For additional Rockford History click here for the website of the Rockford Area Historical Society

www.rockfordmnhistory.org

           HISTORY OF ROCKFORD

The history of Rockford as a settlement began in about 1855, when a campaign was started in St. Paul to lure settlers to the Minnesota territory.

In Illinois, two men – George Ames and Joel Florida – read glowing accounts of this new territory. Married to sisters, the men had already traveled from Maine to Illinois by covered wagon, and they were ready to move again. They planned to locate a townsite and build a water-powered mill. On the boat coming up the Mississippi, they met Vermont native Guilford George. They formed a partnership and arrived at a small settlement on the Crow River called Greenwood in October 1855. Since this townsite at the fork of the Crow had already been platted, the men moved on down river, north to what is now Rockford. There, they met William Frazer, who had already claimed the site, but had tired of the thick timber and thicker mosquitoes. He sold his claim to Ames, while Florida and George also made nearby claims. With winter approaching, George was left at a cabin to guard the claim while the other two went back to civilization to gather a group of settlers.

That winter, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature passed an act calling for the cutting of a road from Minneapolis to Greenwood townsite. In the spring, a road committee – led by Daniel Ross Farnham – set out west from Minneapolis to cut the road. Meanwhile, the Ames-Florida townsite party was also heading west. The two groups met on the trail and the townsite men pitched in to help lay the road. Farnham, Ames and Florida got to know each other and by the time the road reached the Crow, it had angled north, away from Greenwood and directly to the Rockford townsite.

The townsite at the time had no name. Arriving at about the same time was Cyrus C. Jenks who was originally from the Rockford, Ill. With the townsite party divided over naming it either Amesville, to recognize the man who had conceived of the place, or Big Rock, the Indian name for the fork in the Crow, the group finally settled on Jenks’ suggestion…Rockford.

The early years were rough. Land was difficult to clear since this was the heart of the "Big Woods," a thick forest through which it was said light could hardly penetrate. At the onset, grasshopper invasions ruined most of the gardens and crops. There were rumors of Indian attacks, which caused panic among settlers. At one point, a stockade was built around the mill to shelter citizens and arriving refugees from an attack that never materialized. The Civil War, which was raging in 1862, demanded a quota of Minnesota troops and Wright County formed its own company.

But through it all, Rockford survived. Early businesses, notably a sawmill, woolen mill and flourmill, revolved around the river and the mill dam. Additional businesses were gradually added. The railroad came through Rockford in the 1880’s.

And early on, a small miracle may have saved the community. Right after the grasshopper invasions, the citizens were nearly destitute, with no money to pay for land or homes, not to mention food. A Col. Robert Blaine came driving into town and made the local people an offer they thought was insane. He offered to pay five cents a pound for roots…ginseng roots. The roots grow in abundance in the shade of the huge trees making up the Big Woods and they were in great demand in the Orient as a medicine. Soon, nearly everyone was "sanging" for roots. By the time the roots were depleted, many early farms of Rockford Township had been paid off.

Rockford village was formally incorporated October 21, 1881, by an act of the Minnesota Legislature and the first election was held on December 6, 1881.

The community remained small, numbering a few hundred, for most of its existence. In the 1970’s, it first passed 1,000 in population as the Twin Cities suburban area continued to expand and people from this area started to commute to the metropolitan area to work. At that time, a large mobile home community was also started on the southern part of the community. By 1980, the population had more than tripled from a 1970 figure of 730 to 2,408.

The 1990 census showed a population of 2,665, with growth in Rockford and the surrounding area expected to continue at an accelerated rate in upcoming years. The April 2005 population estimate is 3,785.