Home of the St. Louis, Leadville, & Rosetta Railroad, my model railroad layout project.
Lucas Garrett Rhodes was the founder and foremost player in the history of the Rosetta Railroad, but his legacy begins with that his father, Garrett Thomas Rhodes. The elder Rhodes came from Anglican Virginian planter stock. He traveled to Chatham County, Illinois in 1829, seeking his fortune on what was then the frontier. His business acumen quickly turned his small farm into a larger one, and he grew rapidly in influence and prosperity. During this time, Rhodes had a conversion experience with the Baptist Church, and became a member. He built a home in Springfield in 1833, where his only son, Lucas Garrett was born that year, and campaigned for state senate in 1834 as a member of the Democratic Party. Garret Rhodes was soundly beaten, in no small part thanks to the abolitionist speeches of a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, who opposed Rhodes' slaveholding interests.
In disgrace and upset, Garrett Rhodes moved his estate and family from Springfield, Illinois to Rosetta, Missouri, where he traded his farms and general stores for interests in a local steamboat company. Here, Rhodes' paternalism was more palatable, and he was welcomed into local politics, winning a seat as the Mayor of Rosetta in 1840. Once again, Rhodes leveraged his skills as a shrewd business manager and enjoyed regional success, taking complete control of the Rosetta River Boat Company and diversifying his interests into such ventures as the local lead mines, logging companies, and swine farms, whose goods he hauled up and down the Mississippi River.
In 1854, the elder Rhodes gave his son, Lucas Garrett, $1,000 and told him to make a name for himself. He had been mentoring his son in business acumen, and it was time for Lucas to put that to the test. Standing on the deck of the Queen of Egypt, he waved goodbye to his father and headed up to St. Louis to seek his fortune.
Lucas Rhodes soon found himself interested in the new business of railroads, and he purchased shares of the Pacific Railroad, by then only five years old and already foundering, and became a manager. The younger Garrett soon proved himself by effectively finishing the connection to Washington, Missouri, financed by speculative contracts that would be fulfilled upon the completion of the connection that spring. He delivered early, completing the connection in February of 1855, and quickly reinvested the funds and used the same scheme to connect Jefferson City to St. Louis by the end of the year.
Lucas' time in St. Louis found him in the social circles of many abolitionists, and he soon joined their cause. Like his father, he ran and lost in a political campaign for state legislature, however, he ran as a Radical Republican! In 1858, Lucas converted to the Roman Catholic Church, which caused a rift between him and his father. The two would frequently feud over letters, with Garrett threatening to cut him out of his inheritance if he did not renounce his abolitionist ways and Catholic faith. Following John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, the two broke communication entirely after a heated argument on the steps of Rosetta's town hall. Garrett would only see his father again once more, when he was on his deathbed.
The Civil War put a halt on the construction of the Pacific Railroad, but brought tentative prosperity to the Rosetta Steam Boat Company and its interests. The munitions factory in Leadville poured tens of thousands of lead balls for shot, and quickly became a strategic interest to the Union army. Following the chaos of the Frémont Emancipation in August of 1861, the Rosetta Steam Boat Company lost many of its enslaved laborers, who fled northwards into Illinois seeking freedom. Garrett Rhodes' health began to decline with the stress of the war affecting his business, and shortly after hearing the news of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, fell ill. Lucas returned home from St. Louis to care for his father, and they reconciled somewhat before Garrett's death in March of 1863. Lucas Garrett Rhodes, aged 29, was now in charge of his father's estate, fortune, and business interests in the midst of Civil War.
Rather quickly, he pivoted his interests from the business supplying the Confederate armies to that of the Union armies, which caused a notable shift in the latter's military successes in the region later that year. He also freed his father's slaves, offering them opportunities to hire back on for wages if they so desired, and he offered paid incentives for them to join the Union army. During the Battle of Rosetta in October of 1863, Lucas Rhodes used his influence to negotiate a quick end rather than a protracted siege and shelling by Union gunboats, preserving the city though making enemies in the process. He helped negotiate the handover of the Leadville Ammunition Depot to the Union, and much of Burr County, Missouri remained under Union control until the end of the war.
Shortly after the end of the war, Lucas Garrett Rhodes survived an assassination attempt in which Confederate partisans threw a bomb at his coach. From then on, he was deaf in one ear, and loud flashes or sudden noises caused him to startle. Still, at the trial for the two would-be assassins, he pressed the judge to commute their sentences to jail time instead of the prescribed hanging. Lucas' act of mercy towards his assailants earned him the respect of many of his former enemies, including the mining tycoon George Chalmers.
George Chalmers was an Englishman and the founder of the Chalmers Lead Mine, a friend of Garrett Thomas Rhodes, and a staunch Confederate during the war. He had run the ammunition factory that had been such a contentious target during the Battle of Rosetta. Initially an outspoken critic of Lucas Rhodes, he softened up after the war (perhaps as a result of the military contracts Lucas gained him with the postwar US Army) and began to see him as a more-than-capable business partner. The two began planning with a third associate, Thurmann Yount, who held logging interests in the region, to build a railroad along the Mississippi River to connect St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Rosetta, Cape Girardeau, Cairo, Memphis and points southern all the way to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It was an ambitious plan, and would need to be completed in stages. The first move would be to connect Rosetta with the newly-reincorporated St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad.
This began an argument about railroad gauges. At the time the planning began in 1866, the Pacific Railroad was 5'6" gauge and might become dominant, 3' gauge was small and might save some money, and the Iron Mountain Route was built to Stephenson's 4'8½" gauge, as was much of the east coast. Ultimately, the railroad was decided to be Stephenson's gauge; Lucas Garrett Rhodes believed it would soon become more common due to its early adoption by prestigious lines like the Baltimore and Ohio. Other nearby lines were various gauges, so transload facilities would be built in order to interchange cargo across the break-of-gauge.
After considering options for routes, Rhodes decided to build in three stages. First, the line would connect from Iron Mountain to Rosetta, stopping in the communities of Leadville and Valencia at the behest of local businesses. The route was home to several logging companies who would serve as procurers of railroad ties, bridge timbers, and construction lumber, as well as future customers. From Rosetta, the track would run first north and then south, up to St. Louis and Memphis, respectively, along the Mississippi River.
Financing for the railroad would mostly come from local interests. The City of Rosetta purchased shares, as did Burr County. So too did the local businessmen of the Burr County Chamber of Commerce. Thurmann Yount, who owned a majority of the logging operations in the county, put forth a large share, as did George Chalmers. Of course, the largest stakeholder would be the railroad's first chairman, Lucas Garrett Rhodes. He hired a friend from the Pacific Railroad to be the chief engineer, William Weston. He would be in charge of the route from Rosetta to Iron Mountain. In February of 1867, the St. Louis, Leadville, and Rosetta Railroad received its charter and began the arduous task of constructing its first main line.
Weston began his approach backwards. After surveying the route, he insisted the line be built from Rosetta to Iron Mountain, rather than the other way around. This way, Rhodes' steamboat company could procure the materials and equipment, rather than paying the shipping charges through the St. Louis and Iron Mountain. Though on paper it would slow construction some, he did not expect the St.L&IM to charge reasonable rates nor ship expediently for someone they considered a potential competitor. The stakeholders held a ceremony and broke ground in April of 1867, and nineteen miles of track was completed by the end of the year. The first train reached the township of Apple Creek on December 3rd, 1867, and the first snow of the year ended the work shortly after.
Construction continued relatively quickly, connecting Valencia, Yount, Leadville, Higdon, and finally, Fredericktown by the end of 1870. Rhodes and Weston's shared experience with building the Pacific Railroad, combined with the strong financial backing the railroad had, meant the work was rapid and efficient. However, by the time they had reached Fredericktown, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain had completed a connection to the city, so they ended their plans to push westward for the time being. Since the connection was for interchange, not exploitation of Iron Mountain or the surrounding mines, the railroad was considered complete enough for revenue, and it could begin in earnest on the more important connections: St. Louis to the north, and Cairo, Cape Girardeau, and Memphis to the south.
On October 31st, 1870 the StLL&R laid its final spike on the main line from Rosetta to Fredericktown. The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, sharp, on September 1st, the inaugural train departed from Rosetta to St. Louis by way of the Iron Mountain Route. The No. 1 and No. 3 pulled four wooden coaches, a special business car and a gaily painted blue box car advertising the railroad. The business car was filled with important guests, including 4th District Representative Harrison E. Havens, Mayor of Rosetta William Montgomery, George Chalmers of Chalmers Lead Mine Company, County Commissioners Haywood Robson and Jewell Meredeth, and of course, Lucas Garrett Rhodes. Their wives and families also accompanied them, as did many local business owners. The train was crewed by engineers Finley Bell and Bartholomew McLachlan, firemen Jackson Jack and Lincoln Gleeson, conductor Joe Garfield, and brakemen Evan Nealy and Earle Gay.
The train stopped in De Soto for the night, then continued to arrive in St. Louis the next morning. The arrival was greeted by St. Louis Mayor Joseph Brown and the city council, where Rhodes treated them to ice-cold champagne wine aboard the specially-outfitted business car "Rosalee Rhodes", named for Lucas' wife.
The railroad was an early success for the region. It ran a twice-daily passenger train from Rosetta to Fredericktown. Many of the workers at the lead mine took the train daily; the company would supplement their workers' pay with train tickets. On Tuesdays, a limited express passenger train carried a business coach and the week's pay from Rosetta to Yount to Leadville in the morning, and returned in the afternoon. The schedule would be inverted on Thursdays, running instead from Leadville to Yount to Rosetta and back, minus the paycar.
Weston's oversight proved successful: clever trackbuilding and grade selection meant the trains spent less fuel on rising and falling slopes, and could go at higher speeds. Some sections through the rather hilly country were graded well enough to theoretically allow engineers to run at 40 mph, though none of the locomotives purchased initially reached those speeds. The push began towards St. Louis, where Rhodes was busy having his city home converted into a depot.
Coming soon!
