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On
April 26, 1882 James
Roach married Clara Buzine, daughter of Camden Fire Department
member Samuel S.
Buzine, who in time would rise to the position
of Assistant Chief of the entire department. In the spring of
1884 James Roach was appointed to the Camden Fire Department to
serve as an extra man with Engine
Company 1, taking the place of James
H. Brown. When the Fire Department reorganized on July 1,
1885 James Roach was one of the eighteen extra men who were laid
off. City Directories show
that James Roach lived at 1320 South 3rd Street from 1883
through 1885, at 284 Sycamore in 1887 and in 1888, and at 292
Sycamore from 1890 through 1896. He worked as a bricklayer
throughout the 1880s and most of the 1890s. The
1897 and 18989 Camden City Directories lists James H. Roach at
1103 Baring Street. The
1899 Camden City Directory shows that James and Clara Roach had
moved to 1006 South 4th Street, and that James Roach was working
as a policeman. When the Census was taken the following year,
the Roach family, which included children Mary, 15; James, 12;
and Emma, 8 was still at 1006 South 4th Street. By 1907 they had
moved to 1008 South 4th Street. The
1910 Census shows James Roach at 1008 South 4th Street. he was
then working as a constable. In July of that year he was
appointed by the Bridge Committee of the Camden County Board of
Freeholders to the position of bridge tender at the State Street
Bridge. The
1918-1919 City Directory lists James and Clara Roach at 507
Chestnut Street. He was still working as bridgetender. James
Roach appears to have let Camden shortly after the Directory was
compiled. By April of 1930 James
and Clara Roach had moved to Somerdale, where he worked as a janitor
in a public school as late as 1930. As
stated above, James Roach's father-in-law was Assistant Chief Samuel
S. Buzine of the Camden Fire Department. His brothers-in-law
through his marriage into the Buzine family were Camden Fire
Department members William Buzine and Joseph Ernest, and Camden
policeman Edward Hyde,
who served as Chief of Police in the early 1920s. Clara Buzine
Roach's uncle, Lewis
Buzine, was also a Camden Fire Department member.
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