George B. ROCKWELL

ROCKWELL, ROGERS, JACKSON, FELTHOUS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/25/2011 at 00:19:13

1883 History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo Counties, Iowa

GEORGE B. ROCKWELL

George B. ROCKWELL, one of the representative men of Cerro Gordo Co., Iowa, came to Geneseo township in 1864, and purchased the farm of J. J. ROGERS. He brought his family there in December, of that year. The farm which he purchased of Mr. ROGERS was the first farm settled in what is now Geneseo township, and includes the present town plat of the village or Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell is the proprietor of the town plat, and the town was named in his honor.

He was born in the town of West Milton, Saratoga Co., N. Y., Dec. 6, 1828. When he was four years of age his parents removed to Orleans county, and when seven years old, to Erie county, same State, and settled near the village of Akron, where his father died in 1874.

George B. ROCKWELL received a good common school education at the grammar and high school at Akron, and at the age of nineteen he commenced teaching. He taught several terms in his native State, and in 1850 went to Walworth Co., Wis., and taught school the following winter. In February, 1851, he came to Allamakee Co., Iowa, where he bought land and taught during the summer of 1851, at Guttenberg, Clayton county.

He was married Aug. 31, 1853, in Erie Co., N. Y., to Elizabeth JACKSON, of Erie county, same State. After his marriage he returned with his wife to Allamakee county, where he owned 200 acres of land, which he soon after sold and removed to Kane Co., Il., purchased a farm and resided there for eleven years, at which time he came to Geneseo township.

He is a man of more than ordinary ability, energetic and fearless in maintaining what he believes right as well as opposing wrong. The cause of temperance finds in him an able advocate, and intemperance a determined and unrelenting foe. To him the town of Rockwell is indebted for its exemption from saloons and the liquor traffic.

In early life Mr. ROCKWELL was a democrat, but has been a republican since the formation of that party, yet does not allow party ties to interfere with his sense of duty and justice.

By choice and occupation he is a farmer. His homestead, known as Grasdale farm, contains about 600 acres, and is one of the finest in the county, and is specially adapted to the cultivation of grain and the raising of stock. He makes a specialty of shorthorn cattle, and has a number of fine specimens of that valuable class of stock. He is editor of the agricultural department of the Phonograph.

Mr. and Mrs. ROCKWELL have three daughters - Mary E., wife of J. A. FELTHOUS, born in Blackberry, Illinois; Julia Ruth and Grace. The two eldest were born in Illinois, and the youngest in this township. Their second child and only son, David W., was born in Illinois, where he died in infancy.

SOURCE: History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo Counties, Iowa. p. 843. Union Publishing Co. Springfield IL. 1883.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2011