The Indianapolis journal., 1885-08-02
A PORTRAIT OF JOHN ROACH
A Graphic Pen-and-Ink Sketch of Amer
ica's Most Famous Ship-Builder.
How Poor Irish Boy Struggled Up from
POyerty-His Personal Appearance,
Manners and Mode Of Life.
correspondence of the indianapolis Journn>.

RoachS recent failure, or of his dispute with the
| government growing out of the Dolphin affair.
| These topics have already been treated at length
! glance at man who is known at home and
abroad as one of the foremost ship-buiders of
his time. He is man of medium height,
slightly bent but has the sturdy build often
| noticeable in self made men. He has firm,
square features, gray eyes, ruddy complexion,
and sandy hair, slightly tinaed with gray; he is
clean shaven, wearing neither whiskers nor
mustache.
| He usually wears an old-fashioned stock and
| collar He dresses very plainly. Seen in his
| shipyard at Chester he would be taken merely
| for the foreman Of gang of workmen; he is
careless about his personal appearance though
always neat. At Chester, when he had a gov
| ernment contract which required his attention
| at " Washington, he would board the train n
! faded alpaca coat and a weather-beaten straw
hat. and it was thus that he would appear before
| the Secretary of the Navy or the Secretary of
| the Treasury or committees of Congress. He
makes no display of jewelry; he is entirely dem
ocratic. He is modest and unassuming.
John Roach was born in Ireland about sixty
| four years ago. His parents were very poor.
| He had an uncle in New York with whom he
! was a great favorite and who sent him money to
| come to this country. [ have been told that
when he arrived here he was only about nine
| years of age The pluck he showed i'll coming
such distance alone in an emgrant sailing ship,
with all the discomforts and dangers incident to
| the long voyage in the days before the ocean
| steamers, was characteristic. His parents were
much averse to his coming owing to his
| youth, but. already self reliant, his mind was
set upon coming to land which his boyish fancy
pictured as one flowing with milk and honey.
He arrived after long and stormy passage. He
had his uncles address in New York but on ar
irving found that his only relative in this coun-
try had given up all hope of his arrival, and had
gone to Texas. Thus he was entirely alone and
absolutely friendless in strange land. He had
| only few English pence in his pocket Day
after day he walked the streets vainly seeking
| employment No one took much notice of the
| uncouth Irish boy. Night after night he slept
wherever he could. under sheds, in wagons, or in
areas; his money was soon exhausted he could
earn by his best endeavors little or nothing; at
times he seemed on the brink of of starvation.
Like all boys of that age, he had a ravenous ap-
petite; he was young and growing, and required
food in abundance. At last some one told him
he ought 60 to the northern part of the State,
and try and obtain work in the brckvards: one
of his friends thinks 1t was to Troy that he went
| in pursuance of this advice If that wasthe city
| he walked nearly $50 miles in his energetic eff
| forts TO secure employment he had to subsist on
| charity by the way. 1t of the
| trying periods of his life. but he was buoyed up
! 10y youthful hope, and by that ndomitable pluck
| that has always been a distinguishing character
| lstlc. he applied TO the foreman or of the
large brickyards on arriving, weary and foot
sore, at his destination.
Get out of here, answered the man roughly
I'VE don't want any young lrishmen around
here"
He even drove the boy away from the ward
| But the ruddy faced Irish boy waited about the
place, hoping for chance to see the proprietor
when he should leave his Office. At length he
came out, and as he was about to drive off in his
carriage the boy called to him and was allowed
TO tell his story. The gentleman listened kindly
and, perhaps, more from desire to keep him
from starving than because no really REQUIRED
his services. ordered the rough spoken foreman
to set him to work AT length, then. there was
prospect Of permanent employ yment, but it was
work that might have killed weaker boy. He
was young, but very strong for his age The
work he had to do was the wheeling of heavy
barrels of clay On wheelbarrow from what was
| under the circum> ices a considerable distance;
his companions in tins heavy labor were all much
older than himself: they brought the clay in
steady and wearisone procession through the
long hours OF labor TO the men engaged in making
the bricks. To make his fate worse, the
| foreman of the yard, having taken a spite
against him for having obtained work from the
proprietor, himself. greatly added to his poorly
paid toll; the man cursed him without stint and
made the frendless boys life miserable He did
not however sink under the burden of even such
life. In referring on one occasion years ago to
this portion of his life, he said:
That abused nae so that made up my
mind would stay in the yard, if it killed me-
until got that mans place.
He succeeded He showed such energy and
enterprise, such intelligence and conscientious
attention to his work, that in six years he be
came, young as he was, a mere STRIPPING fore
man of the yard. That was the first victory for
the poor Irish boy. The work. however was
too abOrous ami not entirely congena. Ii
was. therefore. not long before he left the brick
yard and obtained employment in the iron works
of the same city. After learning his trade there
he returned to New York. There he opened a
little shop on the East river front and secured
Odd jobs in repairing ships engines and furnaces
He poor that often when he had repaired
some CRATE bars for furnaces he had to carry the
heavy bars through the streets himself to their
destination, perhaps In some distant quarter of
the city because he could not afford to pay for
truck Beginning in this small way he gradually
enlarged his business. extended his shop down
in the region of the big ships that arrive from
all quarters of the globe, and the future seemed
bright. The promise, however, was deusive 1t
was not long before his shop was burned out,
ard. not being insured. he lost almost every
thing 1t was relatively of the most dis
heartening reverses he ever experienced.
1t was sometime subsequent to this that he
went to Illinois to try farming; he had accumu-
lated about 81, 500, and invested it in lands in
that State. But he not born to be farmer:
his success in this enterprise may be inferred
from the fact that he concluded to return 10
New York, and that, for obvious reasons he
walked back. During the war. having returned
to his trade Of iron working for he is a natural
devotee of Vulcan, he made boilers for factories
and ships, and gradually accumulated fortune.
He built the first compound engines in this
country for the Trenton. In ISL he started in
ship building he advocated iron ships. In this
he right; the day for wooden ships had
passed. aud to day there are not few who think
that even iron shins will one day give wav 10