Nellie Florida was the first born child to Joel and Lucinda Florida during May 1846 in Boone, Illinois. Joel Florida traveled to Minnesota in 1855 taking a claim in October. He would return that fall to spend the winter with his family and prepare to move all of them to the wilderness that would become Rockford. Nellie would marry Civil War veteran Will Hatch in 1876. The couple would live in Minneapolis, Duluth, and Oak Park, Illinois as Will’s career in education ascended. In retirement Will and Nellie returned to Rockford living with Nellie’s siblings in the Florida house. She is pictured her in the sky parlor reading one of the hundreds of books that the family had.
Rockford’s first School House – built 1860