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Phelps County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,156.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/29/29161.html )〕 The largest city and county seat is Rolla.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 The county was officially organized on November 13, 1857, and was named after U.S. Representative and Governor of Missouri John Smith Phelps. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it included the mean center of U.S. population in 2000.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/cenpop2010/centerpop_mean2010.pdf )〕 Phelps County comprises the Rolla, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Much of the county is included within the Ozark Highlands American Viticultural Area (AVA). Vineyards and wineries were first established in the county by Italian immigrants in Rolla. Since the 1960s, winemakers have revived and created numerous vineyards in Missouri and won national and international tasting awards. The first Phelps County Court convened on November 25, 1857 in the John Dillon cabin. The historic courthouse was begun in mid-summer of 1860, used as a Union hospital during the American Civil War and served as the courthouse until February 1994, at which time all county offices were relocated in the new Phelps County Courthouse. The new courthouse was dedicated on May 22, 1994. ==History== The first settlers came to this area in 1818 building along the riverbanks, doing a little farming. In 1844 John Webber built the first house within the present city limits of Rolla. One year later, Lieutenant James Abert started the first railroad reconnaissance survey in Rolla. Abert was later to become the first professor of Civil Engineering at the Missouri School of Mines. The founder of Rolla, Edmund Ward Bishop, was originally a railroad construction contractor in New York. He came to this part of the country in 1853 with the job of building the “Frisco Branch of the Southwest Railroad.” Because of an urgent demand, Phelps County was created by legislative action on November 13, 1857 from portions of Pulaski, Maries and Crawford counties. A special commission was appointed to select the site for a county seat, with instructions to locate the site on the mail line of the railroad as near the center of the county as possible. Bishop then offered a tract of some for the official town site, and it was accepted. There was disagreement over the site - the "westerners" wanted Rolla, and the "easterners" wanted Dillon, so the General Assembly did not legally declare Rolla to be the official county seat until 1861. The group favoring Dillon, approximately 600 of them, signed a petition of protest citing the fact that only two of the three commission members had met to consider the possible sites for the county seat. They contested the decision all the way through the Missouri Supreme Court. Before the high court could make a decision, however, the Legislature took action on January 14, 1860, confirming the location of the county seat at Rolla. Smarting under a considerable amount of criticism concerning the matter, all members of the county court resigned during April 1858, but later withdrew their resignations. It was finally settled in favor of Rolla. Rolla was officially surveyed, laid out and named in 1858. Bishop wanted to call it Phelps Center, since his house was the center of the county. John Webber preferred the name "Hardscrabble" for the obvious reasons. George Coppedge, another original settler, and formerly of North Carolina, favored "Raleigh" after his hometown. The others agreed with Coppedge on the condition that it shouldn't have "that silly spelling, but should be spelled 'Rolla.' The county seat locating commission designated the area now known as Rolla to be the county seat. The town of Rolla did not exist as of November 13, 1857, when the county was created. Only the J. Stever office and John Webber's home were located in the area. Early court business included the location and opening of roads from the county seat to various places within the state, including St. Louis, Springfield, Jefferson City, Lake Spring, and Salem. It is in this last road order, dated in July 1858, that the use of the name Rolla first appears in the court records. The name was used earlier, in May 1858, in a deed of railroad land to the county. On April 26, 1859, the county court ordered the donated by Mr. Bishop for the site of the county seat to be surveyed. The survey was conducted by A.E. Buchanan, a young railroad surveyor. Buchanan delivered his plat to the county court on May 31, 1859. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phelps County, Missouri」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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