ROCHESTER, a city of south-eastern Minnesota, U.S.A., on the Zumbro river, at an altitude of 1,180 ft.; the county seat of Olmsted county and the seat of the Mayo Clinic. It is on Federal highways 14 and 55, and is served by the Chicago Great Western and the Chicago and North Western railways and by motor-bus lines in all directions. Pop. (1920) 13,722 (86% native white), in 1930, 20,621 by the Federal census. The transient popu lation is estimated at 300,00o annually. Rochester is an attractive city amid picturesque surroundings, in one of the most prosperous agricultural counties in the United States. There are wholesale groceries and commission houses, creameries, flour mills, a camera factory, and several other manufacturing industries. The city owns and operates a hydro-electric plant, as well as the electric plant and the water system. Just east of the city is the Rochester State hospital for the insane, in a tract of 1,375 ac., with accom modation for 1,300 patients. On July 21, 1883, a severe tornado devastated the northern part of the city, killing 26 persons and injuring 41. A direct consequence of this disaster was the found
ing of St. Mary's hospital by the Sisters of Saint Francis, who had opened a convent here in 1877. The hospital was opened to patients in 1889, with Dr. W. W. Mayo as consulting surgeon, and his sons, Drs. William J. and Charles H. Mayo, as attending surgeons. Its capacity has grown to 600 beds. About 300 graduates of medical schools are studying in the hospital, under the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, in corporated in 1915 by the Mayos and endowed by them (through the University of Minnesota) with about $2,000,000.
The first settler in Rochester built his log cabin in 1854 and laid out the main street by dragging a log through the brush. He called it Rochester because the falls near by reminded him of those at Rochester, N.Y. By 1858 there was a population of 1,500 and the settlement was incorporated as a city.