Information Sheet

 

 

R         Rozier store.

132                  Records, 1867-1885.

                                    Eleven volumes.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are daybooks, journals, and miscellaneous records of a mercantile operation run by Jules Rene Rozier, first at Rozier Landing on the Mississippi River in Perry County, Missouri, then in partnership with Charles F. Lawrence at St. Marys in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri.

 

Jules Rene Rozier, seventh child of Ferdinand Roy Rozier, the founder of the family in Amer­ica, was born in Ste. Genevieve in 1826.  He was reared in Ste. Genevieve, and was edu­cated at St. Mary’s of the Barrens at Perryville and St. Vincent’s College in Cape Gi­rardeau.  Af­ter his formal education, he was sent to learn the mercantile trade at Potosi under the tutelage of his cousin, Firmin Desloge.  Rozier remained with Desloge at Potosi until 1849, when he trav­eled with a group of men from Washington County to the gold fields of Califor­nia.  However, mining did not suit Rozier, and he remained in the west only a short time.  He returned to Mis­souri in 1851, but brought back enough money to open a general store in Farmington.  He moved his business in 1855 to Rozier Landing on the Mississippi River in Perry County, a site formerly oc­cupied by his oldest brother.  Operating under the style of Rozier & Company, Jules set up shop, added a wood­lot, and began selling supplies to steam­boats.  He moved from the landing to St. Marys in 1874.  There he was associated with Charles F. Lawrence in a firm called Rozier & Lawrence.  They re­mained in business until 1880, after which Rozier continued to operate the store in St. Marys.  This was the first of many Rozier mercantile stores in southeastern Missouri.  Jules died and was buried in St. Marys in 1915.  Complete biographical information can be found in Between the Gabouri, a history of the Rozier family by Mary Rozier Sharp and Louis J. Sharp III.

 

The business records of the Rozier store consist of standard journals and daybooks.  The vol­umes were received for microfilming in two separate installments, and rolls one and two were filmed several months apart.  Because the material was filmed in separate groups, the volumes are not arranged in strict chronological sequence.  However, the journals do form an unbroken set for 1873-1878, and the daybooks for 1878-1885.  Taken together, they com­prise a record of Rozier’s operations from 1873 to 1885, and offer a representative account of business at Rozier Land­ing and St. Marys.  Notes on the split of profits between partners Rozier and Lawrence can be found in Volume 8, the inventory ledger for 1876-1879.

 

 

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