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Kentsville, Haightsville,
Anna Carlson Today Rockford is Illinois' second largest city, but in 1834 Rockford had only a shaky claim to any existence. Chicago and Galena were Illinois' centers of business. Galena on the west and Chicago on the east were settled years before north central Illinois. After the Black Hawk War, the reputation of the Rock River country's beauty spread. That took several courageous men to travel inland through unsurveyed land to the Rock River country. Germanicus Kent was born May 31, 1790, in Suffield, Connecticut. He traveled to Blackburg, Virginia, in 1819 and in 1822 to Huntsville, Alabama. On June 7, 1827, he married Miss Arbella Amiss. Kent was a partner in a cotton factory on Flints River, near Huntsville, and owned several slaves. In 1830 Kent sold his factory and joined his brother, Aratus, in Galena. One of his slaves, Lewis Lemon, had the choice of staying in Alabama with a new master or traveling north with Kent. Lemon followed Kent and his family to Galena. In June 1834 Thatcher Blake left Oxford, Maine, to find fame and fortune further west. Blake was a school teacher and farmer. He took a train from Albany to Troy, New York. From Troy he took the Erie Canal to Buffalo and then traveled overland to Pittsburgh where he boarded a steamboat on the Ohio River, and traveled to the Mississippi River and then to St. Louis. He had no particular destination. On his journey, he met soldiers from the Black Hawk War who told of the Rock River country and the fortune the miners made in Galena. Blake decided to visit the Rock River Valley, and said he would stay if half of what he had been told was true. First, Blake journeyed up the Mississippi to Galena. He talked of wanting to visit the Rock River country and learned that Germanicus Kent shared the same desire. Kent had also learned from Black Hawk War veterans of the beauty of the Rock River country and decided to visit. Blake immediately sought out Kent. In June 1834 Kent, accompanied by Lemon and Blake, began to explore. They traveled north into the Wisconsin Territory. At Hamilton's Diggings, operated by Alexandar Hamilton's son, they purchased a dugout canoe and journeyed down the Pecatonica River. They stopped at Chief Winnishiek's village, now Freeport. Kent went ashore to look at the land while Blake was in charge of the canoe and provisions. Many Indians gathered around Blake. He had to paddle to the middle of the Pecatonica. The land Kent found did not suit him; hence, the three explorers continued and entered the Rock River at Stephen Mack's cabin. The land where Kent's Creek entered the Rock River is where Kent and Blake claimed land. There was no road or even trail from Galena to Kent's Creek, or the Rock River. These were Kent's directions: "From Galena go directly east till you come to Apple River. Thence turn in a southerly course to Plum River and from there to Cherry Grove, there leave some timber on your left and a small grove on your right and keep on until you
This artist's rendering illustrates Galena in 1845 when it was one of the state's most prominent business centers.
strike Rock River from which a blind path will lead you [to the claim]." Kent's journal, dated August 18, 1834, noted that he had hired Blake "at eighteen dollars a month to live with me on Rock River, to take charge of my business, and to do all kinds of work, to remain with me from one month to twenty-four months." Kent built a sawmill to attract more people to his claim, which soon became known as Kentsville. Kent also built a little house, and sent for his family in Galena in May 1835. Blake boarded with Kent for two years. Kent was a land speculator, or what was called a "locator." Kent was interested in making money, and he planned to buy land cheap and sell it clear. His settlement consisted of a general store, blacksmith shop, sawmill, primitive hotel, and crude systems of banking and private mail, all under Kent's ownership. Kent made arrangements to free his slave by working for six years and seven months. This would cover his original cost of $450. Lewis Lemon was actually free in four years and four months, on September 6, 1839. Daniel Haight arrived from Chicago on the east side of the Rock River, on April 9, 1835. He lived in a tent, and then he built a house using no nails. His village became known as Haightsville. Kent and Haight competed for the best settlements. When the settlements were surveyed, the streets did not line up but neither man would change their plan. A bridge was planned to be at a diagonal across the river. On June 30, 1834, the U.S. Congress voted to allow 235 Polish exiles from the Polish Rebellion of 1830-1831 to choose thirty-six sections of land in three townships in Illinois or Michigan Territory. In the summer of 1835, Count Chlopicki arrived in the Rock River country to choose the parcel of land. He stayed with Kent. He said there would be no problem in his choice of land; however, the settlers were worried about their claims. They raised money for Kent to go to Washington. Once there, he found that the settlers had no right to their land. Count Chlopicki had selected the townships he said he avoided, Rockford and Rockton. The Federal government considered Kent and the other settlers trespassers. It took an act of Congress, on April 14, 1842, to allow Blake, Kent, Haight, and other settlers to purchase their land and claim clear title. The Count had not claimed three townships in a row, and the Poles did not stay on the land. This helped the original settlers gain title. Competition between Haight and Kent was so fierce that they could not settle on a name for the
settlement. They finally met at Doctor Josiah Goodhue's office on Lake Street in Chicago. Many now called the whole area Midway because it was midway between Chicago and Galena. Mrs. Kent is said to have originated this name. Doctor Goodhue suggested the name Rock Ford because of the river's rocky bottom. In the Panic of 1837, Kent lost his money, and settlers who owed him money were unable to pay. In 1844 he returned with his family to Virginia. Blake continued to farm and then went into real estate in Rockford. He lived until 1880. Rockford had won the conflict with the settlement of Winnebago for being county seat in 1836. Controversy between East and West Rockford over the location of the courthouse and jail raged between 1836 and 1843. Despite these conflicts, Rockford survived. From its tiny claim, Rockford grew into the second largest city in Illinois.—[From Charles Church, ed., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Winnebago County; Charles Church, Past, and Present City of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois; Jon W. Lundin, Rockford, An Illustrated History; C. Hal Nelson, Sinnissippi Saga; C. Hal Nelson, We the People . . . of Winnebago County; John Thurston, Reminiscences, Sporting and Otherwise: Early Days in Rockford, III.]
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