ROCKFORD, a city of northern Illinois, U.S.A., on the Rock river, 17 m. S. of the Wisconsin line and midway between the east and west boundaries of the State; the county seat of Winne bago county. It is on Federal highways 20 and 51, has a municipal airport, and is served by the Burlington Route, the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Illinois Central and electric railways, and by motor-bus lines in all directions. Pop. (1920) 65,651 (26% foreign-born white, the majority from Sweden) ; and 85,864 in 1930 by the Federal census. The city occupies 11.5 sq.m. on both sides of the river, and has 691 ac. in parks and playgrounds. On a wooded bluff, in a beautiful campus of Io ac., stands Rockford college, one of the oldest standard colleges for women in the United States, opened as a seminary in 1849. Enrolment is limited to about 65o. The public schools (22 elementary, two junior high, one high, and one continuation) have an enrolment of over 13,000, and the parochial schools (five elementary and one high) of 2,000. There are 61
churches in the city, and a Roman Catholic pro-cathedral. Rock ford has been an important manufacturing centre since its earliest ' days. Water-power is supplied by a dam Boo ft. long, built in 1844. There were 7 manufacturing establishments in 1927, with output for the year valued at $78,253,608. Bank deposits on July 1, 1928, totalled $38,775,000. The assessed valuation of property was $96,055,664. Rockford was founded by New Eng landers in 1834 and was chartered as a city in 1852. In 186o the population was 6,979, and it has doubled, or more than doubled, in each 20-year period since then. In Sept. 1928, a tornado struck the city, causing some loss of life and great destruction of property.