Desloge Family in America

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The Desloge family in America[1] (pronounced /dəˈloʊʒ/, də·lōzh′) is a historically significant industrialist, philanthropic, religious and naturalist family, and is one of the oldest French families in America, Missouri and St. Louis.[2] Family business interests include international commerce, sugar refining, oil drilling, fur trading, mineral mining, saw milling, mercantile, manufacturing, railroads, real estate and river boats. Their philanthropy is reflected in hospitals named for the Desloges, and large tracts of natural land donated by them for public parks.[3][4]

Contents

History [edit]

The founder of the Desloge Family in America was Firmin René Desloge. He and his uncle Jean Ferdinand Rozier[5] left France after the French Revolution.[6] Author and academic Carl Eckberg coined the phrase, “French Aristocrats at the American West”,[7] to describe some prominent French families in Missouri, including the Desloge family.[8] Ferdinand Rozier arrived in America in 1806 in partnership with John James Audubon.[9][10] The partnership was funded entirely by Desloge family ancestor Jean Claude Rozier in France.[11]

French nobility [edit]

Jean Robert Desloge was a ship captain and nobleman; Firmin Desloge’s great-grand father Jean Mosneron a nobleman of Bretignolles, Luzon, living in Nantes; and Firmin’s second great grand-father, through Jean Robert Desloge, was nobleman Gildas Alexiz Pitault. Firmin’s father, Joseph Giles Desloge, was appointed Mayor of Morlaix, a position of honor granted by the French First Empire. Same with his brother, Joseph. Firmin’s grand-father Francois Claude Rozier was Mayor of Kernegan from August 1789 and Judge of the Tribunal of Commerce from Jan. 23, 1793. His great grand-father Francois Rozier was a lawyer in the Parliament of Paris, Bailiff of the Forte’, Sancerre, Ingra and other jurisdictions of the Bailiwick of Orleans; and Firmin’s second great grand-father Michel Rozier was an officer of the Mint and Marshall of the Minters of the Orléans Mint. Firmin’s uncle Jean-Baptiste Sollier de la Quillerie, who married to his father’s sister Marie-Marguerite, was a member of the French king’s gendarme. Firmin’s brother Joseph’s grand-daughter Anna (from Apolphe) married Count de Tinguey.[12][13]

Geography [edit]

The Desloge family industries include lead mining, distillery, smelting, railroads, fur trading, manufacturing and mercantile, saw milling, mining and railroad enterprises 50 miles southwest of St. Louis. Along with other French families, their impact on America was “characterized as much by family connections, private enterprise and negotiation as by conquest.”[14]

The family moved to St. Louis in 1861, at the outset of the American Civil War, after various attacks at Potosi, Bonne Terre and upon the family lead mining works by both Federal and Confederate armies who sought lead for weapons.

Commerce and industry [edit]

The Desloge family businesses in lead and mercantile in Missouri date from 1824, and including the Missouri Lead Mining and Smelting Company in 1874 and the Desloge Lead Company in 1876, inclusively one of the largest and oldest lead mining companies in America.[15][16] Firmin Rene Desloge built his own then modern smelting furnace circa 1824 as an extension of his Potosi, Missouri mercantile business. His son, Firmin Desloge II expanded mining operations and expanded management to Bonne Terre, Missouri; a charter was requested and granted to the Missouri Lead and Smelting Company on June 5, 1874. The corporate name was later changed to “The Desloge Lead Company” on February 21, 1876. Three shafts were sunk during 1876 and 1877 and a new mill was built. The interests of this corporation were consolidated with those of the St. Joseph Lead Company in 1887 and were a part of the holdings of what is probably the greatest lead mining and smelting company in the world. A fire in March 1886 destroyed the concentrating mill plant and did great damage to the entire surface plant of the Desloge Lead Company.[17] Rather than rebuild, the Desloge Lead Company was sold to St. Joe. In 1887, the land was cleared and company houses for his staff were constructed at the location which became known as Deslogetown, present day Desloge, Missouri.[18] A new company was formed known as The Desloge Consolidated Lead Company.[19][20] The massive Desloge plant ran under his operation until 1929 when it was sold to the St. Joe Lead Company for $18,000,000. In 2011 dollars, this is equal to approximately $360,000,000 (an amount commensurate with the market value of Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Air Canada, or Grubb & Ellis[21]).“With the absorption of the Desloge concern by the St. Joseph Lead Company, one of the oldest mining companies of the district goes out of existence as a company.[22][23][24]

Firmin Desloge II also built the first railroads to penetrate the disseminated lead field of St. Francois County, Missouri to benefit the needs of the Desloge and St. Joe mines: The Desloge Railway, The Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Rail Road[25] and then The Valley Railroad. Firmin Desloge II was also involved with the development of the Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad (aka, Iron Mountain Railroad) from St. Louis, Missouri to Texarkana, Arkansas. The St. Joseph Lead Company built a narrow gauge railroad thirteen and one-half miles long, reaching from the mines to Summit in Washington County, a point on the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad.[26] The cost was divided between the two companies, the St. Joe paying two-thirds and the Desloge Company paying one-third.

Louis Desloge (from Jules Desloge) founded Watlow Electric in 1922 to manufacture electric heating elements for the shoe industry. The company name Watlow is selected referring to "low-watt" heaters to replace steam heat. In 2011 Watlow, still a Desloge family business, employed 2,000 employees working in 13 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia and have sales offices in 16 countries and a global distributor network.

Joseph Desloge founded Killark Electric in 1913. He designed an industry-specialty electric fuse which as is known today, Killark (Kill the Arc) became the name of the company. Joseph Desloge also owned Minerva Oil, (a confusing misnomer as it was primarily mining zinc and fluorspar); and founded Louisiana Manufacturing Company and Atlas Manufacturing Company. Joseph Desloge’s son Joseph, Jr. was also successful mining Uranium in Utah which he and his partner sold to General Electric; and in natural gas exploration in Lycomin County, Pennsylvania.

Louis Fusz married Firmin Desloge’s daughter Josephine, and the Fusz family played several key roles in the ownership and management of the Desloge Consolidated Lead Company. Louis Fusz was president of Regina Flour Mill Co., and of Desloge Consolidated Lead Co. The Fusz name in St. Louis today is automobiles. In 2011, after 58 years, the Lou Fusz Automotive Network consists of 16 car dealerships.

Theodore (Ted) Desloge, Jr was a partner in and President of Park 'N Fly established in 1967 as the first off-airport parking company, the nation's leading off-airport parking company. Ted has also been Director of Valley Forge Corp. and Mississippi Valley Bankshares, Inc.; and founder of Janna Medical Systems.

Christopher Desloge in 2011 is Chairman of the Board of Madaket Growth, a holding company for businesses in commercial and residential real estate brokerage, internet websites and business consulting.

Rick Desloge[27] was a business and media journalist with the St. Louis Business Journal

St. Louis [edit]

Around 1916, the Desloge Consolidated Lead Company moved its corporate offices from Desloge, Missouri, to the Rialto Building in downtown St. Louis. Robert E. McHenry’s book on mining enterprises in Missouri, "Chat Dumps of The Missouri Lead Belt," contained a foreword by Jeffry Zelm, CEO of Doe Run Company. Zelm wrote “[While] St. Louis, with its French ancestry, has been noted as a fur capital, more money passed through St. Louis as a result of the lead business in Missouri than did because of the fur business.” And the oldest St. Louis-based lead family is Desloge.[28]

Philanthropy [edit]

In February 1930, St. Louis University received a $1 million from the estate of Firmin Vincent Desloge (over $13 million in 2013 dollars) to build Firmin Desloge Hospital with a mission to serve those most in need.[29] Desloge’s wife, Lydia, later gave another $100,000 (over $1.3 million in 2012 dollars) to build a chapel next to the hospital. The Desloge estate (ca. 1932) was over $52,000,000 (over $707,000,000 in 2012 dollars)[30]

When Firmin Desloge II died 1930, he left 47 acres of land in Washington County, Missouri, that contained hand-dug pits of the original lead mining operations and the deeply rutted wagon tracks. The family donated this land for a park, today named Firmin Desloge Park and dedicated to the mining families in the area.

In 1955, naturalist Joseph Desloge, Sr donated the land for the Johnson Shut-Ins Missouri State Park, one of the most visited state parks in Missouri. Through his Minerva Oil Company, Deloge donated land for Sunset Park in north St. Louis County on the Missouri River. He also subsidized numerous conservations and library publication projects through the Joseph Desloge Fund. His children sold to St. Louis County for a nominal sum Pelican Island (2,300 acres) in the Missouri River between St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri as a nature preserve.[31]

William L. Desloge and Taylor Desloge have served as President of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, Missouri.[32]

Loriel Desloge Hogan established several large New Hampshire lowland and mountain lands as permanent conservation easements.[33][34]

In 2008, Theodore Desloge, Firmin's great-grandson, and his wife donated money for a new outpatient center in St. Louis County, the Mr. and Mrs. Theodore P. Desloge Jr. Outpatient Center of St. Luke's Hospital.

Society [edit]

Two members of the Desloge have been selected Veiled Prophet Queens in St. Louis: Diane Waring Desloge (daughter of William L. Desloge) and Anne Kennett Farrar Desloge (daughter of Joseph Desloge, Sr.). The Veiled Prophet Ball is a debutante social event held each December in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, by the "Veiled Prophet Organization" first founded by prominent St. Louisans in 1878.

Genealogy [edit]

Through Loriel Johnson who married William Livingston Desloge, The Desloge family’s direct ancestry includes two members of the Mayflower, Stephen Hopkins and William Brewster, two members of the Puritan Pilgrim Massachusetts Bay Winthrop Fleet in 1630, Norman Rockwell and being at Jamestown in 1609.[35] Through Lydia Davis who married Firmin Desloge II, this ancestry includes being present at colonial Williamsburg, signature to documents of Virginia independence from England[36][37] along with George Washington, present with Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty” speech, and friendships as vestrymen with Thomas Jefferson.[38] The Desloge family ancestors were fighting against their own British one hundred years before the American Revolution at Bacon’s Rebellion.[39] Not just being at Philadelphia at its founding, this ancestry, flowing from Rebecca Plummer Desloge who married Firmin Desloge II includes one of the signatures as witness to William Penn’s signature granting him Pennsylvania.[40]

The Desloge family’s ancestry, through maternal, grand maternal and great-grand maternal lines, is descendant of many European royalty including Charlemagne The Great, Emperor Claudius, William the Conqueror, “Old King Cole”, Longshanks (who participated in the Crusades), Kings of England, Scotland and Italy, a Roman Senator and more to before the time of Christ. Through Rebecca Plummer who married Firmin Desloge III, and specifically her ancestry of Bringhusts and Claypoole,[41][42] the Desloge family is also of religious origins (descendant from Saints Bregga, Itta, Gondolfus, Lieven, Arnulf, Elgiva and Blessed Charlemagne[43]) and including founding members of the Puritans in New England, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and the Anglican Church in Virginia.[44]

References [edit]

  1. ^ pronounced /dəˈloʊʒ/, də·lōzh′ The article is the condensed version of thoroughly vetted 900 page research monograph supported by materials at valid historical societies, over 230 bibliographic sources under ISBN, with copyright and Library of Congress application
  2. ^ Stevens, Walter B. St. Louis The Fourth City 1764-1911. 2 vols. St. Louis-Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909 and 1911.
  3. ^ History of Southeast Missouri. Robert Sidney Douglass, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1912
  4. ^ The Desloge Letters and various genealogies. Compilation of approximately 600 English, some translated (from French) letters dating between 1817 and 1880; translations by various sources including Zoe Desloge Cobb and Josephine C. Cobb. Numerous copies among numerous Desloge Family descendants, including Christopher D. Desloge; Fusz Family; Huger Family; Thompson Family; and Desloge Missouri Library, Missouri Historical Society Archives, Joseph Desloge Collection and Firmin Desloge Collection
  5. ^ Sharpe, Mary Rozier and James, Louis, Between the Gabouri, History of the Rozier Family, 1981
  6. ^ Desloge-Rozier Lineage Chart. 1 p. typewritten, dates added by pen. Compiled Aug. 25, 1957 by Henry C. Thompson, Bonne Terre, Mo. Missouri Historical Society Archives, Joseph Desloge Collection
  7. ^ A French Aristocrat in the American West: The Shattered Dreams of De Lassus De Luzières, Carl J. Ekberg, University of Missouri; 1st Edition (Dec 27 2010)
  8. ^ permission specifically received from Carl J. Eckberg to include the Desloge Family in this reference
  9. ^ The Rozier Collection at Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO
  10. ^ Huger, Lucie Furstenberg. The Desloge Family in America. St. Louis: Nordman Printing Co., 1959
  11. ^ Arthur, Stanley Clisy. Audubon: An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman, 1937
  12. ^ “Descendance de Joseph-Gilles Desloge.” 2 pp. typewritten, n.d. Translated by Rosemary T. Power. Missouri Historical Society Archives, Joseph Desloge Collection
  13. ^ Huger, Lucie Furstenberg. The Desloge Family in America. St. Louis: Nordman Printing Co., 1959
  14. ^ Jay Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders & American Expansion
  15. ^ Desloge Consolidated Lead Company records at Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO
  16. ^ Thomas A. Rickards. A History of American Mining, Maple Press Co., New York, 1937
  17. ^ Bouchard, W. L., A Trip Through Bonne Terre Mines and Surface Operations, published by The Lead Belt News, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. March 4, 1949.
  18. ^ Desloge Consolidated Lead Company records at Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO
  19. ^ HISTORY OF THE LEAD BELT OF ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY MISSOURI By A. J. Norwine (1924)
  20. ^ History of St. Joe Lead Company http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mostfran/mine_history/stjoe_history.htm
  21. ^ Market Cap Directory. http://www.smallcapdirectory.com
  22. ^ May 31, 1929 The Lead Belt News
  23. ^ McHenry, Robert E. Chat Dumps of The Missouri Lead Belt, St Francois County. With an Illustrated History of the Lead Companies that Built Them, Flat River, Bonne Terre, Desloge, River Mines, Leadwood, Elvins, Leadington, self-published, 2006.
  24. ^ Thompson, Henry C. Our Lead Belt Heritage. Flat River, Mo., 1955
  25. ^ Sullivan, John J., History of St. Joe and Desloge Railway and Missouri River and Bonne Terre Railroad, handwritten, Railroads Collection, Desloge Railway, Missouri Historical Society archives
  26. ^ Missouri Short Line Railroad
  27. ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/bio/6821/Rick%20Desloge
  28. ^ The History of the Desloge Family in America, by Christopher Desloge, lulu.com, 2013
  29. ^ Original fully executed bequest documents, Missouri Historical Society Archives, St. Louis, MO, Joseph Desloge Collection
  30. ^ Probated will of Lydia Desloge, source Farmington (Missouri) Press, December 1932
  31. ^ The Desloge Family Collection at Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO
  32. ^ Missouri Historical Society records
  33. ^ State of New Hampshire, Town of Ringe
  34. ^ Original, fully executed Conservation Easement documents
  35. ^ Genealogies of the Families of John Rockwell of Stamford, CT 1641, James Boughton, William F. Jones, New York 1903
  36. ^ AN ASSOCIATION, SIGNED BY 89 MEMBERS OF THE LATE HOUSE OF BURGESSES, 27th day of May, 1774
  37. ^ Instructions for the DEPUTIES appointed to meet in GENERAL CONGRESS on the Part of this Colony. By the Virginia Convention of 1774
  38. ^ Field genealogy: being the record of all the Field family in America prior to 1700, Volume One, Frederick Clifton Pierce, Hammond Press, Chicago, Il, 1901
  39. ^ Capt. Simon Miller from The History of Essex County VA, Settlers, Southerners, Americans and “Genealogy of the Hord Family” and “The Hord Family of Virginia”
  40. ^ Desloge Chronicles, 900 page research monograph including genealogies of Bringhurst, Claypoole, McIlvaine, Hord, Fields, Plummer
  41. ^ The Claypoole Family in America, Volume One, Compiled by Evelyn Claypoole Bracken, assisted by Arthur M Hurst, W. Lionel Claypoole, and Dr. Margaret Claypoole Willoughby, Indiana, PA 1971 http://www.archive.org/stream/claypoolefamilyi01brac/claypoolefamilyi01brac_djvu.txt
  42. ^ Bracken, Evelyn Claypool, The Claypoole family in America; Hurst, Arthur M. (Arthur Marion), 1883-, 1909-
  43. ^ http://www.archive.org/stream/claypoolefamilyi01brac/claypoolefamilyi01brac_djvu.txt
  44. ^ Desloge Chronicles

Southeast Missouri Mining and Milling. Doe Run Company. 2004

Potosi (Missouri) Historical Society

External links [edit]

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