George D. Rockwell (b. 1828, West Milton, New York) was a pioneering figure in Rockwell, Iowa, which was named in his honor. Descended from colonial English Puritans, he moved west in 1853, first settling in Kane County, Illinois, before relocating to Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, in 1864. Rockwell played a key role in extending the Iowa Central Railroad and founding the town of Rockwell. He was active in farming, raising shorthorn cattle, and later investing in South Dakota, where he owned 1,400 acres in Moody County. A dedicated Prohibitionist and Congregational deacon, he married Elizabeth P. Jackson in 1853, and they raised three daughters: Mary, Julia, and Grace.
George D. Rockwell is the owner of fourteen hundred acres of valuable land in Moody County and passes a portion of each year in the active supervision of the same, while he maintains his home in Rockwell, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, which place was named in his honor, as he was one of the founders and builders of the town and is today one of its most prominent and influential pioneer citizens. He is a representative of staunch old colonial stock, in both the paternal and maternal lines, and is himself a native of the old Empire state of the Union, having been born in West Milton, Saratoga County, New York, on the 6th of December, 1828, and being a son of David J. and Ruth (Keeler) Rockwell, both families being of English Puritan descent. The original American ancestor in the agnatic line was John Rockwell, who was a resident of Stamford, Connecticut, in 1641, and on the maternal side, the lineage is traced back to Ralph Keeler, whom the records show to have been a resident of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1639. The father of the subject was born in Bethel, Fairfield County, that state, while his wife was a native of Saratoga County, New York, and they passed the greater portion of their lives in the state of New York, where Mr. Rockwell gained success in connection with the great basic industry of agriculture. He was a man of broad information and liberal views, and both he and his wife were zealous and devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in whose work they were specially active for many years, the father having for a long period been a class leader in the church. He was originally a Democrat in politics, later espoused the cause of the Whig party, to which he gave allegiance until the organization of the Republican party, to whose cause he ever afterward gave his support. He died in Akron, New York, in 1874, at the age of seventy-one years, and his devoted wife was summoned into eternal rest in 1842, at the age of thirty-six years. They became the parents of seven children, of whom three are living.
The subject of this sketch grew to maturity on the homestead farm, and received an academic education in his native state, while as a young man he was a successful teacher for several terms, and later found his services in requisition as a teacher in Rockwell, Iowa, working on the farm during the intervening summer months. He continued to reside in the state of New York until 1853, when he came to the west and located in Kane County, Illinois, where he became the owner of a good farm and wielded no slight influence in public affairs of a local nature, having been a member of the board of supervisors of the county for two years, prior to and during the war of the Rebellion. He identified himself with the Republican party at the time of its formation and continued to support the same until within the last decade, having been during this interval an advocate of the cause of the Prohibition party and having consistently voted its ticket. He continued to reside in Illinois until 1864, when he disposed of his interests there and removed to Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, being one of the early settlers in that section, and having been specially active in the work of securing the extension of the Iowa Central Railroad through the country, and in the upbuilding of the now thriving and attractive village of Rockwell, which was named in his honor and in recognition of his services in the connection noted, as well as in other lines of public enterprise and progressiveness. He was for many years actively identified with farming in Cerro Gordo County, where he still owns valuable property in Rockwell. In 1877 Mr. Rockwell met with a seemingly slight accident, which finally necessitated the amputation of his left arm above the elbow. He received a slight wound from a thorn, which penetrated his hand, and the resulting blood-poisoning rendered the operation necessary. In 1877 he engaged in the raising of thoroughbred shorthorn cattle, to which he devoted his attention for twelve years, carrying on an extensive business and meeting with marked success in the enterprise. In 1891 Mr. Rockwell made his first investment in lands in South Dakota, and he now owns fourteen hundred acres in Moody County, as previously stated. In the supervision of his interests here he passes about half of his time each year in the county, making his headquarters in Flandreau, the county seat. All of his land is under cultivation, and yields good returns. He rents about one-half of the land, while the remainder is cultivated under his direction by hired workmen. In 1903 eight hundred acres of crops on his land here were destroyed by hail. In addition to his own properties, he also has charge of a ranch of three hundred and thirty acres, in this county, which is owned by his son-in-law, William F. McClelland. Mr. Rockwell is a man of most correct and abstemious habits, and is hale and vigorous in mind and body, though he is now nearing the age of fourscore years. He has never used tobacco or intoxicating liquors in any form, and is specially active as a temperance worker. He and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Congregational church at Rockwell, Iowa, and he has been a deacon in the same for the past twenty years.
On the 31st of August, 1853, in Newstead, Erie County, New York, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rockwell to Miss Elizabeth P. Jackson, who was born and reared in that state, being a daughter of William and Mary Ann (Havens) Jackson, the former of whom was a tanner and currier by vocation, while he was also a successful farmer, both he and his wife passing their lives in New York state. Of the children of the subject and his estimable wife, we are able to enter the following brief information: Mary E. is the wife of John A. Felthouse, who is president of the Minnesota Farm Land Company, of St. Paul; Julia R. became the wife of Albert A. Moore, who is now a grain dealer at Hampton, Iowa, where she died on the 14th of September, 1888; Grace is the wife of William F. McClelland, who is a prominent business man of Rockwell, Iowa.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.