Fun Fact #511
Fun Fact #511
A Rocky Start
In the fall of 1832 news of the July surrender of The Blackhawk war finally reached the East coast. Until then the land in the area was seen as dangerous and was cheap. However, seeing an Opportunity to make a Fortune on the newly secured land, Daniel Shaw Haight and his family from Maine to the eastern bank of the Rock River in 1835 with a plan to build and sell settlements in the area, only to stumble across Germanicus Kent and his settlement of Kentsville (est. 1834) while mapping the area.
While they competed to sell land at first, it soon became clear that Kentsville was a good manufacturing base while Shaw’s Town was ideally situated next to the river’s Ford (a section of water only ankle deep between the shores) making it a great stop between the route from Chicago to Galena leading to outsiders referring to the collective as Midway –no matter how much Shaw and Kent tried to make their names stick. Eventually they would succeed in a motion to get the town renamed when it became a city only for Dr. Joisah Goodhue (Founder of the Rush Medical College in Chicago) to step in and name the new City after the river’s ford becoming “Rockford” to allow travelers and caravans to easily identify the river crossing just by the city's name. This then led to Rockford Illinois becoming the seat of the new county “Winnebago” named after the Winnebago people who had begun to return to the area and join the community.
As for what became of Kent and Shaw, Kent became the local leader while Shaw became the first Postmaster General. While Kent eventually moved to Virginia, Shaw’s personal history suddenly drops off the historical record and the disappearance of Daniel Shaw is regarded as Rockford’s Oldest mystery. However, his legacy lives on. Shaw’s family were responsible for a large number of the early homes used by settlers and his company “Haight Construction” is still operating in the Rockford area for home renovations to this day.
