History

If you’re to understand the history of Rochester, you need understand only two things, for everything else in its existence flows from them — Lake Manitou and the Michigan Road.
First is the lake, only in the beginning it was not a lake, but five separate ponds separated by marshes. It became a lake in 1827 when the federal government built a dam near the present one. In time this flooded the areas surrounding the ponds and provided water power for a corn-cracking mill. The feds had promised the mill, among other things, to the indigenous Indians in return for them giving up their rights to the land. They were the Potawatomis, who had wandered into the area in the early part of the 18th century.

Indiana had become a state in 1816, was being rapidly settled from the south, and by this time people were anxious to get into the unsettled north.

Well, the Indian mill attracted a miller, of course, along with a blacksmith and a trader in a little settlement around the mill called Tiptonville, after the name of this region’s Indian agent. These men didn’t stay permanently and are not counted as the first settlers. Those arrived in 1830 and the first one to locate within the boundaries of present Rochester was James Elliott.

Elliott likely knew what he was doing when he built a cabin on a site that’s now the northwest corner of Eighth and Franklin Streets. The Michigan Road was coming here soon and was going to pass near Lake Manitou.

The Michigan Road was conceived in 1826 by the state as a trade route from the Ohio River at Madison to Lake Michigan. It also would open the wilderness of northern Indiana to settlement.

From Indianapolis north, the road extended to Logansport, then to South Bend and west to Michigan City. The South Bend route was a fortunate one for Rochester, because otherwise the road would have bypassed it to the west as the most direct route to Lake Michigan. The Kankakee swamps were a deterrent to that route, but other opposition came from a vigorous lobbying effort by South Benders to choose its way.

In 1831, the year after James Elliott built his cabin here, the stretch of the road passing through Rochester’s site was surveyed. Within another year or two it enabled settlers to begin arriving steadily in these parts, attracted by the cheap and rich land. They were undaunted by the road that was little more than a path and often disappeared in marshes or running streams.

Some of these hardy folk began concentrating in Rochester, then but a rude Indian trading post. They were attracted here by the proximity of the lake, by the location a good day’s ride from Logansport and by the likelihood that it would become a county seat, as in fact it did.

Now you know how Rochester came to be. I need only tell you something about those who first settled it.

To do that I shall describe Alexander Chamberlain. We call him our city’s founder because he was the first, by a month, to have building lots surveyed here. He is a stirring example of the industrious, determined men who settled Indiana’s frontiers. His colorful personality and the astonishing events of his life make him perfect for the role of city founder.

Chamberlain was born in New York State in 1788, the year before George Washington became president. Some say his birthplace was near Ithaca, others say near Albany. In any event, he was thrown into the workforce as a boy and had to support himself without any formal education, traveling from job to job through the state.

When the United States went to war with Great Britain in 1812, Chamberlain was in Canada, but he returned and joined the U. S. Army as an infantryman. He saw action in several battles and at the major battle of Lundy’s Lane near Niagara Falls in 1814 he was captured.

How he escaped is the stuff of fiction. He was ordered by his guard to chop wood and then to carry it back to the barracks. He picked up the wood with his left arm, holding a stick of it in his right. When he saw his chance, he whacked the guard on the head, ran off and dived into the Niagara River, swimming to the U. S. side safely despite a hail of bullets.

Chamberlain soon after took a wife and set off to seek his fortune in the new state of Indiana. He settled first in Terre Haute but in 1824 moved to Logansport. Two years later he became the first permanent settler there, building a cabin on the south side of the Wabash River at the mouth of the Eel. He later erected Logansport’s first tavern and hotel.

We don’t know why he tired of Logansport, but in late 1834 he packed up his goods and headed north on the Michigan Road, stopping at the collection of huts and cabins that would become Rochester.

Alexander built his first cabin on the banks of Mill Creek at the north end of today’s city and then sized up the situation. He learned of the imminent creation of Fulton County and bet that Rochester would become its county seat.

So, in July of 1835 he was the first local developer to have town lots surveyed. When in the next year Fulton County was organized and Rochester chosen as its county seat, Chamberlain had won his bet and his future.

Alexander soon after built the National House, the first hotel-tavern here, at Main and Third Street. He had other commercial ventures in the north end, among them the first sawmill-gristmill, east of Main along the present railroad. He died at the age of 81 in 1869, mourned, a contemporary wrote, as “a creature of nature in its truest sense.” His descendants continued here for the next 100 years.

And so you now know Rochester’s most important beginnings as I interpret them. The rest of its history I must summarize.

By 1838, three years after Rochester’s founding, the majority of the Potawatomi Indians were removed, leaving Rochester and Fulton County wide open for settlement.

That came rather rapidly. By 1853 a brick courthouse had been built, the county population had reached 6,000, Rochester had nearly 1,500 inhabitants and clearly it was time for the county seat to be managed by its own government. Male citizens were asked in July to approve and did so by a 35-24 margin. By September the first town officers were elected and Rochester had a secure future.

We became a city in 1910, by which time the population was 3,421. Since that time we’ve had 17 different mayors, one of them a woman — Nellie Babcock, appointed to complete the term of her deceased husband in 1938.

In 1987 the heavily-populated Lake Manitou residential community was annexed to the city — about 30 years too late, in my view. And with that, by the last census our population had grown to 6,414. And still growing, to be sure.

There’s much more I could say about this city in which I was born and which I love so much. Its unique history as the home of a world-class circus. The glorious decades when Lake Manitou was famous as a resort and dance entertainment center. The way it responded to and rebounded from the vicious tornado of 1974. Its selection twice as an outstanding city for its achievements and lifestyle, in 1936 by the national magazine Fortune and again in 1998 by the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce.

There’s a lot more — I’ve written about much of it — but now I leave you with one more personal thought.

The reason we have come as far as 168 years in this place is because of the nature of all its inhabitants, who have cared so much for it and for those with whom they have shared it. I am certain that future inhabitants will be no different.

Bob Peterson’s Sesquicentennial Address

Mr. Mayor, Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen, as we gather today for this significant event in the history of Rochester, those of us who are natives, or who are adopted sons and daughters of the community, with our roots deep in the soils of Northern Indiana, think of Rochester having been here forever. When matched against the time of recorded history, 4 to 5 thousand years, it has been brief – 175 years. Thus, we are all the decedents of immigrants and pioneers.

Following the Revolutionary War the country looked West to the vast unknown area known as the Old Northwest. An area of timberlands, grasslands and great lakes. In 1787, two years before we became a constitutional national government, The Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance to develop the five states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Remarkably, the five state territory included only approximately 55,000 Indians and 2,000 French hunters and trappers, or the population of Kokomo.

Little is known of this historic Northwest Ordinance except it helped to lay the ground work for our United States Constitution. It did two marvelous things. Among the irrevocable principals, the Ordinance was a commitment against slavery and a commitment of public money to education, the first such public commitment to education.

The document is now history. Pioneers began to flow West through the Cumberland Gap, down the Ohio River. We became a state in 1816, but pioneers had not yet come to this area.

When we speak of immigrants and pioneers, they had one thing in common. They were generally without money or land. They came West and then North through Indiana for free or cheap land and opportunity. Those who had the land or money remained where they were. All of us are the benefactors of that pioneering spirit.

By the time Rochester became an infant community, people were pouring out of Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Although the origin of our name is not an absolutely known, Jack Overmyer has stated in one of his excellent articles a man who came from Ithaca, New York, may have given it the name of Rochester. Ironically, there are 10 communities in the close vicinity of Rochester that are named after county seat towns in New York.

At this time, I would like to pay particular tribute to two people, who more than many others have researched, called our attention to, and emphasized our history. Jack Overmyer has written extensively about the people, the locations, buildings, and history of this community. Shirley Willard, as long time President of the Fulton County Historical Society, has also written extensively, aggressively pursued preservation of our buildings and artifacts, and reminded us that while we live in the present and look forward to the future, we should not forget the past.

Rochester is a beautiful community and well as historic. The proximity of the lake, the Michigan Road and our geology make us unique. Tim Eiseninger, local forester, will tell you how we sit on the western edge of the upland timber soils and the eastern edge of the great grass prairie. We are a community of beautiful building, such as the Courthouse, in whose shadow we stand today, churches, homes and farms. We are in an area of good schools and stable progressive government. The Mayor and I were speaking recently how we are an area of active political parties, but after the election is over, we come together for the betterment of the community. We have had good leaders, and have been free of corruption.

More than our buildings and landscape, the heart and sole of our community are the people who have lived here, were born here and educated here. Some have remained to establish greatness here, some have gone on to greatness elsewhere, leaving a legacy, of which we can all be proud and take inspiration.
There are those who migrated here and left an enduring mark. I am thinking particularly of Henry Barnhart. Jack Overmyer advises me he came here from Cass County, purchased a newspaper and developed the ground work for the excellent daily newspaper we enjoy today. He helped to establish the Rochester Telephone Company and went on to become a long time Congressman in the old 13th District.

And then there was Clyde Lyle who came here as a young coach and as a coach and a teacher left an indelible mark on this community. Anyone who came into his presence could not but be impressed by his dignity, his honesty, and his character.

Helen House Outcelt, a Rochester graduate, pioneered in aviation at Rochester and left an indelible mark at the Rochester airport, which today permits us to have an airport second to none for a city our size.

History goes on with native sons. I think particularly of Otis Bowen, a native of the county, born in Richland Township, former Speaker of the House, two-term Governor, and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Another native son was Hugh Barnhart, son of Henry Barnhart. He took the newspaper and telephone company of his father to new heights. He was a confidant and advisor to three State governors and served as head of three separate departments of State agencies. He was a great benefactor of the community and the football field, appropriately named Barnhart Field is a result of his generosity.

Paul Emery, born in Rochester, director of the Purdue bands for 49 years and conceived the idea of marching and forming letters on a football field.

Elmo Lincolnhelt went to Hollywood, became known as Elmo Lincoln, and was the first Tarzan in the silent screen. Floyd Matice, local attorney, was a member of the FBI, and was appointed to the Defense Counsel at the International War Crimes Trial in Tokyo. He also became the first student, while at the University of Michigan, to broadcast a football game over the radio.

There were the Three Jesters, three Rochester high school boys, Fritz Bastow, George Howard, and John Ravencroft, who performed for over 30 years in Cincinnati and Chicago radio stations and with the famous Paul Whiteman orchestra.

Oliver Powell, local horse breeder, trained and drove harness horses to national fame, winning countless races on the grand circuit and established six world records.

Carol Mitchell, a graduate of Rochester High School and Indiana University, became Miss Indiana and was first runner-up to Miss America. She was a popular entertainer with her chalk drawings and marionettes.

The McMann Family became quite successful in this area by reason of Otto McMann, of the McMann Construction Company, and his brothers who went to California and established a furniture chain.

Dr. Wynnfield Shafer established Woodlawn Hospital and Rochester Normal College.

More recently I think of Tom Rose and Tom Ravencroft, who started working at the local Dean Milk Plant, and then went to the very top as executives of the Dean Food Company.

By naming some of our notable sons and daughters of the community I overlook others, and for this I apologize. Many distinguished teachers, engineers, doctors, ministers, and athletes have their roots in Rochester. We should look back from time to time and say we are proud of them. They made a difference.

One group, and the most important group of Fulton County sons, never had the opportunity to be great, or even have a family, or live to an old age. A memorial to them stands on the South lawn of the courthouse. Stop and read their names sometime. They are the real heroes of this community.

Yes, the heart and soul of this community are the people of the community, who are descendants of a pioneering spirit which prevails today.