ROCKFORD, Mich. — Before Rockford, there was Laphamville.
In the early 1840s, Smith Lapham purchased about 80 acres of land to build a sawmill.
"There was another man who lived on the other side of the river who also had a sawmill," explained Terry Konkle, the President of the Rockford Historical Society and a current city councilor. "They were kind of in competition a little bit. Smith Lapham told him he would help him build a dam, but he wanted some property on this side of the river.”
Lapham got the property, and thus Laphamville was born.
However, that name didn't last very long. Around the time of the Civil War, a railroad was going to be built through the city.
"They contacted the city and said, 'We want to go through, but you'll have to change your name,'" Konkle said. "It was too long.”
So the city's name was changed. But why Rockford?
“Well, there's a couple things," Konkle said. "Some guy that came here was a man from Rockford, Illinois. I don't think that was it. [The other belief is], the street out here, people used to cross it all the time, walking on rocks and stuff. They call it a Rocky Ford. So I think [it came] from that.”