About Roach's Wild Rose

“Joyce Roach’s study of a small northcentral Texas town, Keller, is an excellent example of folk history at its best. At the beginning of the book, she symbolically links the absorption of small Texas towns into the various metroplexes with the disappearance of the wildflowers along Texas highways, in this particular case the wild white rose, also called the Cherokee rose and the Macartney rose.

“She begins her study with a definition of the Cross Timbers region and describes the plants and animals one finds native to the area. She follows with a brief history of the various Native American inhabitants, especially the several Caddoan groups. She then traces the arrival of the French, the Spanish, and finally the immigrants from the United States. The rest of the book studies the folk aspects—oral, customary, and material—of the town of Keller.

“Roach interspersed family narratives among the various folk topics. In the chapter on the arrival of the railroad, she has inserted the stories of those families who came to Keller because of the railroad. In the chapter on folk building… Roach includes the story of the people who constructed the buildings… I recommend that Roach’s study be used as a model of how local history should be done. It would be excellent for students taking an introductory course in either folklore or local history.” —Southwestern Historical Quarterly