Chauncey Rose - Early Life

Early Life

Chauncey Rose was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut to Scottish immigrants on December 24, 1794. Chauncey was one of eight children, all of whom died childless. Two of his brothers, George and John, went on to successful business careers in Charleston, South Carolina and New York City, New York, respectively.

Rose was educated in the common schools of his Connecticut district, and at the age of 23 headed west to the states of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama to find a suitable place to enter into business. He decided upon western Indiana and settled in Rosedale, then known as Dotyville, in Parke County in 1819, where he first turned his attention to milling, building his first mill in Coxville just outside Rosedale. As his revenue grew, Rose expanded into other investment realms in nearby Terre Haute in Vigo County, which was developing into the commerce center of the region.

Rose was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Major Cornelius A. Ogden, supervisors of the construction the Cumberland Road, to relocate their headquarters from Indianapolis to Terre Haute. When Terre Haute was awarded a district branch of the Second State Bank of Indiana in 1834, Rose furnished a facility in which the bank could operate while awaiting construction of the bank branch. This provided Major Ogden with a secure place to issue payroll. Rose then constructed a fine hotel east of the village, called The Prairie House, so that Ogden and other West Point graduates associated the Corps of Engineers would have a superb residence. This hotel later became the first Terre Haute House, so renamed by Rose in 1855.