Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1890 on and the census since 1890.
Rockford dates its founding to 1878 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1890.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Rockford’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1910 and 1940, then grew 4-fold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Rockford’s Wikipedia page.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1890Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Rockford.
Rockford was first settled in 1878 by D.C. Farnsworth. The town took its name from a rocky ford on Rock Creek. A post office was established in 1880. The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company brought the railroad to Rockford in 1889, and Rockford was incorporated as a town a year later in 1890.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Rockford, cut from the printed page as they were published.
He came to Spokane county in 1880, took a homestead four miles east of Rockford and for the ten years ensuing ga\-e himself energetically to general farming and wheat raising. In 1890 he m<:)ved into Rockford to engage in the warehouse and grain buying business, and he was thus employed until his death, which occurred Feliruary 9, 1897. Though
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
ing and stock raising until 1883. In that year he came to Spokane county and, with his father and brother, bought the town site of Rockford, organizing the town there. They also purchased a combined saw and flouringmill of Farnsworth. Worley & Company, and engaged in lumbering, but in 1899 Mr. Waltman sold out. moved to Spokane and, in com-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rockford. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rockford.
Nobody well known was born in Rockford itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
In 1878, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Rockford’s post office opened in 1880, and the census of 1890 counted 644 people here.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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