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When Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake made their settlements, there were no state roads in this vicinity. Indian trails wended their way through prairie and forest, but these did not greatly facilitate the travel of the white man. At that time Chicago and Galena were the only well known points in northern Illinois. The first settlements in the state were made in the southern portion; and as the tide of emigration poured from the east into the Rock river valley, after the Black Hawk war, each session of the legislature laid out a number of state roads.

By an act approved January 15, 1836, James Gifford, Daniel S. Haight and Josiah C. Goodhue were appointed special commissioners to view, survey and locate a road from Meacham's Grove, in Cook county, to Galena, in Jo Daviess county. The bill directed that the commissioners should make "Elgin on Fox river, in Cook county, Belvidere on Squaw Prairie, in the county of La Salle, and Midway at the ford on Rock river, in the county of Jo Daviess, points on the said road, and shall fix the said road on the most advantageous ground, for a permanent road, having reference to said points." This road was opened without delay, and State street in Belvidere and in Rockford is a portion of this highway, which extends nearly across the state in a general northwesterly direction from Chicago.

By the same act David W. Whitney, Stephen Mack, and John P. Bradstreet were designated commissioners to locate a road from Belvidere to the mouth of Pecatonica river, at Macktown, which was named in his own honor by its founder, Stephen Mack. By an act of the legislature, approved March 2, 1839, Benjamin T. Lee, of Winnebago county, Ephraim Hall, of DeKalb, and Isaac Marlett, of Kane, were made commissioners to view, survey and locate "a state road from where a certain road terminates at the Will county line, to Aurora, on Fox river; thence, by the county seat of DeKalb county, Rockford, in Winnebago county, Trask's ferry, Pekatonikee; thence to the state line, in a direction towards Mineral Point. The said commissioners shall lay out a state road from the town of Winnebago, in Winnebago county, intersecting the State road in the direction to the Will county line." Mr. Marlett, the third commissioner, was the father of Mrs. O. F. Barbour, of Rockford. About 1839 Charles street was opened as a more direct route to Chicago, by way of St. Charles; hence the name. But it was of little value in this respect beyond Cherry Valley.

In March, 1839, an act of the legislature was approved, by which twenty-five thousand dollars were appropriated from the state internal improvement fund, which had been created two years before. This money was distributed among the northern counties. It was to be applied by the commissioners' courts of the counties receiving the same, exclusively to the construction of bridges, and the improvement of public roads in their respective counties. Winnebago county received three thousand one hundred and fourteen dollars and eighty-three cents, with the proviso that "the bridge across Cedar creek, on the State road leading by Bloomingville to the mouth of the Pickatonike, and the improvements of the Great Western mail route or road from the east to the west line of Winnebago county, shall first be made and paid for from the sum appropriated to said county."

Upon the organization of the county, the commissioners devoted considerable attention to receiving petitions for the appointment of viewers to locate roads. The rapid settlement of the county, in a day preceding the railroad, demanded the best possible facilities for transportation. Every propertyowner was anxious to secure a public road near his homestead, and was willing to give whatever land was necessary. The records of the county bear testimony to the fidelity with which the commissioners transacted this important business.

MR.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE VILLAGE CHRISTENED.—THE FIRST SURVEYS.

MR. KENT was in a sense the first proprietor of the colony. He gave it the name of Midway. This name, which is said to have been proposed by Mrs. Kent, was suggested by the fact that the settlement was about halfway from Chicago to Galena. "Midway, Rock River, Jo Daviess county, Illinois, June 17, 1835," is the name and date Mr. Kent gives in a letter to a friend. The law of 1836 which established the State road, noted in the last chapter, referred to "Midway at the ford on Rock river."

A letter written by Mr. Kent in the autumn of 1834, addressed to J. B. Martyn, of Alabama, directed that gentleman to "Midway" as follows: "At Galena call on my brother. From Galena go directly east until you come to and cross Apple river, thence turn in a southeasterly course to Plum river, and from there to Cherry Grove. There leave some timber on your left, and a small grove on your right [later known as Twelve-Mile Grove] and then keep on until you strike Rock river, from which a blind path will lead you to Midway." These instructions were about as definite as Launcelot's direction to the Jew's house, in the Merchant of Venice: "Turn up on your right hand at the next, turning, but at the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's house." Nevertheless, Mr. Martyn found Midway.

Under date of October 17, 1837, Mr. Kent writes a letter from Rockford. The settlement was therefore known as Midway from one to three years. It is said "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;" but it is doubtful if the ambitious young community would have become the commercial and educational center of the Rock river valley, handicapped by the primitive name of Midway. The original proprietors early came to this conclusion. Authorities differ as to the origin of the name Rockford. One writer says the place was known as Rockford by the Indians; and that this name was suggested to them by nature. Upon the site of the present dam was a solid rock bottom, where the water was usually so shallow as to afford

E

easy crossing with their ponies. Hence it was called by them the rock-ford.

John H. Thurston gives a somewhat different, though not necessarily a conflicting, version. He says Daniel S. Haight, Germanicus Kent, William H. Gilman of Belvidere, John P. Chapin and Ebenezer Peck of Chicago, and Stephen Edgel, later of St. Louis, met at Dr. Goodhue's office, on Lake street, in Chicago, to name the claim, or mill privilege, which they hoped at some time would become a town. "Midway," though an appropriate name, was not in favor. Various names were suggested and rejected, until Dr. Goodhue said: "Why not call it Rockford, from the splendid rock-bottom ford on the river there?" The suggestion seemed an inspiration, and was at once unanimously adoped; and from that day to this, Dr. Goodhue has been given the credit of the present name. The date of this christening is uncertain. Mr. Thurston says it occurred in the summer of 1835; but the statute of January, 1836, still designated it Midway. News traveled slowly, however, in those days; and. possibly the solons at Vandalia had not learned of the change.

The first surveys in Winnebago county were made early in 1836. Don Alonzo Spaulding, a pioneer of 1835, was the government surveyor. One of his associates was Hon. Charles B. Farwell, of Chicago, who in 1886 succeeded the late General John A. Logan as a United States senator from Illinois. In October, 1835, Mr. Spaulding began the extension of the third principal meridian, at a timber corner about two miles north of the point where this meridian crosses the Illinois river, on the western boundary line of La Salle county. Mr. Spaulding extended the third principal meridian north to its intersection with the Wisconsin boundary line. He then returned on the line to the corner of townships forty-one and forty-two north, range one east, and commenced the stand-line running east along the southern boundary of townships forty-two north, ranges one, two and three east; and then surveyed the range and township lines in these three ranges to the north line of the state. He subdivided townships forty-four and forty-six, Rockford and Rockton, before leaving the field in January, 1836. Mr. Spaulding resumed his surveys in the spring of that year, and subdivided township forty-five, range one east, and townships forty-four, forty-five and forty-six, ranges two and three east. In 1839, 1840, and 1841, under another contract, Mr. Spauld

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN KENT AND HAIGHT.

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ing subdivided, in ranges ten and eleven, east of the fourth principal meridian, from the northern line of the state southward nearly thirty miles. It will thus be seen that Mr. Spaulding surveyed the range and township lines in all of Winnebago county, and the western range of Boone; and subdivided all of Winnebago except New Milford and Cherry Valley townships.

Mr. Spaulding, however, was not responsible for the fact that the streets of East and West Rockford do not squarely meet at the river. Mr. Spaulding stated that in January, 1836, Mr. Kent requested him to lay out two or three streets, parallel with the river, on the West side, as the beginning of his town. There were probably ten or twelve blocks, the corners of which were defined by stakes. This survey of blocks and streets was a personal transaction with Mr. Kent, and entirely separate from Mr. Spaulding's survey of townships and ranges for the government. In the spring of 1836 several persons interested in the east side of the river wished Mr. Spaulding to lay off the beginning of their town. After making a preliminary examination, he found that he could not make the front street or the street next the river, on the most suitable ground and have the cross streets correspond with the streets on the west side of the river. He then examined his work on the West side, and found that it could be changed so as to conform to the East side. At that time no improvements had been made which would have been affected by the prospective change; and a slight modification would have made the streets on the two sides of the river harmonize, as though there had been no river dividing the town. Mr. Spaulding explained to Mr. Kent the advantage of such harmony to both sides of the river; but Mr. Kent was unwilling to comply with his suggestions. Forty-five years later Mr. Spaulding made this explanation to relieve himself of the responsibility for the city streets as they now touch the river.

The rivalry between the two sides of the river could not be compromised. Nature provided that the river should be a bond of union in which there is strength; but the two factions made it a cause of division. Both Kent and Haight foresaw that the prosperity of Rockford would largely depend upon the development of the natural water-power; but neither would make any concession, even for the general good. William E. Dunbar had settled on the West Side in 1835; but he subsequently removed to the East side, purchased land of Mr. Haight, and joined him in a common rivalry against his former neighbor.