Major General William Starke Rosecrans

Cincinnati, Ohio

The Wheel of Life Makes Interesting Turns

I do not think the choice of Cincinnati for Rosecrans'  next career was a random selection. Eliakim Parker Scammon graduated from West Point in 1837 and stayed on as a professor of mathematics. He may have taught Rosecrans and would surly have been impressed by a self taught mathematician. Rosecrans probably worked under Scammon when he was "Cadet Professor" of Mathematics.  Scammon was one of the first appointed to the Corps of Engineers - Rosecrans was also appointed.

The two men continued to turn in the same direction.  Scammon converted to Roman Catholicism in 1846 (was he also a Rosecrans convert?). After his military career, he retired in 1854 to teach math in Mount St. Mary’s College in Cincinnati. 

To add another spoke to the wheel, Father Sylvester Rosecrans (William’s brother) was ordained in Rome in 1852 and after touring through Italy, France, England, and Ireland, Father Rosecrans was sent to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and was appointed pastor of St. Thomas Church. He was then assigned as a curate at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral and a professor at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West. He became president of the college in 1856. It is likely the William came to be near his brother and Scammon to be near William. 

However it happened, Father Sylvester and Eliakim were teaching at Mount St. Mary's.  Following Chickamauga, William's family was living next door to the seminary in a stone house, called "Roccabella", which had been the convent.  It had a very pretty old fashioned garden and a large grape arbor, a raspberry patch and numerous walks with roses, hollyhocks, marigolds and lilies. 

Mt. St. Mary's on Price Hill

Architect, Consulting Engineer

Although still not recovered from exhaustion, William worked as an architect and consulting engineer until June 1855 when an agent from Cannel River Coal Company, an English and American company, invited him to take charge  of the company's mining interests on Coal River, Kanawha County, Virginia. The known seams had been mined out

Stock

and the company wanted to know if there was more there.  Fitch says William examined the existing mines and reported on their condition.  Then he made a geological survey of the country and did a series of scientific explorations so he was able  to point out with marvelous certainty the localities where new and profitable coal deposits could be opened.  He submitted the result of the survey and plans for development to the company.

Transporting the coal from the mines was a problem.  Rosecrans and William Madison Peyton designed a series of locks (actually log and beam sluices) on the Kanawha River to transport the coal. In 1856 Rosecrans was made president of the Coal River Slack-Water Navigation Company. A flood washed the locks out and they had to be rebuilt. By the second time they were flooded  out petroleum products had Rosecrans attention.

At least some of this time the family lived in Wheeling where Anna Dolores (sometimes called Anita) was born.

The New Coal River-Slack Water Navigation Company hired a practical engineer to devise plans for making coal oil.  The results were positive for making the coal oil but it required a large outlay of money to start so the company decided not to go that route.

                          Inventor

Rosecrans decided to engage in the business himself.   In 1857 he organized the Preston Coal Company for that purpose.  With a partner who  claimed to know how to make coal oil, Rosecrans began erecting a structure.  Before it was done, he met two others interested in buying into the business.  They expanded it so they would be able to make 500 gallons a day.  It was obvious the first man did not know how to make the coal oil so Rosecrans began his own experiments.  In Cincinnati's 1858 Williams Directory, the Rosecrans family lived at 385 George Street and he is listed as a coal manufacturer.   He is the only manufacturer of coal oil in the Directory and his business was at 423 W. 2nd Street. 

By 1860, Rosecrans has four listings in the Williams Directory: one for his home on George Street, one for the Rosecrans and Co., manuf. of Coal Oil on 413 W. 2nd Street, one for Western Coal Oil Co., also known as Rosecrans & CO., on the south side of 2nd between Rose and Hill, and Wm. Rosecrans, factor, at 423 W. 7th.  The 1861 map link will show you where these are located.  Nothing in the code of the directory lists 'factor'.  Was this his lab or was he an agent for someone else??
 

1861 Map

Two of the few patents issued to Rosecrans came through at the onset of the war.  However the inventions were made before and the Patents applied for before the war.  Anson H. Platt and William S. Rosecrans got Patent #33402 for an Lamp Wick Raiser which improved oil lamps issued on October 1, 1861.  On the same date they got  Patent #33,403  issued on October 1, 1861, for An Improved Scale and Weighing Apparatus.  Ann E. Rosecrans witnessed both patent applications.

Invention of Anson Platt and General William Rosecrans
(a General in  the Federal Army) both residents of Cincinnati, Ohio.

In  the June 24, 1864 edition of The Engineer, there was article about the Rosecrans and Platts Balances or Weighing  Machines.

Goto        Rosecrans Part 6:  Equestrian Statue of
                                                 William S. Rosecrans
                                                on his horse Boneyt
o             Bibliography

(05/19/2015