Rochester, Minnesota - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

ROCHESTER, a city and the county-seat of Olmsted county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on the Zumbro river, about 70 m. S.E. of St Paul. Pop. (1890) 5321; (1900) 6843; (1905, state census) 7 2 33 (1905 foreign-born); (1910 census) 7844. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western and the Chicago Great Western railways. The city has a public library (1865), and is the seat of St John's School and the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes (both Roman Catholic), of a state hospital for the insane (1878), originally planned (1877) as an inebriate asylum, liquor dealers being taxed for its erection, and of St Mary's Hospital (1889), a famous institution founded and maintained by the Sisters of St Francis. There is valuable water-power, and the city has grain elevators and various manufactures. Rochester was first settled in 1854, and was chartered as a city in 1858.