Family and community stories

A midnight call for Joe, 1934

Thirteen years later, another newspaper report placed Joe Roling in a nighttime confrontation. This time the setting was Father F. J. Ernst’s chicken house, not the Roling garage.

The June 29, 1934 Salisbury Press-Spectator said chickens had been disappearing for several weeks. With Father Ernst away, his housekeeper, Maggie Lohe, kept watch. Around midnight, according to the article, she saw a man unlock the chicken house and emerge with two sacks of chickens. She called her neighbor, Joe Roling.

The paper reported that Joe fired two shotgun shots. The man dropped the chickens and a flashlight and escaped before anyone could positively identify him. Joe believed he had struck the man because he heard a scream, but the report did not confirm an injury.

Source: Salisbury Press-Spectator, June 29, 1934, page 1, “Chicken Thief Gets Scared Away With Shot Gun.” Publication details and text checked against the family-preserved clipping.

Sparks on the roof, 1922

A short August 1922 notice records a close call at J. F. Roling’s home. Sparks from the kitchen flue had set the roof on fire on the preceding Saturday afternoon, at about half past one.

The Salisbury Press-Spectator reported that the fire was discovered before it gained much headway. Even so, a hole several feet across burned in the roof, and there was some slight water damage.

The surviving notice does not say who spotted the flames or how the fire was put out. Those details remain unknown. What it does preserve is a small, vivid interruption to ordinary family life, beyond the births, weddings and business notices that usually mark the record.

Source: Salisbury Press-Spectator, August 25, 1922, page 1, “Sparks From Flue Set Fire to Roof.” Publication details and text checked against the family-preserved clipping.

A charge in one paper, a different outcome in another

Not every appearance in the local paper was flattering. In December 1908, the Salisbury Press-Spectator listed a disturbing-the-peace indictment against J. F. Roling. His bond was reported as $100, with Fred Bickel as security.

A later paragraph alleged that Roling and several other men had disrupted a religious gathering at the Moore building in Salisbury on November 18. It described accusations of loud noise, insulting behavior and threats against the man named King. These were reported charges, not a finding that Roling had done those things.

The next relevant clipping changes the picture. In May 1909, the Salisbury Democrat reported a disturbing-peace case headed “State of Missouri vs. J. F. Roling et al.” Its entry said, “Nolle prosed as to J F Roling.” In plain language, the prosecution was dropped as to J. F. Roling. It separately reported guilty pleas and $5 fines for Peter Vitt, Evo Olivett, Charles Ihms and Ben Ott.

The shared names and charge make the two reports worth reading together, but the clippings do not provide a case number confirming that they concern the same proceeding. The later report does not record a guilty plea or fine for J. F. Roling.

Sources: Salisbury Press-Spectator, December 18, 1908, page 2, “Indictments,” original page; Salisbury Democrat, May 7, 1909, page 1, court-report excerpt. Both originals are preserved in the family archive. The explanation of nolle prosequi follows the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana’s legal glossary.

On the stage and in the church

Flora Roling’s name appears in the cast of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, performed by St. Joseph’s school pupils at Karcher Opera House in December 1904. The newspaper described the entertainment as only fairly well attended, while praising the pupils’ acting and costumes. The printed program preserves Flora’s place among the children on stage.

Eight years later, Flora and Agnes Roling appeared in another public gathering: the confirmation class at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The May 1912 report describes carnations and potted plants decorating the church, special music and a class of sixty-three children, thirty boys and thirty-three girls.

Sources: Salisbury Press-Spectator, December 9, 1904, p. 1, “Catholic Church Entertainment,” original page; May 17, 1912, p. 1, “Confirmation Services,” family clipping.

When family news was worrying news

Some of the shortest notices record anxious moments. In April 1925, Mrs. Ben Roling was taken to Woodland hospital on a Monday night and underwent an emergency operation for appendicitis around midnight. The newspaper said she had come through the operation well and reported her condition as satisfactory as could be hoped for.

Two years later, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Roling went to St. Louis to consult a specialist about her health. The brief March 1927 notice says no more about the illness or the outcome. Such entries preserve the journeys and concern that surrounded family illnesses, even when the medical details are missing.

A March 1934 notice describes Ben coming from Beloit, Kansas, when his mother’s condition became serious the previous week. The report said she improved, and he returned home that Saturday. Earlier notices record harder journeys: J. F. left for Quincy after learning of his mother’s death in November 1904, and on May 27, 1908 the family lost little Frankie, their two-year-old son, after a short illness.

Sources: Salisbury Press-Spectator, April 10, 1925, p. 1; March 25, 1927, p. 7; March 2, 1934, p. 4. Salisbury Democrat, November 25, 1904, p. 5; May 29, 1908, p. 1. Family-preserved clippings.