City Founders

Date Modified: 06/13/2008 10:32 AM

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HEAD COUPLE RESPECTED AS CITY FOUNDERS
By Ken Hanson

Some cities and states can describe their founding by the landing of settlers from across the Atlantic Ocean or by the explorations of hardy French voyageurs.

Rochester, like most, isn’t one of those places. Its early days are marked by a rush for land and disputes over property rights that at times involved the aiming, though apparently not the firing, of pistols.

Land was free in 1854 when the first settlers came to what is now Olmsted County, but it hadn’t been surveyed, so claims were often jumped. Settlers dashed into the area during the next several years. In 1857 alone, an estimated 700 town sites were plotted.

George Head, a baker from Waukesha,Wis., is considered the founder of Rochester, having built the first permanent home here. He came with his wife, Henrietta; his father, John; and a brother, Jonathan.

Emigrated from England

Head emigrated from England with his family in 1825 when he was 2. The family settled in or near Rochester, N.Y.  When George was 18, the family moved to Wisconsin.

George Head’s wife, Henrietta, was also an immigrant, born in 1832 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She had lived in the United States for a year when, at age 17, she married Head in Waukesha, Wis.

George Head and his party arrived in what is now Rochester later in summer 1854 than did James McReady, who settled in Cascade Township with his wife, two children and friend Thomas Cummings. The McReady party arrived in time to celebrate the Fourth of July by climbing to the top of a bluff north of the township and firing their guns.

Land Dispute

Head and his party arrived later that July and staked a claim along the Zumbro River near what is now Broadway and Fourth Street South. The claim had a complication, however, in that a Winona man named Edward S. Smith and his partners had built a shanty on the site — or had put a few logs on top of one another, as one historical account states.

The Heads reportedly began tearing down Smith’s shanty. Smith learned about this, went to the site and confronted the Heads with revolver in hand, driving them away. A short time later, Head settled the dispute by paying members of the Smith group $3,600.

The Heads built a shanty on the west shore of Zumbro River at that site. They built it of rough-hewn logs, with a sod roof made of bleached prairie grasses.

Head named the new settlement Rochester because some rapids on the Zumbro River reminded him of the falls on a river near his boyhood home in New York. At least two history writers question how the waters of the Zumbro could compare with the large falls Head was thinking of in New York. One of them, writing toward the end of the 19th century, urged area
residents to change the town’s name, but it stuck.

The city of Rochester, N.Y., was settled in the early 1800s and originally named Rochesterville after the man considered its founder, Col. Nathaniel Rochester. The river Head must have seen had huge waterfalls that were used to power flour and paper mills.

Broadway Opened

Head, in 1854, opened Rochester’s first street, which is now Broadway. Most accounts state that he hitched a large log to a team of oxen, which dragged it through the thick underbrush consisting of grasses that were over 6 feet tall. Henrietta Head then rode a horse along the short trail.

George Head’s battle to become founder of the new settlement wasn’t finished, however. McReady, the first settler in the township, competed with him for at least a year over who could attract more people to their land. The competition came to a head on July 4, 1855.

According to an Olmsted County Historical Society document, both men held parties on their land that day. McReady held his in the morning, barbecuing a steer; Head had his in the afternoon, roasting a sheep. Attendance wasn’t recorded, but, according to a history writer,“It was obvious that George Head was the winner of the contest.”

Along the Zumbro, Head built a log cabin that over the next two years evolved into Rochester’s first hotel, housing settlers who poured into the area. He then sold the building.

For 19 years, Head developed businesses in Rochester with help from his brother. Their stores stood on what became known as the “Head block.”

His businesses included a dry goods store, a bakery and a grocery store. He also dealt in books, stationery and musical instruments.

Land Lust

From the start, Head tried to acquire a large amount of real estate. According to historian Joseph A. Leonard, Head had “land hunger” and tried to get ownership of three or four quarter-sections, though the law allowed the claiming of only one.

Head tried in 1855 to claim the quarter adjoining his own, but a settler named James Crabb had begun living there. The two disputed the claim, apparently reaching a standoff with weapons. Crabb held the land. Head bought it a year later for $1,500.

An Episcopalian, Head donated land that became the site of Calvary Episcopal Church.

Bankrupt

Head spread himself too thin financially over the years and by 1870 was “land poor,” Leonard wrote. He declared bankruptcy, with liabilities of $52,437.

He and Henrietta, who never had children, left Rochester in May 1871 with “embarrassing financial complications,” according to one account.

The couple moved to the new town of Fergus Falls, Minn. Head was briefly successful in real estate there, though with considerable financial assistance from a brother-in-law. Alas, Head again went broke.

During the Fergus Falls years, Henrietta Head died at age 44. She was well-remembered in Rochester, where residents hung their flags at half-staff the day of her funeral. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Rochester.

George Head then married one of Henrietta’s sisters, Sophia, who had not married previously.

In 1883, Head’s health began to decline. He and Sophia moved to Bermuda at the advice of a doctor. Head died later that year.

Bermuda law forbade removal of a body for a year, so Head’s body was not brought back for burial in Rochester until October 1884. Town residents held a large funeral, remembering him as the city’s founder. Flags were flown at half-staff. Businesses closed for an hour. The Rochester
Cornet Band led a procession from Broadway to Oakwood Cemetery.