Desloge Consolidated Lead Company

[1][2][3] His son, Firmin V. Desloge,[4][5] expanded mining operations and moved management to Bonne Terre, Missouri.

[8] After the fire, Desloge and his family took an option on a piece of land owned by the Bogy family which was called "Mine-a-Joe", one of the oldest mining properties in Missouri,[9] and started another mining operation under the name Desloge Consolidated Lead Company.

[10] In 1893, the Desloges opened a new mine in St. Francois County, Missouri, just north of the St. Joe Lead Company property in Bonne Terre, on a tract of land originally granted to Jean Bte.

The company sank mine shafts and built mills, smelting furnaces, and power stations.

[14] Firmin Desloge remained on the board of directors of St. Joe Lead Company from the time of St. Joe's acquisition of Desloge Lead Company in Bonne Terre in 1886 until his death in 1929.

[15][16] Ultimately, the company's lead operations required a massive real estate effort involving hundreds of land leases, purchases, options, rights of refusals, mineral rights, chattel mortgages, deed transfers, quit-claims, trust deeds, judgment sales, sheriff’s sales, bankruptcy sales, grants, bonds, notes, and various claims from area miners covering thousands of acres and hundreds of parcels of land.

Massive acreage of timber was acquired along with construction of substantial saw mills[22] By 1901, mining operations at Desloge, Missouri included 3,640 acres[23] The Revenue Act of 1894, also known as the Wilson-Gorman Tariff, lowered protective tariffs on lead (although it raised rates on sugar and other materials).

In the meantime, he spent part of his own fortune to continue operations, retained his employees, and stockpiled instead of sold his pig lead.

Despite the city's history as a fur-trading center, "more money passed through St. Louis as a result of the lead business in Missouri,” Robert E. McHenry wrote in his 2006 book Chat Dumps of The Missouri Lead Belt.