John Roake, for whom Roakdale was named, founded the little settlement described below, based on the sawmill he built there.
John Roake may have been the father of John Coleridge Roake (born January 11, 1888; died June 19, 1908) and Stephen A. Roake (born June 30, 1885; died July 21, 1964), who were likely brothers, based on their birth dates. They are buried under one stone in the Shrub Oak Methodist Church Cemetery, Shrub Oak, Westchester County, New York, according to FindAGrave. John Coleridge Roake was too young to have established the mill at Roakdale, but his older brother Stephen may have served as the nominal postmaster of Kushaqua Post Office, from January 8, 1897, until June 13, 1899, when the next postmaster there was appointed.
Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, Volume 9, p. 188
On Lot 309, at Oregon Pond, the company have a saw mill which is partly stocked from the merchantable timber on their lands; but as the supply from this source is now nearly exhausted their stock of logs will soon have to be obtained elsewhere. On Lot 253 there is a small village of eighteen families, or about 100 people, who are employed at the mill or around the hotel. This village is called Roakedale, having been named after Mr. S. A. Roake, the superintendent. In addition to its dwelling houses the village has a school-house, store, and blacksmith shop
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, February 11, 1958
This 'n' that
I think it is safe to say that the most of the people who travel the road between Onchiota and Merrillsville notice the little pond a short distance west of the Knight residence (more familiarly known as the Somers place). But I imagine there are only a few of those people who know — or could imagine, that there was once a busy little community there.
The community was known for many years as "Roakdale", so named because a man by the name of Roak built and operated a saw mill there, and as the spot lies in a valley, or dale, "Roakdale" was the natural name for the place. . . .
It is hard to realize that those same fields were probably once covered with heavy forest, as were the slopes of the hills, and the near by mountains. But I suppose that is why the mill was built there in the first place — to convert the logs from those trees into lumber, and so into money.
The mill was across the road from the pond, and down the hill a ways from the road. It is hard to realize that a mill could be run by water power from a stream that flowed from the little pond, for the pond is gradually filling, or drying up. It is much less than half the size it was when I first knew it, nearly forty years ago. Then there was a small outlet stream flowing across the road. But it is not often there is any overflow from the pond now.
To expedite the shipping of the lumber from the mill Mr. Roak built a narrow-gauge railroad from the mill to Onchiota, a little less than two miles. . . .
The logging operations were pretty well completed at Roakdale [by 1895] and soon the mill was moved to Onchiota, nearer to big timber, where it was rebuilt on the shore of Oregon Pond. Either before or after the moving Mr. Roak sold the mill to Baker and Odell of Plattsburgh, and it was operated by them at Onchiota until 1913 or 14.#
For the complete article, see Roakdale.
