FIFTH GENERATION

9. Roy Otto ROACH was born on 12 Apr 1890 in Allendale, Worth Co., Missouri. He died on 3 Jul 1967 in Deming, New Mexico. 18) Roy ROACH went to California with his wife Dora SPARKS about that time....

19) In Vaughn, New Mexico, 22 July 1915, Purney ROACH-NOBLITT gave birth to a baby girl at the age of 15 years. The birth was extremely difficult, and Purney became very ill afterwards. The Family took her by train to Higgins, Texas where a friend was able to take her in while she recuperated. Theodore ROACH was on his way to pick up his granddaughter, Georgia Mae NOBLITT, from a neighbor's home when he collapsed on the streets of Higgins, Texas. He died of a lung hemorrhage July of 1915. He is buried at the city cemetery in Higgins, Texas next to his uncle Ezra ROACH.

20) ...Roy Otto and Dora SPARKS-ROACH were in California for a time, then Idaho, and finally Oregon before going and settling in New Mexico on a truck farm in Peņasco Canyon, Otero County about 20 miles south of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

21) Roy and family moved from Oregon to Las Cruces, New Mexico in a Model T Ford truck. They would probably have remained in Oregon; but someone had told Roy that the damp weather was bad for rheumatism, and although he did not suffer from rheumatism, he didn't want to take any chances, so they moved. They lived in Las Cruces for one year where they share-cropped a small farm. From there they traveled three days by horse and wagon across the Organ, Mountains and Tularosa Basin desert to Alamogordo, New Mexico, which was a 70 mile trip. They rented a house north of Alamogordo for three months. During that time Roy made a verbal deal with Donald Taylor to buy the first *farm in the Peņasco Canyon (about 20 miles southeast of Cloudcroft). It took the family two more days by wagon to reach the farm. Afterwards Roy and his 8 year old son, Valon, walked 40 miles back to Alamogordo to pick up the Model-T they had left. Roy was not able to make his first payment on the farm so he was ready to hand it back to Donald Taylor, but told that he didn't want the farm, and try it another year. He wasn't able to make the $100 payment the next year either and was ready to give the farm back to Mr. Taylor, but was told again that he didn't want the farm. "Try it again' he said, "you will make it," and he did and was able to make their remaining payments each year afterwards. As their three boys grew up and married, three more 160 acre farms were bought, one for each family. In 1956 each one was sold for $20,000. The original farm  was sold 1947-48 and the 160 acre farm in Deming was bought, where Roy and Dora moved to and lived the rest of their lives, as did Vaughn and his family around 1956 the rest of their lives. 
* (160 acres for $1,000 at $100 a year for 10 years and with no interest)

23) Donahue ROACH left Durham, Oklahoma around 1917 after witnessing a murder. He was 14 years old at the time. He traveled the country hitchhiking and riding freight trains. They called men like hoboes in those day. He went to California, did farm and dairy work, and for additional money he worked as an extra in movies. He showed up periodically to check on Roy and Purney. Donahue introduced Roy to the commercial warehouse to sell the farms produce in the 1930s. Prior to this, Roy sold his harvest house to house. Selling the harvest to warehouses in Alamogordo, El Paso, and San Angelo increased the profits of the truck farm. Donahue's wandering lifestyle never set well with his older brother, Roy, and was a bone of contention between the two.

26) Roy and Dora SPARKS-ROACH bought a 180 acre cotton farm ten miles south of Deming, New Mexico in 1948. He left his three sons, Vaughn, Valon and Vance, to tend to the four farms in the Peņasco Canyon. The sons would live on the Deming farm each farming season to help their parents with the farm, while the two others managed the ones in Peņasco Canyon.

Roy Otto ROACH and Dora SPARKS, daughter of W.G. Sparks (1938) and Louise M. Sparks (1949), had the following children:

14 i. Vaughn Theodore ROACH was born on 25 Dec 1915 in Hollister, Oklahoma. He died on 26 Mar 1993 in Deming, New Mexico. Vaughn was born near Loveland, OK on Dec 25, 1915. He came to NM in 1921 with his parents, Roy & Dora (SPARKS) ROACH, and two brothers, Valon (twin) & Roy LaVance (Vance). They settled in the upper Peņasco Canyon where Vaughn grew up and farmed with his father and brothers until 1956 when he moved to Deming, NM and farmed the father's cotton farm. He remained there until his death, March 26, 1993, due to complications of testicle surgery. (Although no autopsy was taken, it is believed by family members that his bladder burst after the doctor would not order a catheter to be reinserted.) He is buried in the Deming Cemetery.
+15 ii. Valon Willis ROACH.
+16 ii. Vaughn Theodore ROACH.
+17 iii. Roy LaVance ROACH.

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