Rochelle History

A project by Mr. Hagemann and his Rhet & Comp students at RTHS

Names of Rochelle area

The Former Whitcomb Factory, 111 S. 5th Ave., Rochelle

Last Hardware Store in Rochelle: Ace Hardware at 1383 N. 7th

Deed (or Document) of the Week: 

The city agreed to "protect and preserve the bank on the north side of what is known as the Quarry tract" when it paid $2,000 to buy Spring Lake from Clara Braiden in 1924. See deed from Clara Braiden here. (Photo at left is of Spring Lake from the south in 1922)

Sources of Rochelle-area history

Overhead Photos

Ogle County GIS  (land parcel info)

Google Maps of Rochelle

1939 photos from the air

1971: North Rochelle (image 98), South Rochelle (from Ogle County Soil book), others

Photo folder here 

Books & Directories

Maps

 Sanborn Fire Ins. Maps:  1886, 1893, 

1899, 1904-5, 1912, 1922, 1931, 1949

Rochelle: 1872, 1876,  1912

Street names changed (1908 city directory)

Ogle maps: 1864,  1872, 1912, 1930

Historic Ogle Co. (GIS)

Illinois highway maps

USGS: Kings , Rochelle, Oregon

Maps miscellany

Cool maps 

First Buyers of Land

 Illinois Public Domain Land Tracts -- original purchasers from the federal gov’t.

General Land Office Records, U.S. BLM  -- click here to find original patent letters granting ownership of federal land to first buyers. These include info about the person awarded the military warrants. 

History of Land Offices in Illinois 

BLS Inflation Calculator