ROCKFORD, a city of the United States, the county seat of Winnebago county, Illinois, on both banks of the Rock river, which, rising in Wisconsin, falls into the Mis-sissippi after a course of 350 miles. By rail it lies 92 miles north-west of Chicago and is a junction of the Chicago and North:Western, the Chicago, .Milwaukee, and St Paul, and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Rail-roads. Abundant water-power was secured by a dam 800 feet long constructed across the river in 1844. The chief objects of industry of Rockford, one of the largest manu-facturing centres in the Miwissippi valley, are agricultural implements, furniture, watches, silver-plated ware, cutlery, tacks and nails, bolts, wire-cloth, netting, woollen and cotton goods, paper, flour, oatmeal, glucose. Waterworks on the Holly system (1874) are capable of pumping 5,500,000 gallons through the mains in twenty-four hours. The city stands in a fine a,gricultural district, is handsomely built and well shaded, and has a public library, a public high school, and ten other public school buildings, a setninary for girls (1849), five banks, and twenty-one churches. The population was 697-6 in 1860, 11,049 in 1870, and 13,129 in 1880 (township, 14,525). Rockford was settled about 1836 ; in 1852 it received incorporation as a city.