Rosedale: The Ellis Wathen Ranney House

Around 1805 several Ellis family brothers came from Georgia to the Missouri Territory. Each astute in his career, Erasmus became one of Jackson's first doctors; Soloman, a Cape Girardeau attorney; and Charles was appointed assessor in the Cape Girardeau District and was instrumental in presiding over the dispersement of Louis Lorimier's extensive land holdings, to be divided into lots at $100 each.

With a business partner, Capt. William Ogle, he built a large, two-story log house/tavern at the corner of Broadway and Lorimier Street.

All went well until Ogle died of a gunshot wound in a duel with Joseph McFerron. Unfortunately, Ogle, a single father, left six orphaned children. Ogle's partner and good friends Charles and Elizabeth Ellis not only took over his financial debts, but also the six children as their own.

Charles' son, Alfred P. Ellis carried on the family tradition by becoming very involved in the community. He was a merchant and proprietor of Marble City Mills.

Alfred and his wife Fanny chose Edwin Deane, a young Kentucky architect to design and build a mansion for their daughter, Maria, 15, upon her betrothal to Ignatius Wathen, the first president of the State Bank.

Following their marriage in 1837, Deane began the pretentious home at 501 N. Main St., with the help of Ellis' 29 slaves. Daily, the men quarried the sandstone blocks from the bluffs directly behind the acreage, close to Old Lorimier Cemetery.

The process of building the three-storied home and outbuildings took two years, during which Deane lived in a two-story brick home on property, which became an addition to the house and contained the kitchen, laundry and slave quarters.

A master craftsman, Deane hand carved the woodwork, including the walnut doorway and newel post, working late at night by candlelight and lamplight.

For the estate, named Rosedale, Alfred Ellis purchased the front door fanlight, chandeliers, and garden flowers while on business trips to New Orleans, to be delivered by steamboat.

In a 1930s "History of Gardens in Cape Girardeau," it stated, "The Wathen house had a most gorgeous formal garden reaching to the river...a summer house was in the midst of it all. Tiger lilies bordered the walks from the house to the street."

Of the Wathens' 15 children, four lived. The oldest, Emma, married Robert Giboney Ranney, son of William and Elizabeth Giboney Ranney. He was an attorney with Louis Houck and judge of the Common Pleas Court.

The 1860 census showed his worth at $85,000 in real estate and assets, most inherited from the Ellis'.

The Ranneys entertained lavishly in their home on the banks of the Mississippi until their deaths in 1916.

Following the family, the home went to renters and finally fell into disrepair.

Upon the destruction of the magnificent home in 1958, the large carved front door and portico was salvaged and ended up in Galena, Illinois. In 1981 it was purchased by the state of Missouri as the grand entrance to a Civil War museum exhibit in the Missouri Capitol.