Degree Recipient

Life Experience

Addison Locke Roache was born in west Tennessee. He was the eldest of nine children. His three younger brothers (James, Andrew, and Stephen) died young and were buried in Tennessee. His three younger sisters (Elmira Jane, Latina, and Margaret) all died in their infancy and were buried in Indiana. He had two siblings that survived to adulthood, Quincy and Howard. Roache was educated at McKnights Academy in Rutherford, Tennessee. At age eleven or twelve, he moved with his family, who abhorred slavery, to Indiana. He graduated from Indiana College (now IU) in 1836. In 1841, he spent the year journeying through the West.

Roache worked as an attorney-at-law and held some public positions. He was a member of the state legislature in 1847 and a judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana in 1852. In 1854, he became president of the Indiana & Illinois Central Railroad. He studied law with General T. A. Howard of Rockville, Indiana. Roache practiced law there until 1858 when he moved to Indianapolis. In 1859, he was appointed a member of the IU Board of Trustees. He also drafted the original resolution for founding the public library in Indianapolis. Toward the end of his life, he moved to California to live near some of his daughters and his son. He died in Los Angeles in 1906, but he was buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Marriage and Family

Roache married Emily Wedding in January 1842. They had three daughters together. His son and namesake, Addison Locke Roache, Jr., was also a lawyer and lived in Alhambra, California.

Interesting Anecdote

Roache, Jr. established a lectureship at IU in the name of his father.

References

1. Wylie
2. Findagrave.com
3. marshahuie.com/old_version_McC_Letters.htm
4. Walden and Stowe (1880) A Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men of the State Of Indiana, Volume II (Cincinnati, OH: Western Biographical Publishing Company)
5. Browning (1997)
6. Indiana Supreme Court (2017)