Thank you for the description.  I love to see old houses and too bad that this one was destroyed!!!   Could you please look in that book and see if there is the name of William [Will] B [Benjamin] JONES?  He was according to family history at that time the most wealthy man after the mine owners.  He was the first one to buy an automobile in that area.   And Kay, do not ask to join that family.  When he developed heart problems and could no longer go down into the mine to see the problems he was so good at correcting, mine owners said Bye and no pension, no nothing at all and he had two very young children.   Sorry, but I have no love for those guys who did that to him.  They should have used his mind to continue to solve problems.  I do not know their names.   Thank you in advance.   Alanna --- On Wed, 7/22/09, MehdiFakhar@aol.com <MehdiFakhar@aol.com> wrote: There is also a full page article about Charles Bunyan Parsons on page 15 in the new Herculaneum Bicentennial Book recently published. It includes his photo and a picture of the Parson's Mansion. What a home this was - it states it was a brick 3 story, but also included a large studio room on a 4th floor. The mansion is noted to have had 22 rooms and a full basement.  There was a large reception room, a formal dining with tooled leather wainscoting and hand painted floral designs on the walls and Italian chandeliers, as well as a music room with a pipe organ. The mansion was centrally heated with a large fireplace that used a railroad car of coal each year, in addition to four more fireplaces. There was extensive decking with intricate railings and a full view of the Mississippi River and also a carriage house, barns, orchards and formal gardens. Parsons kept his own luxury private railroad coach for commuting to Bonne Terre.  The 13 acre yard included a two mile oval race track to exercise the horses.  It was surfaced and included sidewalks, streetlights and fire hydrants.  The article also stated that Parsons was born to prominent and influential parents in Vermont.  He served as an officer in the Civil War, afterwards entering the mining business in Massachusetts.  He became associated with the present St. Joe Lead Company and in addition to his executive duties there, he was chief stockholder of the Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Railway, the Doe Run Lead Company, the Bonne Terre Farming and Cattle Company and the Farmers' and Miners' Trust Company of Bonne Terre. Parsons is said to have died at this estate and the property was then sold to S. Howard Crowe and renamed 'Crowehurst' until it was razed in 1956 for the construction of the Dow Chemical Plant. I wouldn't have minded being among one of his few descendants!  If any of them would like to adopt me, I would be more than willing (-; -Kay, FL