Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Roller family. Records, 1868-1915. Accession 27740, Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased, 1972.

Biographical/Historical Information

Peter Samuel Roller (1823-1894) and his sons John Edwin Roller (1844-1918) and Oliver Brown Roller (1854-1912) were prominent farmers and lawyers in Mount Crawford and Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia.

John Edwin Roller was born 5 October 1844 at "the Dale" near Mt. Crawford in Rockingham County, Virginia, to Peter Samuel Roller (1823-1894) and Frances Sidney Allebaugh Roller (1824-1906). When the Civil War began, Roller, 16, enlisted, rather than attend the University of Virginia. He served in Company I, 1st Virginia Cavalry, then was appointed a cadet at the Virginia Military Academy, where he was later ordered to teach after graduating. He then served in the Confederate army in Charleston, South Carolina, before returning to Virginia, where he served until Appomattox. After the war, Roller settled in Rockingham County and became a successful lawyer, landowner, and real estate operator. He represented Rockingham, Page, and Warren Counties in the Virginia State Senate from 1869 to 1873. In 1872, he was appointed a major-general in the state militia. Roller was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1901-1902 Virginia Constitutional Convention. He received an honorary LL.D. from Heidelberg University in 1905, and served as a trustee for Hood College in Maryland. He married Margaret Rector Shacklett (1856-1889) 24 July 1878, and they had 2 daughters. He then married Lucy Brown Cabell (1871-1914) of Nelson County, Virginia, 18 November 1896, and they had 3 daughters. Roller died 10 August 1918 in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Oliver Brown Roller (1854-1912) was also a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, obtained his legal training at the University of Virginia, and began his legal practice in Harrisonburg in 1876. He served several terms as mayor of Harrisonburg and was the senior partner of the firm O.B. Roller & Martz, Edward C. Martz being his associate.

Scope and Content

Records, 1868-1915, of the Roller family of Rockingham County, Virginia. The records relate to Peter Samuel Roller and his sons, John Edwin Roller and Oliver Brown Roller. Included are account books, claim books, journals, ledgers, and legal briefs. The collection is arranged into three series: I. Peter Samuel Roller; II. John Edwin Roller; and III. Oliver Brown Roller.

Series I: The Peter Samuel Roller series includes a ledger, 1873-1880, containing accounts for the "Coffman Farm" and accounts with tenants and farm workers. Includes information on rent, tobacco, coal, and dry goods sold. The volume contains an index in the front.

Series II: The John Edwin Roller series includes a volume of legal briefs, 1868-1870, containing the names of the parties, notes on the nature of the action, dates of action, and notations of fees. An account book, 1870-1882, contains personal accounts and those of the firm Gratton and Roller, George G. Gratton and John Edwin Roller being partners. Also included is a claim book, 1877-1886, of open accounts to be collected, and a journal, 1898-1912, containing farm inventories and tenant accounts. Also recorded in the journal is a diary of "Events that occurred on Cold Spring Farm of J.E. Roller near Timberville, Virginia," as kept by C. Walter Holsinger, 1898, and inventories of "Inglewood Farm," 1904-1912, made by F.T. Spitzer. The diary mostly notes weather conditions and work done on the farm.

Series III: The Oliver Brown Roller series relates to his legal practice and farm interests. Included are legal account books, 1881-1890 and 1892-1913; a claim book, 1884-1890; and a volume of farm inventories and accounts, 1894-1915.

Arrangement

Arranged into three series: I. Peter Samuel Roller; II. John Edwin Roller; and III. Oliver Brown Roller.