Addison Locke Roache 

(Nov. 3, 1817-Apr. 24, 1906). Born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, to Dr. Stephen Roache and Elmira Sloan McCorkle of North Carolina, Addison Roache was the eldest of nine children. He attended McKnights Academy in Rutherford, Tennessee, before moving to Bloomington, Indiana, at age 11 or 12 with his family, who staunchly opposed slavery and sought someplace where Roache would have a better education. He graduated from Indiana College, now Indiana University, with A. B. and A. M. degrees in 1836.   

Roache studied law in the office of Tilghman Howard in Rockville, Indiana, and started to practice law in Frankfort, Indiana, in 1841. While in Rockville, he married Emily Adelaide Wedding (1823-1907) in January 1842. The couple had three daughters and one son.     

Roache held many public positions. In 1845, he was admitted to the bar and was elected to represent Parke County in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1847. Elected to the Indiana Supreme Court in October 1852, he resigned less than two years later after the Indiana legislature reduced the pay by $1,200 a year.   

As an early proponent of railroads, Roache became the first president of the Indiana & Illinois Central Railroad in 1854. That railroad later became the Indianapolis Decatur & Western Railroad Company.  

Roache practiced law there under the firm Roache & Howard until 1858, when he moved to Indianapolis. In Indianapolis, Roache formed a partnership with former attorney general of Indiana Joseph E. McDonald. The partnership lasted for 10 years under the name McDonald, Roache & Sheets. Roache practiced law into his eighties.  

Also in 1859, Roache was appointed a member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees. He was stripped of his appointment based on Indiana’s Enabling Act restrictions that limited the number of appointees from Indianapolis. John Stevenson Tarkington was already an Indianapolis Trustee to Indiana University, which invalidated Roache’s appointment. Later, Roache was again elected as a trustee of Indiana University and served from 1879 to 1881.  

In 1870, Abraham Crum Shortridge brought together a group of Indianapolis’ leading citizens, one of whom was Roach, to devise a plan to establish a free public library in the city that an elected Board of School Commissioners would control. On March 3, 1871, the General Assembly adopted a law that established the Board of School Commissioners that would govern the schools and the library according to the draft proposal that Roach and his colleagues developed. In 1872, Roach was among a group of individuals appointed to the Public Library Committee and the Indianapolis Public Schools Board (See Indianapolis Public Library).  
He served as an agent and manager of the New York Mercantile Trust Company before moving to California in the early 1900s to be near his children. Though he died there, he is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery. His son established a lectureship at Indiana University in the name of his father.

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