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Below is a family biography included in The History of Macon County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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I. L. Roark, attorney at law and a citizen of La Fayette, was born in Smith (now Macon) County in 1830. His parents were William and Elizabeth Roark; his mother was Elizabeth Meador, a native of Virginia; his father was a North Carolinian. His grandfather, John Roark, emigrated from North Carolina to Smith County. William Roark served as magistrate a long time, and made farming his life-long pursuit, and died May 2, 1882. Elizabeth Roark was born in Virginia in 1801, and died in 1855. I. L. Roark was educated at the common country schools, and at the La Fayette Academy and by close study and observation, not having any schooling until he attained the age of nineteen years. He is, truly, what is known as a self-made man. In 1851 he began the study of law under Col. W. H. DeWitt. He was licensed in 1853 and immediately began the practice of law at La Fayette, where he has actively engaged in the practice ever since, competing with some of the ablest lawyers of the State. In 1860 he was placed upon the presidential electoral ticket for the Fourth Congressional District, as elector for Stephen A. Douglas. At his country’s call in 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army, Thirtieth Tennessee Volunteers, and was appointed sergeant-major, and served with the regiment until the fall of Fort Donelson, when the regiment was captured; but making his escape he went with the retreating Confederate Army south, where he did active service as a skirmisher and sharpshooter, under detail by the Confederate officers. When Gen. George H. Morgan, in 1863, made a raid into the State of Kentucky Mr. Roark was with him, and while on detail with a scouting party was captured near Elizabethtown by the Federal soldiers, and was charged of being a spy and tried, but was acquitted and held as a prisoner of war. He was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, and afterward to Rock Island, Ill., where he underwent all the privations and hardships of a military prison life, until the winter of 1864, when he was paroled — as he says, turned out to die — his health having failed and his physical system broken down; he returned home to find himself reduced to abject poverty, his country devastated and property squandered. He resumed his practice at the bar, and has thus continued since. November 28, 1855, he married Miss Mary E., daughter of M. B. and Laurinda Johnson. By this union three daughters were born: Mary L., Meredith J. (wife of Jas. Key) and Sallie E. Mr. Roark is an active Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Franklin Pierce in 1852; he is also a member of the Masonic fraternity; he is next to the oldest practicing lawyer in Macon County. He has been a close student since he commenced the study of law. Mrs. Roark was born in Macon County in 1840 and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. She contributed largely, by instructing her husband, in his struggles for an education. He served as a member of the State Legislature in 1879.

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This family biography is one of 24 biographies included in The History of Macon County, Tennessee published in 1887.  The History of Macon County was included within The History of Sumner, Smith, Macon & Trousdale Counties of Tennessee. View the complete description here: History of Sumner, Smith, Macon and Trousdale Counties of Tennessee

View additional Macon County, Tennessee family biographies here: Macon County, Tennessee

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