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'''Desloge''' is a city in central [[St. Francois County, Missouri|St. Francois County]], [[Missouri]], part of the famed "Lead Belt." It had a population of 5,054 at the 2010 census.
'''Desloge''' is a city in central [[St. Francois County, Missouri|St. Francois County]], [[Missouri]], part of the famed "Lead Belt." It had a population of 5,054 at the 2010 census.
==History==
Desloge owes its name and existence to the Desloge family, a prominent Franco-American family in Missouri during the 19th and 20th centuries. Its founder, Firmin René Desloge, had immigrated from [[France]] in 1823 and became a successful and wealthy lead-mining operator in the Potosi area. His son, Firmin Vincent Desloge II (1843-1929), took over the business in the 1860s and expanded its mines into the [[Bonne Terre, Missouri|Bonne Terre]] region. In 1874, the business was incorporated as the Missouri Lead and Smelting Company, renamed the Desloge Lead Company in 1876 and finally the Desloge Consolidated Lead Company in 1887.
Shortly afterward, Firmin Desloge became interested in a patch of land south of the Bonne Terre mines, where a small-scale lead mine already existed. This had been discovered by American pioneers as far back as 1801, and for some time had been owned and operated by Joseph Bogy, for whom it was known as "Bogy Mine" or "Mine a Joe."<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/st-francois-county</ref> Desloge purchased the property and operations in 1887, digging a new shaft and constructing houses and offices for his staff and employees nearby. Actual production of lead began in the early 1890s, simultaneous with the opening of the new Mississippi River and Bonne Terre railroad, whose construction Desloge had partly financed for rapid shipment to the river ports on the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]]. Given his vital role in the existence of the community that developed around the mine, it was first known as "Deslogetown" before later being shortened to "Desloge."
Desloge (the community) remained very much a company town through the early 20th century, as first Firmin Desloge and then his son, Firmin Desloge III, directly oversaw operations there. In the 1920s, however, the family moved to [[St. Louis]] and diversified its interests, selling its mining plant to the St. Joseph Lead Company in 1929 (for $18 million, making it for a time one of the wealthiest families in America). Now separated from its creators, the town began a more independent existence, incorporating in 1941.
The St. Joseph Lead Company continued to run the Desloge mine through the mid-20th century, at which point it began to shift towards untapped lead deposits farther west. The Desloge mine shut down in 1958, forcing the city to find new means of economic prosperity; like other nearby communities, it increasingly relied on light manufacturing and the service industry to keep itself afloat, and has now seen several decades of sustained growth.<ref>https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2008/5140/pdf/Chapter1.pdf</ref>
In 2012, as a nod to its origins, city leaders and several descendants of the Desloge family dedicated a bronze medallion bearing Firmin Desloge's image, which the family had donated to the community.<ref>https://dailyjournalonline.com/news/local/relatives-of-city-s-founder-attend-meeting/article_71433470-b482-11e1-a56b-001a4bcf887a.html</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]