David Roche, farmer, and veteran of the Civil war, was born in County Cork, Ireland, January 5, 1837. He came to the United States in 1854, was employed as a farm hand in Iowa until 1869, when he came to Kansas and located on Government land in Washington county and engaged in farming. On Lincoln's call for volunteers he enlisted in the Thirteenth Iowa infantry. He served with his regiment for one year, was in the battles of Wilson Creek, Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, and was discharged on account of disabilities received while in the service. On completion of his military career he returned to his farm in Iowa, and, as previously mentioned, came to Kansas in 1869 where he was engaged in farming until his death, which occurred on July 24, 1903. He was a consistent supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party and was elected to different township offices, in which he served with credit. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and gave generously to its support.

Mr. Roche married, in 1858, Miss Catherine Whetstine, a daughter of Mathias and Emile (Lee) Whetstine, who was born at Dayton, Ind., July 25, 1845. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania and her mother, Emelie Lee, was a near relative of Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces in the Civil war. The Whetstine family came to Kansas in 1867. Mathias Whetstine homesteaded land in Washington county, which he farmed successfully until his death in 1900, his wife having preceded him in 1890. They were the parents of the following children: Rufus Whetstine, a retired farmer, of Wellman, Iowa; Enoch Whetstine, M. D., a practicing physician of Washington county, Kansas, for thirty years, who died in 1900; Catherine, who married the subject of this sketch; John Whetstine, a prominent merchant of Washington, Kan., who died in 1905; Anson Whetstine, a farmer, of Highland, Kan.; and Thomas, a private in an Iowa regiment, who died at Helena, Ark., while in the service during the Civil war. Of the union of David Roche and Catherine Whetstine seven children were born, who are as follows: Emelie J., born December 19, 1860, and married, in 1884, Jabez Landers, who died in 1897; John Mathias Roche, born in 1862, a live stock dealer, of Lynn, Kan., married, in 1888, Ida Lull, and they are the parents of two children, Walter Clarence, born in 1890, cashier of the Exchange Bank, of Lynn, and Lulu, born in 1891, the wife of Clarence Potter, a merchant of Haddam, Kan.; Hannah Roche, born in 1863, the wife of Henry Butler, a farmer of Canadian county, Oklahoma; Mary Roche, born in 1866, the wife of John Seelig, a merchant, of Lynn, Kan., and they are the parents of three children, William, Inez and Clarence; Della Roche, born in 1868, the wife of Charles V. Haworth, a farmer, of Washington county, Kansas, and they are the parents of two children, Roy V. and Martha A., the latter of whom is deceased; William T. Roche, a sketch of whom preceded this article; and David Herbert Roche, born February 3, 1873, an employee of the Postoffice Department, who, in 1892, married Katie Shields, and they have three children, Rufus, David and William. Catherine Whetstine Roche, now in her sixty-eighth year, resides in Lynn, Kan., and has her widowed daughter, Emelie J., living with her.