In August 1944, teenager Agnes Guidicini stood by the Frisco rail line that runs through Rosati, a rural community of Italian-American grape farmers on the border of Phelps and Crawford counties.

With her Kodak Brownie Camera, Guidicini captured a photo of a column of agricultural workers, who dressed in common American-style work clothes, except for a four-inch-tall “PW” stenciled in white on their backs, sleeves and pants. The men sang as they walked along the railway toward one of the community’s hundreds of vineyards. After she snapped the photo, an American soldier confronted Guidicini and told her that she wasn’t permitted to take photos of the men. Guidicini lied to the soldier and told him that her Kodak didn’t actually have any film in it. In doing so, Guidicini captured what is the only known photo of German prisoners of war in Rosati.

During World War Two, Fort Leonard Wood served as one of 30 sites across Missouri that housed approximately 15,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. Around 130 German prisoners of war were transferred from Fort Leonard Wood to Rosati to work during the grape harvest at the request of the Welch’s Grape Juice Company. Like industries across the country, grape farmers in Rosati were experiencing manpower shortages due to the high number of working-age Americans who enlisted or were drafted into the armed forces during World War 2.

According to an account from Doug Berlin of the Phelps County Genealogical Society, a prison compound across from the Rosati Winery housed the German prisoner-workers, who enjoyed three meals per day, a salary of $3 per day for their work and were even administered Catholic Mass in Latin by Father Moynihan of St. Anthony’s Cathedral.

Today, a copy of Guidicini’s historic photograph hangs in the old Rosati Winery building — the very structure where the grapes harvested by the German prisoners of war were processed. The winery, which has stood for more than 90 years, is located just off Route 66 on Highway KK.

The photo is one of many pieces of Rosati history that are being preserved by Deborah Branson and Tim Branson, a brother-and-sister duo who are planning to open a museum, restaurant and event space in the historic winery.

The building’s upstairs museum is the retirement project of Tim Branson, a former history teacher, who is spearheading the curation of the museum, which he hopes to have open by the end of the year.

Deborah Branson, owner of the St. James Marketplace Cafe, bought the building in 2023 and plans to move the cafe to the building and use the space for live music and events.

She said she wants to help breathe some life back into the Rosati community by providing a place for people to gather and have fun.

“The plan for the long term is to have my cafe out there, with an event place and do some fun things like music on the patio, and all things Rosati,” Deborah Branson said, adding that she wants to “bring that spirit back to that building. “The entrepreneurship that we’re trying to exude, include the community, and just a positive environment that people can gather again.”

Deborah Branson is the latest in a long line of owners of the Rosati Winery that stretches back 150 years.

The land that the winery sits on was purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad for $800 in 1870. By 1933, Prohibition had ended and the land housed an old schoolhouse, which was also being used as a winery by grape growers in the area. A suspected arson that year burned the winery to the ground.

The following year, the Fruit Growers Association purchased the land and built Bonded Winery No. 72. When the unprofitable winery filed bankruptcy in 1937, it was shortly bought by the Cardetti Family and became Cardetti and Sons Bonded Winery No. 80.

The Cardettis were among the many Italian immigrants who settled in Rosati, formerly known as Knobview, at the end of the 19th century. New arrivals to Rosati purchased land from the railroad for as little as $3 an acre, even living in old train cars as temporary homes until permanent structures could be built. It was these Italian immigrants who brought their knowledge of grape-growing to Phelps County, establishing a culture of grape and wine production that continues in the area to this day.

In 1942, as America entered World War 2, Cardetti was forced to close the winery because of sugar rationing and a lack of labor. The Welch’s Grape Juice Company bought the winery building and began contacting local growers to supply them with grapes. Welch was also contracted by the U.S. federal government to produce jam and jelly for the military.

Farmers in the Rosati area worked closely with Welch for the next half-century. Then, in 1992 Welch stopped renewing contracts and broke all existing contracts, severing the livelihoods of local farmers and leaving growers without a market at which to sell their grapes.

Tim Branson, who was a recent high school graduate by the time Welch left, said that when the company cut its contract, it decimated the wine-making industry in the area.

“We had a ton of wineries around here and they just disappeared. There’s two or three left, and we probably had seven or eight,” Tim Branson said. “Grapes were the lifeblood of this area.”

Tim Branson, who grew up just five miles from the winery, never knew about its rich history. Now, he sees it as a chance to preserve Rosati’s unique place in American history, which he said is at risk of being forgotten if not recorded.

“You know, we lose our history every time somebody who lived through this passes away. We lose a ton of stuff, a library, really,” Tim Branson said. “I’m afraid that if we don’t (preserve) it, that no one else will remember it and it won’t be passed on.”

Tim Branson plans to include a variety of exhibits at the museum, including exhibits on Italian immigration to the region, everyday life in Rosati, Welch’s Grape Juice Company, wine making tools, the women of Rosati, Rosati’s connection to Route 66, and World War 2 German prisoners of war.

When Deborah Branson bought the winery, the family recovered a vast number of tools, documents, memorabilia, machinery, manual wine presses and other artifacts from Rosati’s history, some of which are a century old, or more. The museum also features four original 6,957-gallon fermentation tanks, which held a combined 27,828 gallons of wine. Among other oddities that came with the winery purchase is a cellar containing what Tim Branson described as “literally thousands” of glass wine bottles.

Once the museum is open the Bransons plan to invite groups from nearby schools to come and experience pieces of local history at the Winery Museum.

Deborah Branson said that she hopes the winery’s history will highlight the contributions of the Italian immigrant families that settled in Rosati.

Deborah Branson said that “there’s a lot of Italian families that need recognition, and just for the community to know how much was done out here.”

Tim Branson said that as a teacher, he always strove to make history come to life through engaging lessons. At the museum, he hopes to do the same.

“I always try to make the lesson interesting, and so all the activities and things that I put in (the museum, the exhibits, I’m trying to make them interesting,” Branson said, adding that the museum is currently a passion project in progress. “I’m always thinking about it, always finding stuff and trying to create, make it look better and more interesting for people coming through.”

With the loss of Welch’s Grape Juice contracts in the 1990s, like many rural communities, Rosati has experienced an aging population and exodus of young people. The Bransons envision transforming the winery into a place that breathes a little life into the Rosati community, while documenting the area’s unique history.

“This community is getting smaller and smaller. There’s not much here to make a living on, so a lot of young kids move away,” Tim Branson said. “We’re just trying to save the history and let people enjoy it, and see what was here, and explain it as best we can.”

While the Bransons haven’t nailed down a precise date for the business, they hope to open for food service on the weekends soon. The Rosati Winery Building is currently available for booking special events like dinners, weddings and school trips.