The Roark-Conner Association maintains the bond between 350 families who live across the United States and in Canada, a connection that began in the early 1800s in Harrison, Tenn.
“Five of the Roark men married five of the Conner women,” said descendant and Harrison resident Gene Johnson, who has heritage trail booklets available to guide family members through their ancestors’ properties and cemeteries around Harrison and Sale Creek. “That is where it all started.”
Tyler Johnson, Tommy Johnson and Gene Johnson, from left, are members of the Roark-Conner Association that connects family members across states and generations.Several books have been published about different members of the family using the historical information collected by the RCA. Part of the RCA’s responsibility is also to take care of four family cemeteries.
The history behind two families that became one started when three Roark brothers – James, John and Joseph – settled in the Horseshoe Bends area of Sale Creek, near where Sale Creek Marina is currently located. However, the Roark family didn’t meet the Conners until Maximilian Haney and Martha Palmer Conner attempted to flatboat down river to the Mississippi Valley in the winter of 1934. The family was stranded on the frozen Tennessee River at Hiwassee Island where they decided to stay. That is when the Conner family children met the Roark family children and their history intertwined.
Johnson is a descendent of John Lewis Roark and Victoria Conner.