USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I > Part 92
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ROE, Edward Reynolds, A.B., M.D., physician, soldier and author, was born at Lebanon, Ohio, June 22, 1813; removed with his father, in 1819, to Cincinnati. and graduated at Louisville Med- ical Institute in 1842 ; began practice at Anderson, Ind., but soon removed to Shawneetown, Ill., where he gave much attention to geological research and made some extensive natural his- tory collections. From 1848 to '52 he resided at Jacksonville, lectured extensively on his favorite science, wrote for the press and, for two years (1850-52), edited "The Jacksonville Journal," still
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later editing the newly established "Constitu- tionalist" for a few months. During a part of this period he was lecturer on natural science at Shurtleff College; also delivered a lecture before the State Legislature on the geology of Illinois, which was immediately followed by the passage of the act establishing the State Geological Department. A majority of both houses joined in a request for liis appointment as State Geolo- gist, but it was rejected on partisan grounds- he, then, being a Whig. Removing to Blooming- ton in 1852, Dr. Roe became prominent in educa- tional matters, being the first Professor of Natural Science in the State Normal University, and also a Trustee of the Illinois Wesleyan University. Having identified himself with the Democratic party at this time, he became its nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1860, but, on the inception of the war in 1861, he promptly espoused the cause of the Union, raised three companies (mostly Normal students) which were attached to the Thirty-third Illinois (Nor- mal) Regiment; was elected Captain and succes- sively promoted to Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. Having been dangerously wounded in the assault at Vicksburg, on May 22, 1863, and compelled to return home. he was elected Circuit Clerk by the combined vote of both parties, was re-elected four years later, became editor of "The Bloom- ington Pantagraph" and, in 1870, was elected to the Twenty-seventh General Assembly, where he won distinction by a somewhat notable humorous speech in opposition to removing the State Capital to Peoria. In 1871 he was ap- pointed Marshal for the Southern District of Illi- nois, serving nine years. Dr. Roe was a somewhat prolific author, having produced more than a dozen works which have appeared in book form. One of these, "Virginia Rose; a Tale of Illinois in Early Days," first appeared as a prize serial in "The Alton Courier" in 1852. Others of his more noteworthy productions are: "The Gray and the Blue"; "Brought to Bay"; "From the Beaten Path"; "G. A. R .; or How She Married His Double"; "Dr. Caldwell; or the Trail of the Serpent"; and "Prairie-Land and Other Poems." He died in Chicago, Nov. 6, 1893.
was chosen Second-Lieutenant and later Captain : was wounded four times at Shilolı, but refused to leave the field, and led his regiment in the final charge; was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and soon after commissioned Colonel for gallantry at Hatchie. At Champion Hills he received three wounds, from one of which he never fully re- covered; took a prominent part in the operations at Allatoona and commanded a brigade nearly two years, including the Atlanta campaign, retiring with the rank of brevet Brigadier-Gen- eral. Since the war has practiced law in Illinois and in Kansas.
ROGERS, Henry Wade, educator, lawyer and author, was born in Central New York in 1853; entered Hamilton College, but the following year became a student in Michigan University, graduating there in 1874, also receiving the degree of A.M., from the same institution, in 1877. In 1883 he was elected to a professorship in the Ann Arbor Law School, and, in 1885, was made Dean of the Faculty, succeeding Judge Cooley, at the age of 32. Five years later he was tendered, and accepted, the Presidency of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, being the first layman chosen to the position, and succeed- ing a long line of Bishops and divines. The same year (1890), Wesleyan University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. He is a mem- ber of the American Bar Association, has served for a number of years on its Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, and was the first Chairman of the Section on Legal Edu- cation. President Rogers was the General Chair- man of the Conference on the Future Foreign Policy of the United States, lield at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., in August, 1898. At the Con- gress held in 1893, as auxiliary to the Columbian Exposition, he was chosen Chairman of the Coni- mittee on Law Reform and Jurisprudence, and was for a time associate editor of "The American Law Register," of Philadelphia. He is also the author of a treatise on "Expert Testimony," which has passed through two editions, and has edited a work entitled "Illinois Citations," besides doing much other valuable literary work of a similar character.
ROGERS, John Gorin, jurist, was born at Glasgow, Ky., Dec. 28, 1818, of English and early Virginian ancestry ; was educated at Center Col-
ROGERS, George Clarke, soldier, was born in Grafton County, N HI., Nov. 22, 1838; but was educated in Vermont and Illinois, having re- moved to the latter State early in life. While . lege, Danville, Ky., and at Transylvania Univer- teaching he studied law and was admitted to the sity, graduating from the latter institution in 1841, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. For sixteen years he practiced in his native town, and, in 1857, removed to Chicago, where he soon bar in 1860; was the first, in 1861, to raise a com- pany in Lake County for the war, which was mustered into the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteers;
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attained professional prominence. In 1870 he was elected a Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, continuing on the bench, through repeated re-elections, until his deatlı, which occurred suddeuly, Jan. 10, 1887, four years before the expiration of the term for which he had been elected.
ROGERS PARK, a village and suburb 9 miles north of Chicago, on Lake Michigan and the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railways; has a bank and two weekly newspapers; is reached by electric street- car line from Chicago, and is a popular residence suburb. Annexed to City of Chicago, 1893.
ROLL, John E., pioneer, was born in Green Village, N. J., June 4, 1814; came to Illinois in 1830, and settled in Sangamon County. He assisted Abraham Lincoln in the construction of the flat-boat with which the latter descended the Mississippi River to New Orleans, in 1831. Mr. Roll, who was a mechanic and contractor, built a number of houses in Springfield, where he has since continued to reside.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The earliest Christians to establish places of worship in Illi- nois were priests of the Catholic faith. Early Catholic missionaries were explorers and histori- ans as well as preachers. (See Allouez; Bergier; Early Missionaries; Gravier; Marquette.) The church went haud in hand with the represent- atives of the French Government, carrying in one hand the cross and in the other the flag of France, simultaneously disseminating the doc- trines of Christianity and inculcating loyalty to the House of Bourbon. For nearly a hundred years, the self-sacrificiug and devoted Catholic clergy of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies ministered to the spiritual wants of the early French settlers and the natives. They were not without factional jealousies, however, and a severe blow was dealt to a branch of them in the order for the banishment of the Jesuits and the confiscation of their property. (See Early Mis- sionaries.) The subsequent occupation of the country by the English, with the contemporane- ous emigration of a considerable portion of the French west of the Mississippi, dissipated many congregations. Up to 1830 Illinois was included in the diocese of Missouri; but at that time it was constituted a separate diocese, under the episco- pal control of Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosatti. At that date there were few, if any, priests in Illinois. But Bishop Rosatti was a man of earnest purpose and rare administrative ability. New parishes were organized as rapidly as circumstances
would permit, and the growth of the church has been steady. By 1840 there were thirty-one parishes and twenty priests. In 1896 there are reported 698 parishes, 764 clergymen and a Catholic population exceeding 850,000. (See also Religious Denominations.)
ROODHOUSE, a city in Greene County, 21 miles south of Jacksonville, and at junction of three divisions of the Chicago & Alton Railroad; is in fertile agricultural and coal-mining region ; city contains a flouring mill, grain-elevator, stock- yards, railway shops, water-works, electric light plant, two private banks, fine opera house, good school buildings, one daily and two weekly papers. Pop. (1890), 2,360; (1900), 2,351.
ROODHOUSE, John, farmer and founder of the town of Roodhouse, in Greene County, Ill., was born in Yorkshire, England, brought to America iu childhood, his father settling in' Greene County, Ill., in 1831. In his early man- hood he opened a farm in Tazewell County, but finally returned to. the paternal home in Greene County, where, ou the location of the Jackson- ville Division of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, he laid out the town of Roodhouse, at the junc- tion of the Louisiana and Kansas City branch with the main line.
ROOT, George Frederick, musical composer and author, was born at Sheffield, Mass., August 30, 1820. He was a natural musician, and, while employed on his father's farm, learned to play on various instruments. In 1838 he removed to Bos- ton, where he began his life-work. Besides teaching music in the public schools, he was employed to direct the musical service in two churches. From Boston he removed to New York, and, in 1850, went to Paris for purposes of musical study. In 1853 he made his first public essay as a composer in the song, "Hazel Dell," which became popular at once. From this time forward his success as a song-writer was assured. His music, while not of a high artistic character, captivated the popular ear and appealed strongly to the heart. In 1860 he took up his residence in Chicago, where he conducted a musical journal and wrote those "war songs" which created and perpetuated his fame. Amoug the best known are "Rally Round the Flag"; "Just Before the Battle, Mother"; and "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp." Other popular songs by him are "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower"; "A Hundred Years Ago"; and "The Old Folks are Gone." Besides songs he composed several cantatas and much sacred music, also publishing many books of instruction and numerous collections of vocal and instru-
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inental music. In 1872 the University of Chicago conferred on him the degree of Mus. Doc. Died, near Portland, Maine, August 6, 1895.
ROOTS, Benajah Guernsey, civil engineer, and educator, was born in Onondaga County N. Y., April 20, 1811, and educated in the schools and academies of Central New York; began teaching in 1827, and, after spending a year at sea for the benefit of his liealth, took a course in law and civil engineering. He was employed as a civil engineer on the Western Railroad of Massachusetts until 1838, when he came to Illi- nois and obtained employment on the railroad projected from Alton to Shawneetown, under the "internal improvement system" of 1837. When that was suspended in 1839, he settled on a farm near the present site of Tamaroa, Perry County, and soon after opened a boarding school, continuing its management until 1846, when he became Principal of a seminary at Sparta. In 1851 he went into the service of the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad, first as resident engineer in charge of surveys and construction, later as land agent and attorney. He was prominent in the introduction of the graded school system in Illi- nois and in the establishment of the State Nor- mal School at Bloomington and the University of Illinois at Champaign; was a member of the State Board of Education from its organization, and served as delegate to the National Repub- lican Convention of 1868. Died, at his home in Perry County, Ill., May 9, 1888 .- Philander Keep (Roots), son of the preceding, born in Tolland County, Conn., June 4, 1838,·brought to Illinois the same year and educated in his father's school, and in an academy at Carrollton and the Wes- leyan University at Bloomington; at the age of 17 belonged to a corps of engineers employed on a Southern railroad, and, during the war, served as a civil engineer in the construction and repair of military roads. Later, he was Deputy Sur- veyor-General of Nebraska; in 1871 became Chief Engineer on the Cairo & Fulton (now a part of the Iron Mountain) Railway; then engaged in the banking business in Arkansas, first as cashier of a bank at Fort Smith and afterwards of the Merchants' National Bank at Little Rock, of which his brother, Logan H., was President. - Logan H. (Roots), another son, born near Tama- roa, Perry County, Ill., March 22, 1841, was edu- cated at home and at the State Normal at Bloomington, meanwhile serving as principal of a high school at Duquoin; in 1862 enlisted in the Eighty-first Illinois Volunteers, serving through the war and acting as Chief Commissary
for General Sherman on the "March to the Sea," and participating in the great review in Wash- ington, in May, 1865. After the conclusion of the war he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the First Arkansas District, was elected from that State to the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses (1868 and 1870)-being, at the time, the youngest member in that body-and was appointed United States Marshal by Presi- dent Grant. He finally became President of the Merchants' National Bank at Little Rock, with which he remained nearly twenty years. Died, suddenly, of congestion of the brain, May 30, 1893, leaving an estate valued at nearly one and a half millions, of which he gave a large share to charitable purposes and to the city of Little Rock, for the benefit of its hospitals and the im- provement of its parks.
ROSE, James A., Secretary of State, was born at Golconda, Pope County, Ill., Oct. 13, 1850. The foundation of his education was secured in the public schools of liis native place, and, after a term in the Normal University at Normal, Ill., at the age of 18 he took charge of a country school. Soon he was chosen Principal of the Golconda graded schools, was later made County Superintendent of Schools, and re-elected for a second term. During his second term he was admitted to the bar, and, resigning the office of Superintendent, was elected State's Attorney without opposition, being re-elected for another term. In 1889, by appointment of Governor Fifer, lie became one of the Trustees of the Pontiac Reformatory, serving until the next year, when he was transferred to the Board of Commissioners of the Southern Illinois Peniten- tiary at Chester, which position he continued to occupy until 1893. In 1896 he was elected Secre- tary of State on the Republican ticket, his term extending to January, 1901.
ROSEVILLE, a village in Warren County, on the Rock Island Division of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad, 17 miles northwest of Bushnell; has water and electric-light plants, two banks, public library and one newspaper Region agricultural and coal-mining. Pop. (1900), 1,014.
ROSS, Leonard Fulton, soldier, born in Fulton County, Ill., July 18, 1823; was educated in the common schools and at Illinois College, Jackson- ville, studied law and admitted to the bar in 1845; the following year enlisted in the Fourth Illinois Volunteers for the Mexican War, became First Lieutenant and was commended for services at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo; also performed im- portant service as bearer of dispatches for Gen-
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eral Taylor. After the war he served six years as Probate Judge. In May, 1861, he enlisted in the war for the Union, and was chosen Colonel of the Seventeenth Illinois Volunteers, serving with it in Missouri and Kentucky; was commis- sioned Brigadier-General a few weeks after the capture of Fort Donelson, and, after the evacu- ation of Corinth, was assigned to the command of a division with headquarters at Bolivar, Tenn. He resigned in July, 1863, and, in 1867, was appointed by President Johnson Collector of Internal Revenue for the Ninth District; las been three times a delegate to National Repub- lican Conventions and twice defeated as a candi- date for Congress in a Democratic District. Since the war he has devoted his attention largely to stock-raising, having a large stock- farm in Iowa. In his later years was President of a bank at Lewistown, Ill. Died Jan. 17, 1901.
ROSS, (Col.) William, pioneer, was born at Monson, Hampden County, Mass., April 24, 1792; removed with his father's family, in 1805, to Pittsfield, Mass., where he remained until his twentieth year, when he was commissioned an Ensign in the Twenty-first Regiment United States Infantry, serving through the War of 1812-14, and participating in the battle of Sack- ett's Harbor. During the latter part of his serv- ice he acted as drill-master at various points. Then, returning to Pittsfield, he carried on the business of blacksmithing as an employer, mean- while filling some local offices. In 1820, a com- pany consisting of himself and four brothers, with their families and a few others, started for the West, intending to settle in Illinois. Reach- ing the head-waters of the Allegheny overland, they transferred their wagons, teams and other property to flat-boats, descending that stream and the Ohio to Shawneetown, Ill. Here they disembarked and, crossing the State, reached Upper Alton, where they found only one house, that of Maj. Charles W. Hunter. Leaving their families at Upper Alton, the brothers proceeded north, crossing the Illinois River near its moutlı, until they reached a point in the western part of the present county of Pike, where the town of Atlas was afterwards located. Here they erected four rougli log-cabins, on a beautiful prairie not far from the Mississippi, removing their families thither a few weeks later. They suffered the usual privations incident to life in a new country, not excepting sickness and death of some of their number. At the next session of the Legislature (1820-21) Pike County was estab- lished, embracing all that part of the State west
and north of the Illinois, and including the present cities of Galena and Chicago. The Ross settlement became the nucleus of the town of Atlas, laid out by Colonel Ross and his associates in 1823, at an early day the rival of Quincy, and becoming the second county-seat of Pike County, so remaining from 1824 to 1833, when the seat of justice was removed to Pittsfield. During this period Colonel Ross was one of the most promi- nent citizens of the county, holding, simultane- ously or successively, the offices of Probate Judge, Circuit and County Clerk, Justice of the Peace, and others of a subordinate character. As Colonel of Militia, in 1832, he was ordered by Governor Reynolds to raise a company for the Black Hawk War, and, in four days, reported at Beardstown with twice the number of men called for. In 1834 he was elected to the lower branch of the General Assembly, also serving in the Senate during the three following sessions, a part of the time as President pro tem. of the last- named body. While in the General Assembly he was instrumental in securing legislation of great importance relating to Military Tract lands. The year following the establishment of the county-seat at Pittsfield (1834) he became a citi- zen of that place, which he had the privilege of naming for his early home. He was a member of the Republican State Convention of 1856, and a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1860, which nominated Mr. Lincoln for Presi- dent the first time. Beginning life poor he acquired considerable property ; was liberal, pub- lic-spirited and patriotic, making a handsome donation to the first company organized in Pike County, for the suppression of the Rebellion. Died, at Pittsfield, May 31, 1873.
ROSSVILLE, a village of Vermillion County, on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, 19 miles north of Danville; has electric-light plant, water-works, tile and brick-works, two banks and two newspapers. Pop. (1890), 879; (1900), 1,435.
ROUNDS, Sterling Parker, public printer, was born in Berkshire, Vt., June 27, 1828; about 1840 began learning the printer's trade at Ken- osha, Wis., and, in 1845, was foreman of the State printing office at Madison, afterward working in offices in Milwaukee, Racine and Buffalo, going to Chicago in 1851. Here he finally established a printer's warehouse, to which he later added an electrotype foundry and the manufacture of presses, also commencing the issue of "Round's Printers' Cabinet," a trade-paper, which was continued during his life. In 1881 he was ap- pointed by President Garfield Public Printer at
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Washington, serving until 1885, when he removed to Omaha, Neb., and was identified with "The Republican," of that city, until his death, Dec. 17, 1887.
ROUNTREE, Hiram, County Judge, born in Rutherford County, N. C., Dec. 22, 1794; was brought to Kentucky in infancy, where he grew to manhood and served as an Ensign in the War of 1812 under General Shelby. In 1817 he re- moved to Illinois Territory, first locating in Madison County, where he taught school for two years near Edwardsville, but removed to Fayette County about the time of the removal of the State capital to Vandalia. On the organization of Montgomery County, in 1821, he was appointed to office there and ever afterwards resided at Hillsboro. For a number of years in the early history of the county, he held (at the same time) the offices of Clerk of the County Commissioners Court, Clerk of the Circuit Court, County Recorder, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, Master in Chancery and Judge of Probate, besides that of Postmaster for the town of Hillsboro. In 1826 he was elected Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk of the Senate and re-elected in 1830; served as Delegate in tlie Constitutional Convention of 1847, and the next year was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Sixteentli and Seven- teenth General Assemblies. On retiring from the Senate (1852), he was elected County Judge without opposition, was re-elected to the same office in 1861, and again, in 1865, as the nominee of the Republicans. Judge Rountree was noted for his sound judgment and sterling integrity. Died, at Hillsboro, March 4, 1873.
ROUTT, John L., soldier and Governor, was born at Eddyville, Ky., April 25, 1826, brought to Illinois in infancy and educated in the com- mon schools. Soon after coming of age he was elected and served one terin as Sheriff of McLean County; in 1862 enlisted and became Captain of Company E, Ninety-fourth Illinois Volunteers. After the war he engaged in business in Bloom- ington, and was appointed by President Grant, successively, United States Marshal for the Southern District of Illinois, Second Assistant Postmaster-General and Territorial Governor of Colorado. On the admission of Colorado as a State, he was elected the first Governor under the State Government, and re-elected in 1890-serv- ing, in all, three years. His home is in Denver. He has been extensively and successfully identi- fied with mining enterprises in Colorado.
ROWELL, Jonathan H., ex-Congressman, was born at Haverhill, N. H., Feb. 10, 1833. He is a
graduate of Eureka College and of the Law Department of the Chicago University. During the War of the Rebellion he served three years as company officer in the Seventeenth Illinois Infantry. In 1868 he was elected State's Attor- ney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and, in 1880, was a Presidential Elector on the Republican ticket. In 1882 lie was elected to Congress from the Fourteenth Illinois District and three times re-elected, serving until March, 1891. His home is at Bloomington.
ROWETT, Richard, soldier, was born in Corn- wall, England, in 1830, came to the United States in 1851, finally settling on a farm near Carlinville, Ill., and becoming a breeder of thorough-bred horses. In 1861 he entered the service as a Captain in the Seventh Illinois Volunteers and was successively promoted Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel; was wounded, in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Allatoona, especially distinguishing himself at the latter and being brevetted Brigadier-General for gallantry. After the war he returned to his stock-farm, but later held the positions of Canal Commissioner, Penitentiary Commissioner, Rep- resentative in the Thirtieth General Assem- bly and Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth (Quincy) District, until its consolidation with the Eighth District by President Cleveland. Died, in Chicago, July 13, 1887.
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