I’ve taken a recent detour in my genealogical research to investigate the Wild West Outlaw Mike Roark.
Originally, say about a year ago, I ran into his story on the Facebook group for Wild West History Association (WWHA). I wondered, idly, whether he might have been a relative of my Roark cousins in Oregon. They’re on the side of the family where there’s a lot of color–river rats and interstate auto thieves, according to my dad. It wouldn’t be a surprise if there were a connection.
As I looked, I discovered very little seemed to be known about Mike Roark. Books, articles, and online sources focus on his colorful career, but don’t root him in genealogical history. No birth, marriage, death.
The more I looked, the more interested I became. I emailed the Kansas State Historical Society looking for information. They put me on hold for almost year–public health crisis, short staffed. When I prompted them, they came up empty but with some suggestions for further research, including a citation to an article by Chris Penn in the WWHA Journal. That sounded promising. I checked online. Denver Public Library in their Western History Collection, but it’s been endlessly closed since COVID.
Finally, I posted a message in the WWHA group, asking for help. There, I found Chris Penn,
Short Version of Roark’s Outlaw Career
Mike Roark is best known for the Kinsley Train Robbery in 1878.
“[B]efore being sentenced, [Roark] was asked about his age and responded that he was ’41 years on the 27th of last April” [Utica Weekly Herald, 5 July 1887]”. Chris Penn. “The Train Robber and the Elocutionist: ‘Big Mike’ Roark’s Last Train Robbery,” Wild West History Association Journal 3:4 (August 2010), p. 32, n. 72.
Chris Penn. “The Train Robber and the Elocutionist: ‘Big Mike’ Roark’s Last Train Robbery,” Wild West History Association Journal 3:4, pp. 20-32.
I was to piece together the following. Michael Roark was born 27 April 1846 in Tennessee, according to his own testimony. He married Caroline “Carrie” Cotter on 27 May 1885 in Oswego Co, NY. He died (probably) 25 May 1925 in Orange Co, TX.
Revised April 26, 2024