Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/487

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

stead in Rockingham county. North Caro- lina, was the birthplace of several gener- ations of the family including Obie L. Roach and his father, John Alexander Roach, the latter born there in 1837, located in Reedsville, North Carolina, in 1879, and there died July 12, 1912. He served in the Confederate army, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, taken prisoner and confined for eight months at Elmira, New York. He returned to the army after being released and continued in the service until the war ended. He was engaged in the tobacco business all his active life and un- til his death in Reedsville aged seventy-five years. He married Rhoda E. McMichael, born in Guilford county, Virginia, who is yet residing in Reedsville, celebrating her seventy-fourth birthday, June 16, 1914. Children : William M., a wholesale marble and granite dealer of Green5,borough, North Carolina; Lulu, deceased, married J. W. Hopkins ; Minnie, married Dr. J. W. Hester, of Reedsville, whom she survives ; Roberta, married W. D. Rowe, of Greensboro, Vir- ginia ; John Alexander, a D. D. S., prac- ticing in ]\Iadison, North Carolina ; Eliza- beth, died in infancy : a son, died in infancy; Obie Lewis, of further mention.

Obie Lewis Roach was born on the old Roach homestead in Rockingham county, North Carolina, October 16, 1878. He was educated in the Reedsville schools, his boy- hood home, and there lived until eighteen years of age when he came to Virginia, locating in Danville, where he was assO' ciated with his brother-in-law, \V. D. Rowe, marble and granite monumental dealer for a term of four years. He then became a traveling salesman with a line of paints and oils in Georgia and Florida territorv. He then returned to Danville and purchased an interest m the Star Laundry Company, of which he is treasurer and manager. He has been very successful, the Star Laundry ranking as one of the largest and best equip- ped laundries of the South, having about fifty agencies located in Virginia, North and South Carolina. The equipment is of the most modern type, the plant having been destroyed by fire in October, 1910, and re- placed with a new and completely modern equipment, opening for business Alarch 15, lOii. Mr. Roach is a director of the Dan- ville Rook and Stationery Companv and interested in other Danville enterprises. He

is a member of Mount \^ernon Methodist Episcopal Church, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Tuscarora and the Merriewold Country Club.

He married, January 8, 1902, at Greens- borough, Virginia, Myrtle Mary Cook, born in Guilford county, Virginia, now deceased, leaving a daughter, Mary Tvlyrtle, born No- vemlier 12, 1906. Mr. Roach married (sec- ond) June 10, 1914, ^lyrtle J. Betts, of Richmond, Virginia.

Edd Riddick. The grandfather of Edd Riddick, of Norfolk, Virginia, William Rid- dick, v^'as the revolutionary ancestor of the line, his home in Nansemond county, Vir- ginia. William Riddick was owner of a large plantation, operated by many slaves, and was a man of prominent position in the county, giving liberally of his means, as of his services, to the colonial government dur- ing the struggle for freedom. He married and had three sons, John, James, of whom further, and Edwin, the first the father of Rev. W'illiam H. Riddick, who was a well- known minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, the last the founder of a family in Georgia, whither he moved after his mar- riage.

James Riddick, son of William Riddick, was born in Nansemond county, Virginia, in 1S16, and died in 1883. As a student in the public and private schools of this locality he obtained an excellent education, and passed his life on his father's planta- tion, in young manhood beginning its man- agement. He cultivated several hundred acres of land, using slave labor entirely, and prospered in his agricultural operations. I'or the four years of the Civil war he was connected with the commissary department of the Confederate States army, volunteer- ing his services when it became apparent that war was inevitable. \\"ith his brother, John, James Riddick bore the cost of erect- ion of the Methodist Episcopal church near Cypress Chapel, in the vicinity of his home, and was afterward a member of the board of stewards of the church. He was a Demo- crat in politics, a citizen of public spirit and a member of the community whose life ex- emplified honor, unselfishness and brother- hood. He married Mary Ann. daughter of Lazarus Parker, of Nansemond county, \'irginia, and had issue: i. Ida. 2. Emna,