Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

1818 - First settlers came to this area, building along the riverbanks, doing a little farming.

1826 - Thomas James bought from the Federal Government a tract of land at Meramec Spring, about 12 miles southeast of Rolla, and built the first Iron Works in the area.

1844 - John Webber built the first house within the present city limits of Rolla.

1845 - Lt. James Abert started the first railroad reconnaissance survey. He was later to become the first professor of Civil Engineering at the Missouri School of Mines.

1853 - Edmund Ward Bishop, who is called the founder of Rolla, was originally a railroad construction contractor in New York. He came to this part of the country with the job of building the "Frisco Branch of the Southwest Railroad."

1857 - Because of an urgent demand, Phelps County was created by legislative action on November 13, 1857, from portions of Pulaski, Maries and Crawford Counties. A special commission was appointed to select the site for a county seat, instruction being given to locate said site on the mail line of the railroad as near the center of the county as possible. Mr. Bishop offered a tract of some 50 acres for the official townsite, and it was accepted. There was disagreement over the site, the "westerners" wanting Rolla, and the "easterners" wanting Dillon, so the General Assembly did not legally declare Rolla to be the official county seat until 1861. The group favoring Dillon contested the decision all the way through the Missouri Supreme Court before is was finally settled in favor of Rolla.

1858 - In the year of 1858 Rolla was officially surveyed and laid out. At this time, the town was named. Mr. Bishop wanted to call it Phelps Center, as his house was the center of the county. John Webber preferred the name "Hardscrabble" for the obvious reasons. George Coppedge, another original settler, and formerly of North Carolina, favored "Raleigh" after his home town. The others agreed with Coppedge on the condition that it needn't have "that silly spelling, but should be spelled 'R O L L A.'"

1860 - The railroad ran its first train on December 22, 1960, making Rolla the terminus of the road. Until the continuation of the Frisco, all goods were loaded on wagons and transported to Springfield and south and west on what is now Interstate 44 (U.S. Highway 66). During the Civil War, Rolla was an important military post with as many as 20,000 Union troops here. The Phelps County Court House was transformed into a hospital during the war.

1862 - The Morrill Land-Grant College Act was approved by the U.S. Congress.

1863 - Missouri Legislature accepted the opportunity of the College Act to set up a new type of higher education within the state. As the Act specified that the "leading object shall be without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanics arts...in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits of professions of life."

1870 - The Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy was founded. Because the area was mineral rich, and the geographic location good, Phelps County's bid of $130,545.00, included lands and bonds, was awarded this prize. Today the school is known internationally as the finest in engineering. Now known as the University of Missouri - Rolla, the University offers over 65 B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs.

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