Rochester, Illinois (Sangamon Co.)

City: Rochester

County: Sangamon

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.7333, -89.5167

Located in central Illinois approximately eight miles southeast of Springfield, Rochester is a village in Sangamon County. White settlers began arriving in what would become Rochester Township in 1819. Additional settlers moved into the area in the 1820s, and in 1831, the proprietors surveyed and platted the village. Sitting on the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad, the village became the commercial hub for the township.

Illinois Encyclopedia: 2008-2009 Edition (Hamburg, MI: State History Publications, 2008), 1:475; Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1904), 35.