Notes for EDWARD PAYSON ROE, SR:

Son of Peter and Susan Elizabeth (Williams) Roe.
Born: March 7, 1838 in New Windsor, Orange County, New York.
Died: July 19, 1888 in Unknown.
Buried: Willow Dell Cemetery, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Orange County, New York.
Military Service: Civil War Union Army Chaplain. Chaplain of the 2nd New York Volunteer Cavalry.
Occupation: Writer, Reverend.
Married: Anna Pauline Sands November 24, 1863 in Unknown.

Biography of Edward Payson Roe
Source: Class of Sixty-Three Williams College Fortieth Year Report, by the Class Historian, Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, 1903

OUR classmate, Roe, was born at Moodna, a hamlet of East Windsor township, Orange County, New York, on the 7th day of March, 1838. His father was Peter Roe, of New York, who had retired from business in that city before his two youngest children were born. His mother was Susan Eliza (Williams) Roe, a native of Moodna. "A more ideal home," writes Edward's sister Mary, "than that at Moodna could not easily be found. It stood near the entrance of a beautiful valley through which flowed a clear stream, and was wind sheltered by high cliffs, yet commanded fine views of the mountains, with glimpses of the Hudson showing like lakes between them." Roe's early school days were spent at Canterbury, a short distance from his Moodna home, in a private school kept by his elder brother, Alfred. Later, when ready for the studies preparatory for college, he went to Burr and Burton Seminary, Manchester, Vermont, then in charge of Joseph Wickham, D.D., a Yale graduate, who from a child knew his Latin and Greek as he knew his mother tongue, and William A. Burnham, a self-educated man of iron constitution and indomitable will power. These men were associate principals, and admirably they supplemented each other. Dr. Wickham, the amiable, gentle as a mother in admonishing; Burnham, kind at heart as ever was any man, weak in Latin pronunciation and prosody, but that was the only place where he was weak, as any student who tried to deceive or overreach him quickly learned. Under the leadership of these two men, Burr and Burton Seminary was at the height of her influence and prosperity. She sent to Williams such men as Reed ('60), Dudley, Kinney, Merriman, Merwin, Roe, and Spring ('63), and to other colleges men of equal scholarship and character. Roe was a leader, admired and loved, among this band of vigorous, earnest, and studious young men, a leader in all that made for moral and stalwart Christian manliness. Here, also, to his more intimate schoolmates, our classmate's interest in writing was noticeable. He was a contributor to the press at that early day, his work taking the form of short articles of a religious and hortatory frame. They appeared anonymously in The American Messenger, The Evangelist, and The Independent, of New York City. Sometimes the form of the composition was anecdotal, or that of a short story. In the summer of 1859, when his class was graduated from the seminary, the school drama, which was required to be an original production by the graduating class and was the climax of the anniversary exercises, was prepared by Roe, and accepted by Dr. Wickham without revision, an unheard of indorsement of its merits as compared with previous productions. It was entitled, "The Fugitive," and was the story of a runaway slave. It was a marked success and gave promise of literary ability. Roe entered our college Class at the opening of its career, in 1859. He represented us as a moonlight orator at the Jackson supper, February 23, 1860. He was a member of the 'Logian Literary Society and of Mills Society. On account of his health, it was evident before his first college year was over that it would be necessary for Roe either to leave college or shorten his collegiate course by taking elective studies, these to include President Hopkins's department. This alternative was followed, and Roe became a special student in the Class of '61. He left college with that class, but without a diploma. Later, in 1877, Roe was made an honorary alumnus, with the degree of Master of Arts.

After leaving college, our classmate went to Auburn Theological Seminary, where he spent a year. At the end of that time he felt it his duty to go to the war, and accepted the chaplaincy of the Second New York (Light Harris) Cavalry, and was with his regiment in the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862. While the Army of the Potomac was in winter quarters, 1862 63, Roe continued his studies in Union Theological Seminary, New York City, but returned to the army in season for the 1863 campaign. He remained with his regiment until the spring of 1864, when he accepted an appointment by the President as one of the chaplains of the Fortress Monroe hospitals. In this position he rendered excellent service until the close of the war. Through the aid of friends in the North he secured funds for a large chapel and reading room and for a library of three thousand volumes. Later this library was transferred to Fortress Monroe, and the buildings devoted to the use of Hampton Institute.

Shortly after the close of the war, Roe accepted a call to a small Presbyterian church at Highland Falls, about a mile below West Point. This was his only pastorate, and here he spent nine happy years, and in the course of those years wrought well and built solidly in his parish, and also found his life work. The little company of believers was in sad need of a suitable church home. Their house of worship was poor, old, cold, and ill contrived. Immediately upon taking up his pastorate, Roe set himself to the hard task of raising money for a new building. For the purpose of aiding the collection of the building fund, the pastor prepared a series of lectures upon his observations and experiences as an army chaplain during the Civil War. This work brought him into notice as a pleasing platform speaker, and by this means he added very materially to the building fund. The little Gothic edifice of stone, standing high, a prominent landmark on the west side of the Hudson, and throwing its shadow over the river in the western sunlight, is a worthy monument of our classmate's zeal and enterprise. By his gratifying experience in the lecture field Roe was tempted to venture into the more hazardous grounds of general literature, largely in the domain of fiction. He wrote his first novel, "Barriers Burned Away," while at Highland Falls, its story growing out of scenes witnessed among the ruins of the great Chicago fire. This is one of his most popular books. According to Mr. Dodd, of Dodd, Mead and Company, publishers of Roe's books, his books are still in popular demand and are widely circulated. The following is the list, with date of publication:
1. "Barriers Burned Away." 1872.
2. "Play and Profit in My Garden" (Horticultural). 1873.
3. "What Can She Do?" 1873.
4. "Opening the Chestnut Burr." 1874.
5. "From Jest to Earnest." 1875.
6. "Near to Nature's Heart." 1876.
7. "A Knight of the Nineteenth Century." 1877.
8. "A Face Illumined." 1878.
9. "A Day of Fate." 1880.
10. "Without a Home." 1881.
11. "Success with Small Fruits" (Horticultural). 1881.
12. "His Sombre Rivals: a Story of the Civil War." 1883.
13. "A Young Girl's Wooing." 1884.
14. "Nature's Serial Story" (Natural History). 1884.
15. "An Original Belle." 1885.
16. "Driven Back to Eden." 1885.
17. "He Fell in Love with His Wife." 1886.
18. "The Home Acre" (Horticultural). 1887.
19. "The Earth Trembled." 1887.
20. "Miss Lou." 1888. This was his last novel, left unfinished, and was inscribed, "In loving dedication to little Miss Lou,' my youngest daughter." This daughter was named for Liss Louise Merwin, the sister of Roe's life-long friend and our class-mate, Moss Merwin.

All of Roe's stories were written for a purpose, not merely as literature - a moral, clarifying, uplifting purpose. In seeking to make the aimed for impression he did not always stop to clarify his diction, or always subordinate his style to the ideal standards of literary form. The following kindly words of appreciation were spoken of our classmate as a writer of books by Lyman Abbott at the dedication of a tablet placed upon a large boulder in a memorial park at Cornwall, to be known as Roe Park, delivered Memorial Day, May 30,1894: "Now, Mr. Roe's fiction has been very severely criticized, but it has been universally read. For myself I would rather minister to the higher life of ten thousand people than win the plaudits of one self-appointed critic. And his novels have been universally read because they have universally ministered to the higher life of the readers. He ministered [and still it is a living ministration] to the life, not of ten thousand or of one hundred thousand, but of thousands of thousands, for his readers in this country alone are numbered by the millions. And I venture to say that no man, woman, or child ever read through one of Mr. Roe's books without having a clearer faith, a brighter hope, and a deeper, richer love for his fellowman."

Among the organizations of which our classmate was a member the Authors' Club was one he most dearly prized, and that included some of his most intimate friends. During the season of strawberries, and only a short time before the day of his death, which fell upon the 14th day of July, 1888, Roe invited this club to spend a day at "Highlands," his home at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. Among the acceptances was this from Mr. E. C. Stedman:
"Know'st thou the bank where Triumph de Gands' are red
(My books might be were I on berries fed);
Where Cro'nest lowers and Hudson laughs below it,
And welcome waits each editor or poet?
Know'st in fact the realm of E. P. Roe?
Hither, O hither, will I go."

Our classmate married, November 24, 1863, Miss Anna Paulina Sands, daughter of David and Paulina (Leach) Sands. They had seven children, four daughters and three Sons:
Paulina Sands, born June 20, 1865.
Martha Ferris, born October 29, 1866.
Eltinge, born August 17, 1868.
Sarah Theresa, born March 26, 1872.
Edward Payson, Jr., born January 7, 1876, deceased.
Lindley Murray Ferris, born February 18, 1877.
Louise Merwin, born October 3, 1882.
Of these children, Paulina, Martha, and Sarah are married, and Madam Roe has three grandchildren.