The Museums
Welcome to the Phelps County Historical Society, dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich history of Phelps County, MO.
Dillon Log House
The Dillon Log House was originally the home of John Dillon. It was built out of hand-hewn logs by Levi L. Snelson in 1838 in Dillon, Missouri. Phelps County, Missouri was organized on November 13, 1857; there was some contention over where the county seat should be, in either the newly formed town of Rolla or in the Dillon township. The decision went all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court and the location of the county seat (Rolla, Mo) was finally settled in 1861, but in the meantime the Phelps County Court met in Dillon, in John Dillon’s two-story log house. The first meeting of the Phelps County Court was held in the Dillon Log Cabin on November 25, 1857.
The Dillon Log Cabin was disassembled and moved from Dillon to its current location and reassembled in the 1967. In 1994, possession of both the Old Courthouse and the Dillon Log Cabin were transferred from the city of Rolla into the care of the Old Courthouse Preservation Committee which eventually dissolved, and all rights and responsibilities were transferred to the Phelps County Historical Society.
Original Jail
The original Phelps County Jail is the oldest remaining structure built by the county government. The old jail was designed by Mr. James Wilson and constructed by J. A. Schnable in 1860. The two-story square structure measures 22 feet by 22 feet and was built with many blocks of Jefferson City dolomite mined from the quarry which later became the MSM Experimental Mine Property. The old jail features two isolation cells on the ground floor, and one single room upstairs, the windows are small, barred narrow slits carved in the rock. The old jail was completed on November 26, 1860, after several construction setbacks that often resulted in injury to Mr. Schnable.
Upon its completion the local papers began to note its many inadequacies, most notably its small size, proximity to the jailor’s residence which later was moved a few blocks away, and the repeated escapes of prisoners. Even with its shortcomings the old jail continued to be used until about 1912, when a new jail was built. The old jail was left to the elements from 1912-1940. On April 6, 1940, Dr. E. A. Stricker purchased the old jail building and later donated it to the Phelps County Historical Society on December 4, 1943. The jail walls are original to the 1860 structure, throughout the years modern elements have been added to preserve and protect the structure.
Old Courthouse
Edmund Ward Bishop founder of the city of Rolla, Missouri donated a parcel of land to establish a seat of county government in the late 1850s. In 1859, $8,000 was appropriated by the county commission to build a courthouse on the land that Bishop had donated. The contract was awarded to Lynch and Malcolm contractor firm and construction on the Old Courthouse began in 1860, the second oldest building in Phelps County. The original jail being the top priority for county legislators in the newly created, rough and ready railroad town and soon to be determined county seat. The courthouse’s foundation was created of the same locally quarried Jefferson City dolomite block that the old jail walls are built from, but the courthouse walls were constructed with brick created locally.
The onset of the Civil War halted all normal business, including construction of the courthouse, which was by that time underroof with the first floor nearly completely, but the rest left unfinished. During the war, the building was used for storage, as offices for military officials, and to hospitalize sick soldiers. After the war, changes were slow to come but began at the courthouse in 1881, when the east and west wing vaults were added. Around 1912, electricity was added to the building along with a new jail wing. Again, wars stopped construction on the building and no further changes were made to the structure until the 1950s, when the belfry was removed.
The county continued to use the old courthouse as a functioning courthouse from the 1950s to the early 1990s, making various changes to the buildings footprint to accommodate the ever-growing needs and technological changes occurring in the county court. In 1991 Phelps County citizens voted to build a new courthouse, but some question as to what would happen to the old courthouse remained. Eventually after much back and forth the county allowed the local “historical assets” the chance to save the Old Courthouse.
A citizen collective was created called the Old Courthouse Preservation Committee which raised funds to preserve the old building and helped place it on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Once that committee dissolved in the late 1990s, care for the Old Courthouse, the Dillon Log Cabin, and the Original Jail were turned over to the Phelps County Historical Society.
