Rock County, Wisconsin

County: Rock

State: Wisconsin

Lat/Long: 42.6667, -89.0667

Rock County is a county in south central Wisconsin. Located southeast of Madison on the border with Illinois, what would become Rock County was the home of the Ho-Chunk (formerly called Winnebago) and Pottawatomie peoples early in its history. The area experienced violence during the Black Hawk War in 1832, and in 1835 the first white settlement was developed. On December 7, 1836, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature organized Rock County out of Milwaukee County. In 1838, the Territorial Legislature added additional territory to the county, establishing its present boundaries. The county seat is Janesville.

The History of Rock County, Wisconsin (Chicago: Western Historical , 1879), 324, 327-28, 335, 338; Frank R. Abate, ed., American Places Dictionary (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1994), 3:1003; Louise Phelps Kellogg, “Organization, Boundaries, and Names of Wisconsin Counties,” Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting Held October 21, 1909 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1910), 196.