James Sidney Rollins was born in Richmond, Kentucky, on April 19, 1812, to Anthony Wayne and Sallie Harris Rodes Rollins. He married Mary E. Hickman on June 6, 1837, and they had eleven children. Rollins studied at Washington College in Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Indiana in 1830 and from the law department at Transylvania University in Kentucky in 1834. In 1832 he served in the Black Hawk War and received the title of major.

Rollins practiced law in Columbia, Missouri, and became involved in Whig Party politics. He was elected to the state legislature in 1838, 1840, 1846, and 1854, and devoted his efforts to the establishment of the University of Missouri in Boone County. He also worked for railroad construction and river improvement and opposed extension of slavery to the territories. In 1848 and 1857 he was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for governor.

From 1860 to 1864, Rollins served two terms in the U.S. Congress. He was a strong unionist, introduced railroad and telegraph construction legislation, supported land grants for agricultural colleges, and advocated the Thirteenth amendment, the abolition of slavery. In 1866 and 1868 he was again elected to the state legislature and worked to establish an agricultural and mechanical college at the university. In 1872 he lost the Democratic nomination for governor and retired from political life.

Rollins was president of the board of curators of the University of Missouri for nearly twenty-five years until his retirement in 1886. He played a vital role in the founding, location, growth, and development of the university and its agricultural college.

As a businessman, Rollins was involved in agriculture, real estate, and improving railroad and river transportation. He helped establish the North Missouri Railroad Company and was involved in numerous other railroad ventures.

Rollins died in Columbia, Missouri, on January 9, 1888, at the age of seventy-five.

Text by Elizabeth Uhlig with research assistance by Todd Barnett

For more information about James S. Rollins’s life and career, see the following resources:

Society Resources

The following is a selected list of books, articles, and manuscripts about James S. Rollins in the research centers of The State Historical Society of Missouri. The Society’s call numbers follow the citations in brackets.

Articles from the Missouri Historical Review

• Grissom, Daniel M. “Personal Recollections of Distinguished Missourians: James S. Rollins.” v. 18, no. 4 (July 1924), pp. 546-552.
• Mering, John. “The Political Transition of James S. Rollins.” v. 53, no. 3 (April 1959), pp. 217-226.
• Westfall, Ruth Rollins. “La Grange: Home of the James S. Rollins Family.” v. 73, no. 2 (January 1979), pp. 218-236.

Articles from the Newspaper Collection

• “Feasts in Memory of M. U.’s Founder.” University Missourian. April 19, 1909. pp. 1, 3. [Reel # 8814]
• “Gone to Rest.” Jefferson City State Times. January 20, 1888. pp. 2-3. [Reel # 17211]
• “Hon. James S. Rollins.” Missouri Statesman. January 30, 1880. p. 2. [Reel # 7554]
• “Honors to James S. Rollins.” Jefferson City Peoples’ Tribune. June 19, 1872. p. 1. [Reel # 16512]
• “In Memory Maj. Jas. S. Rollins.” Columbia Daily Tribune. April 20, 1912. pp. 1, 3. [Reel # 8144]
• “Railroads.” Jefferson City Peoples’ Tribune. August 14, 1867. p. 2. [Reel # 16511]
• “Maj. James S. Rollins Dead.” Jefferson City Tribune. January 11, 1888. p. 8. [Reel # 17242]

Books and Articles

• Christensen, Lawrence O., William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, eds. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999. pp. 655-658. [REF F508 D561]
• Davis, Walter Bickford, and Daniel S. Durrie. An Illustrated History of Missouri. St. Louis: A. J. Hall and Company, 1876. pp. 577-582. [REF F550 D299]
• History of Boone County, Missouri. St. Louis: Western Historical Company, 1882. [REF F609 H629]
• Nagel, Paul C. George Caleb Bingham: Missouri’s Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005. pp. 19-28, 54-60, 70-1, 93-4, 96-8, 102, 123-4, 141-42, 149-51. [REF F508.1 B513na]
• Olson, James and Vera. The University of Missouri: An Illustrated History. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1988. [REF UM 378.778 E2]
• Priddy, Bob. “The Father of the University.” Across Our Wide Missouri. Independence, MO: Independence Press, 1982. v. 1, pp. 233-235. [REF 550 P932 v. 1 1982]
• Shoemaker, Floyd Calvin. Missouri’s Hall of Fame: Lives of Eminent Missourians. Columbia: Missouri Book Co., 1918. pp. 184-189. [REF F508 Sh73 c. 2]
• Smith, William Benjamin. James Sidney Rollins, Memoir. New York: De Vinne Press, 1891. [REF F508.1 R655s].
• Stephens, Frank Fletcher. A History of the University of Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1962. [REF UMC. 378.778 E20]
• Viles, Jonas. The University of Missouri, a Centennial History. Columbia: University of Missouri, 1939. [REF UMC 378.778 E 19]
• Wood, James Madison. James Sidney Rollins: Civil War Congressman from Missouri. Master’s thesis. Stanford University, 1947. [REF F508.1 R655w]

Manuscript Collection

• Rollins, James Sidney (1812-1888), Letters, 1870-1885, (C3014)
  Letters discussing Missouri and national politics written by James S. Rollins, a Missouri politician, lawyer, and businessman, to Carl Schurz, U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1869-1875, and Secretary of the Interior, 1877-1881.
• Rollins, James Sidney (1812-1888), Papers, 1546-1958, (C1026)
  The papers of James S. Rollins, a Boone County, Missouri, lawyer, politician, business-man, and curator of University of Missouri include correspondence with family, business and political associates, and George Caleb Bingham and other friends. The papers covers state, national, and Whig party politics from 1830 through the 1880s, the Civil War in Missouri, internal improvements and the North Missouri Railroad, and education at University of Missouri.

Outside Resources

These links, which open in another window, will take you outside the Society’s website. The Society is not responsible for the content of the following websites:

• Fine Art Investigations: James Sidney Rollins
  This blog, which is primarily concerned with Rollins’s friend, George Caleb Bingham, contains several posts devoted to James Sidney Rollins in a series titled “James Sidney Rollins—Warmest Personal Friend.”
• James Sidney Rollins, Memoir
  A free online version of William Benjamin Smith’s James Sidney Rollins, Memoir, provided by the Library of Congress at the Internet Archive.
• Spirits of Mizzou: James Sidney Rollins
  This webpage from the University Archives at the University of Missouri contains a short biography of Rollins and includes images of his portrait and grave site monument.
• War & Reconciliation: The Mid-Missouri Civil War Project: La Grange
  This website about the historic Rollins family home, “La Grange,” is an excerpt from the article “Stories of Crimes, Trials and Appeals in Civil War Era Missouri” by University of Missouri law professor, Frank O. Bowman, III.