John J. Roach (1839 – 1900) Born Nov. 7, 1839. Died Oct. 28, 1900. Married in 1860 to Margaret Adams Watson of the Bethel section of York District, S. C. She was
HISTORY THREAD
born Nov. 6, 1840, and died May 24, 1900. John Roach came to Rock Hill in 1859 to clerk in the mercantile establishment of Hutchison & Steele. His first employment had been as a clerk in the general store of Capt. John Massey at Ebenezerville, when he was a mere boy (about 1859-57). Mr. Roach enlisted in Co. H, First South Carolina Cavalry, in the fall of 1862 and served until the end of the Civil War. In postwar Rock Hill he was engaged in business as a clerk and as a partner in association with a number of leading Rock Hill businessmen.
He was connected with the firms of J. M. Ivy & Co., Ivy, Roach & May, and again with J. M. Ivy & Co. After he withdrew from the last named house, he took little interest in commercial affairs. He and Mrs. Roach were active Presbyterians and were charter members of the First Presbyterian Church, 1869. The Roach residence was located on the northeastern corner of East Main and Caldwell streets, in downtown Rock Hill. In later years the U. S. Post Office was located on this lot, 1905. Their house was a frame structure of two stories. When the Federal government bought the Roach lot for the post office, the house was razed. Then, the Roaches built another two-story frame dwelling on the lot adjoining the post office lot on the rear, facing Caldwell Street. Further, in the late 1920‘s or early 1930‘s, when the Federal government wanted their property again, to be used for a parking lot for the post office, the Roach family bought a lot on the newly opened St. John‘s Court and rolled their house to that site, where it remained until the 1980‘s, when it was torn down. [Information furnished from Wm. B. White, Jr. – Along the Lands Ford Road, Vol. II]
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