Winnebago County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 285,350 making it the seventh most populous county in Illinois behind Cook County and its five surrounding collar counties. Its county seat is Rockford. Winnebago County is the central county of the Rockford metropolitan area.
Ogle County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 51,788. Its county seat is Oregon, and its largest city is Rochelle. Ogle County comprises Rochelle, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Rockford-Freeport-Rochelle, IL Combined Statistical Area.
Boone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,448. Its county seat is Belvidere. Boone County is included in the Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, United States. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County. The population was 148,655 at the 2020 census, making Rockford the fifth-most populous city in Illinois as well as the state's most populous city outside of the Chicago metropolitan area. It anchors the Rockford metropolitan area, which had 338,798 residents in 2020.
Roscoe is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois, along the Rock River. It is in a suburban area of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 10,785, up from 6,244 at the 2000 census. The area has been undergoing a period of rapid growth. There have been numerous border disputes with its neighbor to the west, Rockton, Illinois, and development and annexations continue by both villages. Recent growth has included the Promontory Ridge and Hidden Creek custom home subdivisions east of the Illinois Tollway, I-39/I-90.
South Beloit, is a city located in Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. It is part of the Rockford Metropolitan Area, but it is also a suburban extension of Beloit, Wisconsin. South Beloit, is directly along the border of smaller cities and towns north of Rockfords border. At the 2010 census, the city's population was 7,892, up from 5,297 in 2000.
The Pecatonica River is a tributary of the Rock River, 194 miles (312 km) long, in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois in the United States.
Hononegah (c.1814–1847) was the wife of Stephen Mack Jr. an employee for The American Fur Company, a pioneer to the Rock River Valley in northern Illinois and founder of the community of Rockton, Illinois. Hononegah had a strong influence on the Roscoe-Rockton area; the high school of the four towns and the main thoroughfare connecting the towns are both named after her.
Stephen Mack Jr. adventurer and pioneer, American Fur Company employee, founder of Rockton, Illinois.
Hononegah Community High School is a public high school in Rockton, Illinois and is the only high school comprising Hononegah Community High School District 207. Located between Rockford and the southern border of Wisconsin, the school serves students from the towns of Rockton, Roscoe, Shirland, and parts of South Beloit. Specifically, the school districts Kinnikinnick School District 131, Prairie Hill School District 133, Rockton School District 140, and Shirland School District 134 all feed into the high school.
The 16th congressional district of Illinois is represented by Republican Darin LaHood. Prominent past representatives from the 16th district have included Everett Dirksen, who went on to become the Republican leader in the United States Senate; John B. Anderson, who became the 3rd highest ranking Republican in the House and went on to run as a major independent candidate in the 1980 Presidential election; and Lynn Martin, who later served as United States Secretary of Labor.
James McGowan Strode (1804–1857/1860) was a militia officer and politician from the U.S. state of Illinois. He served in the Illinois militia during the Winnebago War and the Black Hawk War. Strode, originally from Tennessee, lived much of his life in Galena, Illinois. In Galena, during the Black Hawk War he was given command of the 27th Regiment of the Illinois militia and oversaw the construction of a fort in that city. Strode was involved in combat during the war at the infamous Battle of Stillman's Run. In 1835 Strode was elected to represent much of the region of Illinois north of Peoria in the Illinois State Senate.
James D. Henry was a militia officer from the U.S. state of Illinois who rose to the rank of general during the Black Hawk War. Henry was born in Pennsylvania in 1797, and moved to Edwardsville, Illinois in 1822. In 1825, while living in Edwardsville, he was indicted with two other men for the murder of an acquaintance, though he never went to trial. One defendant was tried but found not guilty, and following the trial Henry moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he was elected sheriff. When the Winnebago War broke out in 1827 Henry acted as adjutant for four companies of volunteers.
William Stephen Hamilton, a son of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, was an American politician and miner who lived much of his life in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. Hamilton was born in New York, where he attended the United States Military Academy before he resigned and moved to Illinois in 1817. In Illinois, he lived in Springfield and Peoria and eventually migrated to the lead-mining region of southern Wisconsin and established Hamilton's Diggings at present-day Wiota, Wisconsin. Hamilton served in various political offices and as a commander in two Midwest Indian Wars. In 1849, he moved to California during the California Gold Rush. He died in Sacramento, most likely of cholera, in October 1850.
Colonel Henry Gratiot was a French-American pioneer, farmer, and mill owner. During the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars, he acted as both an intermediary and early U.S. Indian agent to the Winnebagos throughout the early 19th century. He and his brother Jean Pierre were among the first pioneers to settle in Wisconsin, operating a successful lead mining and lead smelting business, during the 1820s and 1830s. Both, the present-day village of Gratiot, Wisconsin and the town of Gratiot (town), Wisconsin are named in his honor.
The Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of four counties in north-central Illinois, anchored by the city of Rockford. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 349,431. The Rockford MSA abuts the southern portions of the Janesville-Beloit MSA and the Chicago MSA. It forms the main part of the larger Rockford–Freeport–Rochelle Combined Statistical Area.
Ebenezer Brigham was a 19th-century American pioneer, businessman, and politician. He was one of the first Americans to explore southwestern Wisconsin and the first permanent settler in present-day Dane County, Wisconsin. A militia officer during the Black Hawk War, he served as commander of Fort Blue Mounds and was active in both the Wisconsin territorial council, and the Wisconsin State Assembly during the 1840s and 1850s.
The Galena–Chicago trail was a stagecoach route located in northern Illinois that ran from the mid-to-late 1830s until 1854. As indicated by its name, the route linked Chicago, located in the northeast of the state, with Galena which was located in the lead mining district of the northwest. The Chicago-Galena trail includes the "Stagecoach Trail" that runs between Galena and Lena, Illinois. East of Lena the stage route follows U.S. Route 20 and Business U.S. Route 20 through Eleroy, Freeport and Rockford to Belvidere. This road began as the old State Road number 2 established on 15 January 1836 and laid out by June 1837.
John M. Cabello is an American politician who has served as a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives representing the 90th district since 2022. He previously represented the 68th district, which included all or parts of Rockford, Machesney Park, Loves Park and Cherry Valley, from 2012 until 2021.
David A. Vella is a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 68th district since January 13, 2021. The 68th district covers parts of Cherry Valley, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Rockford, and Roscoe.
