In 1836, Winnebago County was developed (from both Jo Daviess and La, Salle counties), with Midway called as its county seat, as it was "halfway between Galena and Chicago on a line of four-horse coaches." In 1837, the village of Midway was relabelled Rockford, highlighting a rocky river ford across the Rock River in the village.
In 1840, the very first weekly paper started circulation. In 1847, Rockford Female Seminary (today Rockford University) was founded. On March 24th 1852, Rockford was formally chartered as a city; a year later on, the long-running "Forest City" nickname initially appeared, utilized by the New York Tribune. Likewise in Also Found Here , the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad linked Rockford to Chicago by railway.
Descended from English Puritans, the Midway/Rockford population was comparable to much of the rest of northern Illinois and nearly all of Wisconsin during the mid-19th century. After the Black Hawk War, additional immigrants transferred to northern Illinois; throughout the 1830s and 1840s, Rockford and Winnebago County were considered a cultural extension of New England.
In 1848, 42 percent of citizens in Winnebago County (where Rockford dominated as the county seat) elected Martin Van Buren. In 1852, Free Soil prospect John P. Hale ended up being the very first presidential prospect to check out Rockford, although he would just get 28 percent of the vote. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln won 3,985 votes in Winnebago County to the 817 votes of Stephen A.
The 1850s brought industry that would change Rockford forever. In 1853, creator John Henry Manny relocated to Rockford to produce horse-drawn mechanical reapers for farmers and transport the completed products by rail. Chicago implement producer Cyrus Mc, Cormick (whose company became International Harvester) took Manny to court after he produced almost 6,000 devices; Manny would prevail on both judgement and an appeal.
The Rockford Union Furnishings Company, under John Erlander, spearheaded these cooperatives. Today, Erlander's home is a Rockford museum that shows his efforts in raising Rockford to second in furnishings manufacturing in the nation, behind Grand Rapids. Throughout the Civil War, among the first Illinois routines to be mobilized, the Zouaves, were from Rockford.
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