Firmin Rene Desloge (17 February 1803, Nantes, France - 20 July 1856, Potosi, Missouri), descendant of French nobility, and founder of the Desloge Family in America, came to the new Louisiana Purchase territory of Missouri in 1823 as a partner in the mercantile business with his uncle, Jean Ferdinand Rozier.[1] Ferdinand Rozier had come to America in partnership with John James Audubon in 1806;[2] the partnership having been funded by Firmin Desloge's grandfather, Claude Rozier.[3] The Desloge Mercantile business in Missouri consisted of fur trading, hardware, clothing, lead smelting and ore trading and distillery.
Firmin Rene Desloge, tarried into the business of lead smelting and mining in Potosi, Missouri by training with his uncle Ferdinand Rozier and Rozier’s partnership with John Audubon; from the trading of ore at his mercantile and from acquiring properties and claims throughout the region in the early 1800s. While his fur trading aspect was successful enough, by the time the fur trade became embroiled in battles among the Campbells, Chouteaus, Ashleys, John Jacob Astor, the American Fur Company and the Missouri Fur Company, Firmin Rene Desloge had begun to focus attentions on the ground under his feet. Starting literally with open-ground diggings, some left open by Indians and frustrated miners, Firmin Rene Desloge, had a nose for identifying rich veins and understanding the geology with confidence.
The trading and mercantile business had started along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers by Audubon and Ferdinand Rozier and continued with Firmin Desloge. Ste. Genevieve, on the Mississippi River and of strong French descendency, played as a key trading location with new arrivals to the new frontier and with the local indigenous Indians. The fur trading business expanded greatly with the opening of trade routes up the Missouri River to the Mandan and Hidatsa Indian regions. Ferdinand Rozier and Firmin Desloge, as part of their mercantile and trading businesses, were very active in the fur and pelt trading business. Desloge and Rozier did business with the Missouri Fur Company, founded by a group in St. Louis including Pierre Chouteau, Sr., Auguste Chouteau, Jr., William Clark, and others; as well as with their competition, the French Fur Company, owned by another group including Chouteaus and Pratte.[4]
Firmin Rene Desloge built his own then modern smelting furnace circa 1824 as an extension of his Potosi, Missouri mercantile business.[5] His son, Firmin Vincent Desloge expanded mining operations and expanded management to Bonne Terre, Missouri.[6]
Formed from the original family lead mining business in Potosi was the Desloge Lead Company, which, after various expansions and consolidations, became Desloge Consolidated Lead Company,[7][8][9] one of the largest lead mining concerns in the world at the time.