Rockwell, George

Born: 1815-10-12 Fairfield County, Connecticut

Died: 1896-01-13 Junction City, Kansas

Flourished: 1836 to 1865 Warsaw, Illinois

George Rockwell, merchant, was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and relocated to Warsaw, Illinois, in 1836. He was postmaster of Warsaw from 1841 to 1845 and again from 1850 to 1851. Rockwell ran unsuccessfully as a Republican to represent Hancock County in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1858. On the advent of the Civil War, he enlisted as a captain in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry and served until the end of the war. He was also provost marshal of Lexington, Missouri, for a time during the war. In 1865 Rockwell resettled in Junction City, Kansas, and continued in the mercantile line. At the time of the 1860 census, he owned real estate valued at $20,000 and possessed personal property worth $6,000. Rockwell married Catherine C. Westlake in 1840 and was survived by six children.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Pike County, 12 October 1840, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:36, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Warsaw, Hancock County, IL, 318; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 1 November 1858, 2:4; Warsaw City Bulletin (IL), 4 November 1858, 2:1; Th. Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois (Chicago: Chas C. Chapman, 1880), 454; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 1, Warsaw, Hancock County, IL, 620; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010); The Quincy Journal (IL), 15 January 1896, 4:1; Junction City Tribune (KS), 16 January 1896, 4:2; Gravestone, Highland Cemetery, Junction City, KS.