Rochester. A thrifty and stirring city of upwards of 6,000 souls, and a station on the W. & St. P. Ry., near the center of Olmsted county, of which it is the seat, 80 miles from St. Paul. Also located upon the south branch of Zumbro river, where water power is available but not utilized. Contains 4 steam flouring mills, 2 steam planing mills and furniture factories in combinatioin, and 2 foundries, a woolen mill, and numerous mechanic’s shops and supply stores. Its churches are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Universalists, Catholic, Lutheran, Norwegian and Lutheran German one each, and two of German Methodists. It is the seat of the State Inebriate Asylum, on which $30,000 have been expended; has a graded school system which employs 19 teachers, the cost of school buildings being $95,000, a Catholic seminary and a select school. Also has 3 national banks, one of a capital of $100,000 and $25,000 surplus, and two of capitals each of $50,000, and of surplus capital of $25,000 and $10,000 respectively. Exports, flour, wheat, cheese, cattle and pork. Telegraph, Northwestern. Express, American. Stage daily to High Forest and Zumbrota, and tri-weekly to Spring Valley. Mail twice daily from the east and once from the west. (Minnesota State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1878-9, Volume 1, R. L. Polk & Co., and A. C. Danser, Detroit, Michigan, Page 457)