Kentucky:  A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 3rd ed.,
1886. Barren County.

PROF. R. N. ROARK, only child of Hon. M. Jeff and Nannie W. (Davis)
Roark, was born May 19, 1859, in Greenville, Muhlenburgh [sic] Co., Ky.  His
parents are, respectively, natives of Muhlenburgh and Butler Counties,
and of Irish and Welsh descent. Hon. M. J. Roark was reared on the home
farm in his native county, and educated at the State University,
Lexington, Ky. Shortly after graduating he took up the study of law at
Greenville, Ky., where he has since practiced his profession with
abundant success, and is ranked among the leading criminal lawyers of
the Green River country.  In the early part of the civil war he was
commissioned captain in the Eleventh Kentucky Volunteer Infantry
(Federal service), and served with that regiment until near the close of
the war, when, on account of disability, resulting from wounds received
at the battle of Shiloh, he mustered out.  He served as the
representative of Mulenburgh [sic] County in the Lower House of the
Kentucky Legislature in 1865-67.  He and wife are members of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a ruling elder for
many years; he is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of many
other secret orders; is also an earnest advocate of the temperance
cause, and politically a stanch Republican.  His father was one of the
pioneers of southwestern Kentucky, and fought in several of the Indian
wars.  Prof. R. N. Roark received his early education from his parents,
and at the age of twelve years entered the Greenville Academy and
remained four years; later he entered the National Normal University of
Lebanon, Ohio, from which he graduated with high honors, and afterward
occupied a chair in that institution for six years as professor of
natural sciences. In the summer of 1885 he was unanimously chosen
president of the Glasgow Normal School and Business Institute of
Glasgow, Ky., by the boards of trustees and directors of the
institution. This institution was founded in 1875, chartered in 1876,
and is one of the most complete, thorough, and practical institutions of
its kind in the State.  Its diploma is equivalent to a first-grade life
certificate from the State Board of Education, being so made by the
charter; is an exponent of the independent normal system of education,
which requires less of the valuable time of youth than any of the old
methods to fit pupils for the active duties of life.  July 31, 1881,
Prof. Roark was united in marriage with Mary C. Creegan, a native of
Iowa. She was educated at the University of Lincoln, Neb., Oberlin
College, Oberlin, Ohio, and the National Normal University of Lebanon,
Ohio. Both the Professor and wife are members of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church.

Creegan Davis Roark
=
Butler-KY IA Lexington-Fayette-KY Lincoln-Lancaster-NE Muhlenberg-KY 
Oberlin-OH

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/barren/roark.rn.txt