Chicago & North Western Railway Stone Arch Bridge

Roscoe is the northeast township of the county, bounded on the north by the Wisconsin State line. The first permanent settlement was made in the fall of 1835, but some Indian traders had previously erected and occupied cabins in the grove on Section 32. The remains of the cabins and the track made by the wagon train that accompanied General Atkins in his campaign against the Black Hawk Indians in June, 1832, were still clearly defined when the first settlers came. The maple trees also showed that the Indians had tapped them for sugar- making purposes. August 3, 1835, R. J. Cross, of Coldwater, Mich., and Colonel Yon Hovenburg, with a Pottawatomie Indian for a guide, came into the township from Milwaukee. Col. Yon Hovenburg returned to Michigan; Mr. Cross bought a claim of Lavec, an employee of Stephen Mack, upon which he subsequently settled. This claim was covered by the grove in the southwest quarter of Section 32.

Passage source: The History of Winnebago County, Illinois : Its Past and Present, Containing ... a Biographical Directory of Its Citizens, War Record of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois ... Etc, published 1877.

In September of the same year, Elijah H. Brown, James B. Lee and Wilham Mead came in from La Porte County, Indiana, and selected clainas. Brown built a house on the left bank of Rock river, a little above the mouth of the north branch of the Kinikinick, on the northeast quarter of Section 32, which was the first house built in what subsequently became Koscoe township. In the winter of 1835-6, Messrs. Brown, Lee, Cross and Logan were the only settlers in that part of the county. Mr. Cross had the only horse team in the settlement, and it was kept on the road nearly all the time when the roads were passable, hauling flour and groceries from Chicago. Mr. Reynolds, of Rolling Prairie, La Porte Count}'^, Indiana, bought Lee's claim, and was the first blacksmith to forge and hammer in that precinct, and in the winter of 1836-7 there were only eight families. Until a postoffice was established at Beloit, the settlers got their mail matter at Chicago; but in the spring of 1837, a post-office was established at Ruscoe, and R. M. P. Abell was appointed post-master. In 1887, Henry Abell and his son, Franklin, built a saw-mill, the first in the neighborhood. This mill was built at the mouth of the north branch of the Kinikinick, where they proposed to build a village, which they named Roscoe, in honor of Roscoe, aji eminent English historian, and when the names of townships were established in 1850, the name was given to the municipality. Under the new order, the first town meeting was held at the house of James K. Knowland, April 1, 1850. J. G. Prentiss was chosen Moderator; John J. Rhodes was elected Supervisor, and Nathaniel Howland, Town Clerk. Mr. Rhodes was continued in office for seven years, and until his death. At the first town meeting or election, 180 votes were polled.

Passage source: The History of Winnebago County, Illinois : Its Past and Present, Containing ... a Biographical Directory of Its Citizens, War Record of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois ... Etc, published 1877.

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Read the whole chapter on Roscoe Township - 2,611 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.