Germanicus Kent

Germanicus A. Kent (1791–1862) together with Thatcher Blake and Lewis Lemon founded Rockford, Illinois, United States in 1834.

Biography

Germanicus A. Kent was born in Suffield, Connecticut in 1791 and attend Yale College.[1][2][3] Around 1822, Kent moved to Huntsville, Alabama, establishing himself as a dry goods merchant, marrying Arabella Amiss of Blacksburg, Virginia on June 7, 1827.[1][2][3] Kent was later a cotton merchant as a partner in the firm of Patton, Donegan & Co at the Bell Cotton Factory on the Flint river near Huntsville.[3]

The Kent family, including Lewis Lemon, a slave purchased by Germanicus as a boy, relocated to Illinois in 1834. After exploring the local area, Kent, Lemon and Thatcher Blake, a school teacher and farmer from Oxford, Maine, founded the settlement that was later to be called Rockford in 1834-1835.[1][2][3][4] Germanicus and Arabella's daughter, Mary, was born in Rockford in 1836. They also had younger two sons called Lewis and John.[1] In 1843, the Kent family returned to Arabella's hometown of Blacksburg, Virginia.[1][2][3] Arabella died on May 26, 1851 and from 1856 Germanicus lived with his daughter, (now Mary Black) in Blacksburg until his death on March 1, 1862.[3]

Memorials
Founders Memorial, Rockford, Illinois

In 1976, a statue called "Pulling Together" depicting a stylized scene of the founders of Rockford dragging their supply wagon through a swamp was unveiled as part of the Founders Memorial on Wyman Street Bypass, Rockford.[5]

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References
  1. Papers of the Black, Kent, and Apperson families, Ms74-003, Special Collections, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  2. Carlson, Anna (December 1995). "Kentsville, Haightsville, Midway, Rock Ford". Illinois History - A Magazine for Young People. Old State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. 49 (1): 16–18. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  3. Church, Charles (1900). History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois - From the First Settlement in 1834 to the Civil War ((Photographically Reproduced in 1985 by Leonard and Mary Adrignola) ed.). The New England Society of Rockford, Illinois. pp. 26–32.
  4. Decker, Taylor (1981). Germanicus A. Kent: Founder of Rockford, Illinois, 1834. Rockford, Illinois: Rockford Historical Society.
  5. "Statues commemorate Rockford founding". The Register Republic. Rockford, Illinois. December 8, 1976. Archived from the original on October 10, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
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