- RMERC Home
- Featured Research
- Research By Investigators
- Seed Funding
- Join Us
Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center
- On the site of the building, John Webber settled in the early 1840's
- RMERC Home
- Featured Research
- Research By Investigators
- Seed Funding
- Join Us
Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center
- On the site of the building, John Webber settled in the early 1840's. Webber took part in the naming of Rolla in the mid 1850's. John Webber wanted to name the city 'Hardscrabble' since the ground was so hard with clay and rocks, you couldn't turn the ground over to plant anything. Edmond Ward Bishop wanted to name the city 'Centertown' but George Coppedge won out by naming our town after his hometown of Raleigh, N. Carolina. He didn't spell the name out, so it was written and pronounced Rolla.
- After John Webber moved his family down the road to Edgar Springs, MO, the Love family moved on to the property and built a large white frame house, which remained for several years. The property went back to the city.
- During the mid 30's, Missouri was in a belt extending from Alabama to Oklahoma where Trachoma was prevalent. There were a large number of patients in the Ozark region infected with Trachoma, the leading cause of blindness at the time. Originally, Rolla had a two story frame building used as a Trachoma Hospital on Elm Street which was too small for the increased number of patients. The Chamber of Commerce donated the land for the new building, and in 1939 the Missouri State Trachoma Hospital was opened.
- Even though an effective treatment was found in 1937 using oral sulfonalimides, the start of WWII diverted the available supply of theses drugs to the military. Without the new drugs, the incidence of Trachoma returned to pre-war levels. The hospital was built to provide treatment with an older form of antibiotics as well as perform necessary surgeries.
- On July 1, 1957, The Trachoma Hospital in Rolla was turned over to the Highway Patrol by the