Rochelle, Illinois: How Lane Took a French Name

Rochelle, Illinois, was a railroad stop called Lane until the mid-1860s, and the reason it switched to a French city’s name has two very different stories. The old place-name books say the name came from Rochelle, in France; the city’s own history tells a tale about a bottle of laxative.

Hickory Grove becomes Lane

The site was a spot on the prairie called Hickory Grove when the Air Line Railroad, later part of the Chicago & North Western, came through. The 1878 history of Ogle County says three Rockford capitalists, R. P. Lane, Thomas D. Robertson and Gilbert D. Palmer, bought the land, and since they owned it “when the station was located, one of their number secured the honor of giving the town its name.” On January 14, 1854, the last rail was laid connecting the grove with Chicago.

The town threw a banquet for the occasion. The Chicago excursion train never made it, because its engine broke down along the way, but the locals sang a song written for the night by Grandfather Cochrane and his daughter, Mrs. A. S. Hoadley. The county history prints the words, including this couplet:

Untiring he moves from Chicago to Lane, To haul in our lumber and draw out our grain.

The “he” is the locomotive, the steam-horse of the song. For about a dozen years, that’s the name you’d have seen on the station: Lane.

Two stories for one name

Lane had been incorporated as a village by the legislature on February 22, 1861. The same 1878 history says the legislature, in its session of the winter of 1865-66, passed a bill amending the village charter “and changing the name to Rochelle.” It doesn’t say why. On April 10, 1872, voters decided to incorporate as the City of Rochelle. W. H. Stennett’s 1908 book on the place names of the Chicago & North Western puts the change in 1865 and gives a one-line reason: Lane was named for a family, and “in 1865 it was changed to its present form, from Rochelle, in France.” Henry Gannett’s 1905 Geological Survey bulletin and today’s federal gazetteer say the same thing, “named from Rochelle, France.”

The city tells it differently. Its 2023 budget book says that after a hanging scandal, Lane “became known as Hangman’s Town,” and that “someone noticed a Rochelle Salts (laxative) bottle on the shelf and suggested the town needed a ‘good cleaning out.’” The county history does record a hanging: in 1861 a man named Thomas D. Burke was lynched, suspected of setting two big fires in town. But it never links that to the new name. So you can weigh it this way: the French origin has the older sources behind it, and the salts story is a local tradition with no paperwork attached.

Quick answers

What was Rochelle, Illinois, called before?

Lane, and before that the area was Hickory Grove. Stennett says Lane was named for a family of that name, and the 1878 county history says one of the Rockford buyers of the land gave the town its name.

Is Rochelle, Illinois, named after La Rochelle, France?

That’s what Stennett (1908) and Gannett (1905) say: the name came “from Rochelle, in France.” The city tells a different story, so the origin is disputed.

What is the Rochelle salts story?

It’s the city’s version. After a hanging scandal, someone is said to have spotted a bottle of Rochelle salts, a laxative, and said the town needed a “good cleaning out.” No early source backs it up.

Key dates

1. 1854January 14: the Air Line Railroad is completed from Chicago to Hickory Grove, now called Lane Station.
2. 1861February 22: the village of Lane is incorporated by the legislature.
3. 1865The name changes from Lane to Rochelle (Stennett gives 1865; the 1878 county history says the legislative session of the winter of 1865-66).
4. 1872April 10: voters decide to incorporate as the City of Rochelle.

Getting there

Open Rochelle in Google Maps

• Map
• Directions
• Satellite
• Terrain

Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Rochelle in the USGS place-name record.

The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Rochelle.

Airports

• Chicago/Rockford International (RFD) 19 mi 30 km
• Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) 60 mi 96 km

Amtrak trains

• Mendota station (MDT) 26 mi 42 km
• Plano station (PLO) 33 mi 53 km

Intercity buses

• Greyhound Rochelle Petro Rochelle Travel 2 mi 3 km
• Van Galder (Coach USA) 7559 Walton St - Van Galder Terminal 24 mi 39 km
• FlixBus Rockford Mass Transit 25 mi 40 km

Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.

Historical Sources & References

• The History of Ogle County, Illinois (H. F. Kett & Co., 1878). Lane, Robertson and Palmer and the naming of Lane (p. 513); the Air Line Railroad reaching the grove on January 14, 1854, and the banquet song (pp. 513-514); the village charter of 1861, the name change “to Rochelle” in the session of 1865-66, the 1872 city vote and the lynching of Thomas D. Burke (p. 528).
• W. H. Stennett, A History of the Origin of the Place Names along the Chicago & North Western (1908), p. 119. “Its first name was Lane… In 1865 it was changed to its present form, from Rochelle, in France.”
• Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (1905), p. 265. Rochelle “named from Rochelle, France.”
• City of Rochelle, Budget Book 2023, p. 42. The city’s history: Robert P. Lane, “Hangman’s Town,” the Rochelle Salts story and an 1866 date for the change.
• GNIS feature 416783 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal entry for Rochelle, in Ogle County, with the note “Named from Rochelle, France.”