ROCHESTER, Minn., city and county-seat of Olmstead County, on the Ztimbro River, and on the Chicago and Northwestern and the Chicago Great Western railroads, about 90 miles southeast of Saint Paul and 49 miles west of Winona. It was settled in 1854 by James Bucidin and Mr. Proudfoot, and incor porated as a city in 185& Rochester was visited by a cyclone in 1883, which caused the death of 27 persons and the loss of a large amount of property. It is in a productive agricultural region, corn, barley, clover being among the principal crops. Considerable attention is given to stock-raising. The chief manufacturing es tablishments are flour and grist mills, a foundry, the Sears-Roebuck camera factory and machine shops. There are large grain elevators and stock yards. The principal buildings are the courthouse, municipal building, Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows' building, Metropolitan Theatre, Mayo Clinic, Colonial, Worrell and Stanley hos pitals, Killer Sanitarium, the Rochester State Hospital for the Insane, Saint Mary's Hospital, Zumbro Hotel, a number of churches and the convent of the Sisters of Saint Francis. The
educational institutions are the high school, public and parish elementary schools, private commercial schools, Notre Dame de Lourdes Academy (R.C.), founded in 1877, and four libraries. The city is the home of the famous surgeons, Charles and William Mayo (q.v.), who founded the Mayo Clinic. The five banks have a combined capital of $1,000,000; and the annual business amounts to nearly $6,000,000. The city has constructed a million-dollar hydro electricplant on the Zumbro River 14 miles north of the city. Seventy thousand persons annually visit Rochester for health. The gov ernment is vested in a mayor, alderman-at large and a council of six members, three of whom are chosen by popular vote each year. Pop. 15,000.