Do You Know How Rochester, Minnesota Got Its Name?

Being a history geek, I'm fascinated by the background of our region. And, not having grown up here, I'm trying to fill in as much about Rochester's past as I can. Like how our city came to be called 'Rochester.'

In the five years I've called Rochester home, I've already learned much about our region's history. Including the Sisters of St. Francis and how they helped Dr. William Worrall Mayo tend to the victims of the big tornado of 1883 and how that essentially founded the now world-famous Mayo Clinic.

But even by that time, our fine city was already known as Rochester. So just how did we get our name? Well, according to the City of Rochester's website, our city is, in fact, named for that other Rochester-- the one in upstate New York.

The website says local settler George Head, who once owned much of the land that is now the central areas of downtown Rochester, starting calling the then-developing settlement 'Rochester,' back in 1854, as a tribute to Rochester, New York-- his hometown.

At the time, this Rochester wasn't much more than a stop along the stagecoach line between St. Paul and Dubuque, Iowa. Our location along the Zumbro River allowed travelers to camp and water their animals, the site says.

Head eventually started a tavern out of a log cabin in 1855 (called "Head's Tavern"), and that essentially got the development of 'Rochester' off and running. So that's how we got our name. And now, here we are, some 162 years later, the third-largest city in the state of Minnesota. History is cool!