[1] The county was organized on November 13, 1857, and was named for U.S. Representative and Governor of Missouri John Smith Phelps.

Since the 1960s, winemakers have revived and created numerous vineyards in Missouri and won national and international tasting awards.

The founder of Rolla, Edmund Ward Bishop, was originally a railroad construction contractor in New York.

The 600-strong group that favored Dillon signed a protest citing the fact that only two of the three commission members had met to consider the possible sites for the county seat.

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.

George Coppedge, another original settler, and formerly of North Carolina, favored "Raleigh" after his hometown.

[10] The town of Rolla did not exist when the county was officially created (November 1857); only the houses of J. Stever and John Webber were located in the area.

Until the continuation of the Frisco, all goods were loaded on wagons and transported to Springfield and south and west on what is now U.S. Highway 66 (Interstate 44).

During the American Civil War, Rolla was an important military post, hosting up to 20,000 Union troops.

As the story goes, Circuit Court Judge James McBride soon departed to assume command as a Confederate general under Sterling Price.

The tension was thick when the group then moved to the newspaper office of Charles Walder, a Union supporter and editor of the Rolla Express.

On June 14 of that year, General Franz Sigel arrived by train with his 3rd Missouri Infantry and took over the town.

The 13th Illinois Infantry Regiment, under Colonel John B. Wyman, was brought in to guard Rolla and the Pacific Railroad's terminal.

Being situated at the terminus of the railroad, military wagon trains went out from Rolla to all Union armies stationed southwest in Arkansas, Hartville, and Springfield and northwest to the Linn Creek area, now known as Lake of the Ozarks.

After General Price's defeat at Pea Ridge in March 1862, several troops that were organized by Governor Jackson returned home.

Confederate sympathizers, unwilling to profess their loyalty and support to the Union after the battle, were treated harshly.

Rolla was an important site during the Civil War because the southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad ended here.

Thousands of Union troops and their supplies came to Rolla by train from St. Louis and then were transferred to wagon trails to go to the battles of Wilson Creek in Springfield and Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove in Arkansas, plus a number of other smaller skirmishes.

The Morrill Land-Grant College Act was approved by the U.S. Congress in 1862, and in 1863 the Missouri Legislature accepted this opportunity to set up a new type of higher education within the state.

The act specified that the "leading object shall be without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and mechanics arts...in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits of professions of life."

The Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy was founded in 1870 because the area was rich in minerals and because the geographic location was good.

Up until recently, both the Republican and Democratic parties equally controlled politics at the local level in Phelps County.

[26][27] Phelps County is divided into four legislative districts in the Missouri House of Representatives, all of which are held by Republicans.

Smith won a special election on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, to finish the remaining term of U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau).

Like most rural areas throughout central Missouri, voters in Phelps County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles which tend to influence their Republican leanings.

The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 78.99 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state.