Germanicus Kent

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

[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.

[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] 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.