eternal rest on the 13th of November, 1893, in the city of Chicago, and her remains were interred in the old family burying grounds, in Center village, Bennington, Vermont. On the 27th of November, 1895, Mr. Roe married Miss Pauline Ansmus, of Rockford, Illinois, and they have one child, Ramona, who was born August 23, 1898.