Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
“The Joseph Ross House is a historic house located at 5200 Passfield Road in Rochester, Illinois. Joseph Ross built the two-story Italianate house in 1868.”
Wikipedia article Joseph Ross House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 68 National Register listings published here for Sangamon County · listed in 2006 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Cooper Township in History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881 names Rochester. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The township of Cooper was so named in honor of the Rev. John Cooper, one of the early settlers and most prominent men of the township. It is situated in the eastern part of the county, and is bounded on the east by Wheatfield township and Christian county ; on the west, by Rochester and Cotton Hill townships ; north, by Mechanicsburg township, and south, by Christian county.
Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.
John Cooper was born June 3, 1794, in South Carolina, and was taken by his parents to Jefferson county, Tennessee, where he subsequently married to Susannah Peyton, who died after giving birth to one child. Mr. Cooper was married the second time to Susannah Giger. They moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving April 2, 1820, in what is now Rochester township, and one year later moving to Cooper township, south of the Sangamon river. Mr. Cooper was a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and preached almost as regular as the preachers in the traveling connection. He solemnized the marriage of many couple among the early settlers. He was a justice of the peace, and one of the county commissioners for many years, and when the township organization was effected his name was given to the township. Mr. Cooper died January, 1860, his wife preceding him a few months.
Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Cooper Township - 7,844 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Joseph Ross House in 2012, burning about 200 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BUCKHART |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Joseph Ross House: 1 plant, 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burkhart Dredge & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Plant | ||
| Sangamon Valley Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rochester, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 2013 and 2023: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $80,000 | Multiple trees and power lines were blown down throughout Rochester. One tree fell onto a house and car. |
| April 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $7,000 | A fruit tree was snapped in half. A large fence was blown down and a few shingles were ripped from a roof. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | - | Several large tree branches were blown down. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | - | A tree limb was blown onto a power line. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | - | A 4-inch diameter tree branch was blown down. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | - | Two power poles were blown down on Buckhart Road just east of Rochester. |
| March 2020 | Hail | Rochester | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Miller House | 1.8 miles | 1980 | |
 | Bolivia Road Bridge | 5.5 miles | 2004 |
 | Taft Farmstead | 6.9 miles | 1980 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 06000092 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Sangamon County | All 68 listed properties in this county. |
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