Roll, Indiana

On the 9th of May, 1900, Mrs. Roberds passed from among her wide circle of friends, whose earnest sympathies had been with her through a long and painful sickness. Few women have known more bodily dis¬ tress, she having been a sufferer for the fourth time from that most agonizing com¬ plaint, inflammatory rheumatism. 1 hose of their family who lived to maturity are : Laura Alice, who is the wife of Rev. Charles Love, of New Castle, Indiana. She is also widely and favorably known as a minister of the United Brethren church and is the present pastor of the church at New Castle. As a girl of fourteen she became much in¬ terested in religious work, deciding to de¬ vote her own life to the needs of the church. She prepared for the ministry in Hartsville College and when but twenty-two was li¬ censed to preach. She was married about this time, removing to Illinois, where her husband was a missionary, and was there or¬ dained. Throwing her whole soul into the work she has made rapid progress, now holding an enviable position in the church. She is a forcible and earnest speaker, holding an audience with wrapt attention. She is a close and logical reasoner, her sermons hav¬ ing received commendation from the ablest critics. Lillie Belle is the wife of Jonas Palmer, postmaster at Roll ; William Dell Roberds, whose untimely death occurred at the early age of twentv-two, was a superior young man, whose aspirations and attain¬ ments had exerted a powerful influence for good in the community; Hattie Ila is the wife of Ora Atkinson, assistant cashier of the bank at Albany, Indiana.

Passage source: Biographical Memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. : to Which Is Appended a Comprehensive Compendium of National Biography ... Embellished with Portraits of Many Well Known Residents of Blackford County, Indiana, published 1900.

While not particularly devoted to fra¬ ternal associations, he is a member of Roll Lodge, No. 347, Knights of Pythias, and in this has taken an active and substantial part, having passed the chairs in the local lodge and represented it in the grand lodge. Few men of the vicinity have more or warmer friends than Mr. Bugh, whose personality is of that pleasing and congenial nature that it not only attracts new but cements old re¬ lationships. It is to such broad minded and progressive citizens that the future must look for its further advancement.

Passage source: Biographical Memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. : to Which Is Appended a Comprehensive Compendium of National Biography ... Embellished with Portraits of Many Well Known Residents of Blackford County, Indiana, published 1900.

Among the earliest pioneers of tin's part of the state of Indiana, having settled here as early as 1839, is the Palmer famij , of whom there are several sons. One of the survivors, a gentleman who is. without a doubt, the oldest living resident of the north¬ ern part of Blackford county, is Samuel Palmer, who for many years lias resided at the village of Dundee. The family rep¬ resents one of the earL colonial emigrant , families of Virginia, having been among the courtiers who were the great planters of Berkeley county, where Samuel was born December 27, 1809. His parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Palmer, and in the family were six sous, Samuel, John, George, Jacob, David and Joseph, of whom the only ones living are Samuel and John. In 1839 they all came to Indiana, settling in Wells coun¬ ty, some miles north of Dundee, and there the father died, having reached the age of seventy-seven. All the sons became repu¬ table and substantial citizens. Samuel was married in Perry county, Ohio, to Miss Sarah Fox and at the time of coming to this state had four children, four more being born here, and of these, two sons and three daugh¬ ters are living at the present time, they be¬ ing Jacob, Samuel, Susan, Mary and Sarah. One deceased son, John Wesley, was the fa¬ ther of Jonas Palmer, the popular post¬ master at Roll. Samuel Palmer is one of the best known characters in Washington town¬ ship, having a fund of interesting incidents, illustrating the life of fifty years ago. He is considered the head of the Palmer family and at the family reunion two years ago more than one hundred of his descendants were present. He is a dyed-in-the-wool, old-fashioned, Jacksonian Democrat, so thorough! . permeated with that doctrine that the energetic efforts of many of the ablest missionaries of the Republican faith, ''-'ho have exhausted all their powers of per¬ suasion upon him, resulted only in more firmly grounding Democratic principles in him. "He has become wedded to his idols, let him alone," is the hopeless cry. All through life he has been noted for his per¬ sistency in pursuing a given line of action, believing that when a man adopts a course in life it should be strictly adhered to. He cast his first vote tor Andrew Jackson and lias not failed to support every Democrat since. With equal ardor he has continued a. Methodist, though it is hinted that he has no less faith in the power of salvation issu¬ ing from the Democratic party, as that found in the church. Now, in his ninety-first year, as he reviews the interesting events in which he was no cipher, the glow of youth returns to the brow of age and he lives again in the telling, depicting in vivid colors the mode of life enjoyed by himself and neighbors in those primitive days, when every man was a brother and no one was turned hungry from the door. Ever a temperate man in all things, he has used to¬ bacco for nearly eighty years, but feeling that it is hurting his system, has resolved to quit the use of it upon reaching his one hundredth birthday, lde has done his share of the hard work necessary to the making of a new country, improving two good farms. In 1880, feeling the renewal of youth, he again embarked upon the matrimonial , his companion being Mrs. Lucy Ann Stout, whose maiden name was Gray, and who was born in North Carolina, coming as a young girl with her parents to Indiana, and at eighteen was married in Grant couni Joseph Palmer, the brother of Samuel, married Azubah McKee and resided on the pike west of Dundee, where his son, George, now lives. He was called into the service of the government during the war, yielding up his own life at Helena, Arkans >, toward the close of the war. His widow, with seven children, remained on the farm, where her death occurred some fifteen years since, at the age of fifty-seven. She was the repre¬ sentative of one of the old and substantial families and in her own life illustrated the spirit of the pioneers. She is deserving of much' credit in the rearing of her family, devoting herself absolutely to their care and counsel. They all grew up under her in¬ struction, making highly respected citizens, whom she lived to see nicely settled in life, all of whom, with one exception, survived her.

Passage source: Biographical Memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. : to Which Is Appended a Comprehensive Compendium of National Biography ... Embellished with Portraits of Many Well Known Residents of Blackford County, Indiana, published 1900.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Washington Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.