John Selden Roane was an American planter, lawyer, public official, and soldier.
Background
John Selden Roane was born on January 8, 1817 in Wilson County, Tennessee, the son of Hugh and Hannah (Calhoun) Roane. He was descended from Rev. Andrew Roane (or Rowan), who moved from Lanarkshire to Ulster, Ireland, in 1561, through Andrew Roane, who settled in Pennsylvania shortly before the middle of the eighteenth century. Descendants moved from there to North Carolina, following the Scotch-Irish drift southward. When the settlement of the "state of Franklin" began, Hugh Roane took his family into that region, and there John Selden Roane grew up.
Education
He attended Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky, and followed an elder brother to Arkansas, settling at Pine Bluff.
Career
In 1842, when he was twenty-five, he moved to Van Buren, and two years later was sent to the legislature and elected speaker. At the outbreak of the Mexican War he volunteered and was mustered in as lieutenant-colonel of Archibald Yell's regiment. At the battle of Buena Vista, where Colonel Yell was killed, the regiment became disordered but Roane took command, restored order, and contributed to the victory. Later he fought a bloodless duel with Albert Pike because of Pike's criticism of his conduct in this battle.
After the war he settled again at Pine Bluff and engaged in planting. Elected governor April 19, 1849, at a special election held to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Gov. T. S. Drew because of the low salary, he served until 1852, when he was succeeded by Elias Nelson Conway. His administration came during a critical period in national politics and he warmly espoused the Southern side of the controversy.
Naturally he endorsed Memphis as the starting point of the proposed Pacific railroad. He utterly condemned the legislative policy of 1848 for dividing the proceeds of the internal improvement lands among the counties and advised a state system of roads; this advice was finally adopted in 1927. He held that there could be "no higher or more holy obligation resting upon the law-making power, than the encouragement of Education, " but said that the common-school system of New England was unsuited to a frontier community and condemned the distribution of the proceeds of the seminary funds among the counties, advising instead the establishment of seminaries in different parts of the state.
In 1861 he opposed secession, but on the outbreak of war volunteered and was commissioned brigadier-general March 20, 1862. For a brief period he was in chief command of Arkansas, but was soon superseded by Gen. T. C. Hindman, to whom he rendered valuable assistance in the battle of Prairie Grove. He continued in the service in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas until the end of the war and then retired to his home at Pine Bluff.
He died at the age of fifty, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Little Rock.
Achievements
Politics
In state affairs he favored a geological survey, recognition and settlement of the debt growing out of the failure of the state banks, use of the lands granted by Congress for internal improvements to promote railroad building, and education.
Connections
On July 5, 1855, he married Mary K. Smith, who bore him three daughters and one son.