J.F. Roling & Son was a Salisbury, Missouri, dealership and repair business connected with the Roling family. Its history brings together the people who worked there, the equipment they used, and the photographs and records they left behind.
The business’s early story
The 1967 centennial booklet The Salisbury Story traces the business to 1892, when it says John F. Roling bought E. A. Chadwick’s machine shop. A preserved company advertisement uses the words “Since 1892,” and a separate clipping announces the firm’s 75th anniversary alongside Salisbury’s centennial. These are published historical and commemorative accounts; the original purchase or incorporation records have not yet been checked.
An obituary clipping preserved in the family collection gives a different year: it says John F. Roling came to Salisbury in 1893 and bought a shop from E. A. Chadwick. The 1892 and 1893 accounts remain unresolved; no original purchase record has yet been checked.
Ben and Joe in the business
The 1967 centennial history says John F. Roling’s sons Ben and Joe joined the business and that “and Sons” was added to its name. It reports that Ben later took work elsewhere and Joe remained head of the firm after John F. Roling died in 1947. This is the booklet’s historical account; it does not supply the sons’ exact joining dates or legal partnership records.
Inside the shop
Tim remembers working at the business and recalls overhead belt-driven machinery, later gas-engine power, and a Sioux valve grinder. These details are preserved here as family recollections; their dates and the equipment’s earlier history still need supporting records.
The centennial history describes blacksmith and lathe repair work, followed by windmill sales and installation. It says steam engines gave way to gasoline engines around 1910, and later to electric motors powering the shop equipment. These details are attributed to that historical account.
A 1926 court opinion, Frazier v. Radford, describes J. F. Roling & Sons as a Salisbury machine shop operated by Mr. Roling and two sons, with two other men working there. The shop repaired parts of a dredging machine used on the Bee Branch reclamation project. The opinion places the engineering contractor’s work between December 1922 and June 1923, but does not date the individual repairs. The sons are unnamed in the opinion.
Tools and craftsmanship
Two recommendation letters preserved in the family collection describe Frank Roling’s machine-shop experience in 1890. In a letter dated August 2 at Quincy, Andrew Riley calls him a machinist and an “A No 1 lathe hand,” says he had served his time with them, and describes several subsequent years of work with him. On August 27, 1890, the Gardner Governor Company recommended Frank after several years in its employ, also noting his experience in engine and general machine shops.
A family account credits J.F. Roling with making a wooden toolbox and square during trade school. That remains a family recollection. Neither recommendation names a trade school or connects Frank to these particular objects.
People of J.F. Roling & Son
The planned employee section will give each person a separate place in the story. A profile can include a name, a role and years when supported, and a photograph when one is available and cleared for sharing.
Memories will belong beneath the profile of the particular employee they describe. The planned contribution form will let former coworkers, family members, and others who knew that person send stories for review before publication. Recollections will identify their contributor when agreed, and contact emails will remain private.
Employee profiles are being prepared. Visitor contributions are not open yet.
Tony Morrison
Edgar E. Linneman
Bob Roling
Norman McFadden
Bob Oser
Mary Etta Renne
Eunice Sanders
Kenneth Linneman
Lois Weimer
Leroy Brown
David Roling
Deryl / Daryl Sanders
Raymond Morrison
Betty Roling Asbury
Photographs and documents
An employee-group photograph is part of the family collection. Photographs can be presented with dates when known, the source of each identification, and any uncertainty in the caption. Historical advertisements, directories, and business records can add dates and detail as they are checked.
The caption beneath the centennial booklet’s old shop photograph identifies George Rush on the left and J. F. Roling on the right. A later framed-display caption dates the scene to the early 1900s, but the caption’s author and date are unknown. The identification and approximate date are preserved as caption evidence; the photograph has not been added to this draft.
Newspaper stories
The preserved 75th-anniversary clipping announces weekly employee photographs and short profiles, followed by a company-history advertisement with old photographs near Salisbury’s centennial pageant. The State Historical Society of Missouri’s newspaper catalog lists regular 1967 Salisbury Press-Spectator issues on reel 46407 and a Centennial Issue dated November 1, 1967, on reel 56565. These are leads for locating the series; the loose clipping’s issue date and page remain unknown.
Contributors will be asked to identify the person or family, newspaper name, publication date, page number when known, and the source or link.
An upload form is not available yet. Submissions will be reviewed for identification, privacy, and permission to share before publication. An uploaded clipping will not be treated as permission to republish it.
Sources and confidence
Sources and how to read them explains how records, recollections and unresolved questions are presented.
The shop memories come from Tim’s recollections. The toolbox and square story comes from a family account.
Andrew Riley recommendation for Frank Roling, Quincy, Illinois, August 2, 1890; Gardner Governor Company recommendation for Frank Roling, Quincy, Illinois, August 27, 1890. Photographed copies in the family collection. Dates and wording were checked against the images.
Frazier v. Radford, 225 Mo. App. 1104, 23 S.W.2d 639, Kansas City Court of Appeals, December 6, 1926. Missouri State Archives reporter scans: page 1104, court and decision date; page 1106, project chronology; page 1111, the Roling shop and repair work.
The centennial booklet and other commemorative material describe an 1892 origin; the booklet also provides the early equipment history. The preserved obituary clipping dates the shop purchase to 1893. These are attributed historical accounts. The difference remains unresolved, and original purchase and incorporation records have not been established by the material reviewed here.
The Salisbury Story, 1867–1967, business-history section. The page number is not visible in the supplied image. This is the source for the attributed 1892 purchase story, equipment history, account of Ben and Joe in the business, and identification of George Rush and J. F. Roling in the old shop photograph.
Company advertisement bearing the words “Since 1892,” and a separate 75th-anniversary clipping preserved in the family collection. The loose clipping has no visible newspaper title, publication date, or page number.
Obituary clipping headed ‘J. F. Roling Killed Friday Evening by a Wabash Train,’ with its continuation, preserved in the family collection. The continuation gives 1893 for the purchase of E. A. Chadwick’s shop. Newspaper name, issue date and page number are not visible in the supplied photographs.
Later framed-display caption for the old shop photograph, author and date unknown. Its early-1900s dating has not been independently verified.
Open research questions
Can an original purchase record resolve the 1892 and 1893 accounts? Which early advertisements, directories, sales records, and photographs survive? What can dated records establish about incorporation, equipment, and manufacturer affiliations?