Rockville,  Bates County,  Missouri

“The town of Rockville was laid out July 29, 1868 by William L. Hardesty on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad, and it has always enjoyed a good trade.  It is the shipping point for a wide territory. The township and town seem to have derived their name from a great sandstone quarry which was largely worked in the early day not far from town.  It is excellent building stone and formerly was shipped all over the country; but in recent years seems to have been neglected.”

Source:  History of Cass and BatesCounty, 1918 p. 283

“The Meyers and WalkerBuilding was built of stone that probably came from west of town along Panther Creek. The FarmersBankBuilding, now the Post Office, was built from the same stone….

                 Farmers Bank of Rockville

       
East of Rockville, along the Campbell Branch, is another spot where stone was quarried.  This was once the Schuman place.  It is said that the old Schuman house was made from this stone, but due to the harness of the sandstone here, quarrying was never done extensively.  A local stone cutter, George Brown, once carved two lions from this stone and they were used in front of a post office building in the St. Louis area….

      
The largest quarry in the area, located in section 2, north of Rockville, was working prior to 1865.  It was owned by Daniel Braden who quarried on a limited scale.  After his death, his widow sold the quarry to James C. Laughlin, who operated it for several years.  The M.K. & T Railroad built a spur track to the quarry and at peak production, 65 cars of stone were shipped to points along the “Katy”. 

Many of the buildings in Rockville, Missouri have been abandoned.  The stone from some has been salvaged and used in other building projects.

 
Quality and hardness varied widely in the three quarries.  Tool mark decorations are more evident in the softer sandstone.

Source:  History of Rockville