ROCHAMBEAU
I62Z
ROCKEFELLER
Rochambeau (rdrsHdm-bor), Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeure, Comte de, a French marshal, was born at Vendome, July i, 1725, and entered the army in 1742, In 1780 he was sent to America in command of 6,000 men to assist the colonies in their war for independence,, and rendered effective assistance to Washington at the siege of Yorktown, the surrender of which by Cornwallis brought the war to a close. During the French Revolution he was imprisoned at the Terror (i 798), and was saved from the scaffold only by the death of Robespierre. He became a marshal in 1791, and in 1804 Napoleon made him a grand officer of the Legion of Honoi. He died on May 10, 1807.
Rochefort (rdsh-fdtf), Victor Henri, Comte de, French journalist, playright and Radical politician, was born at Paris, Jan. 30, 1830, a descendent of the old French nobility. He was noted for his repeated attacks in his newspapers upon men and governments, which again and again compelled him to quit France. He died in 1913.
Rochelle (ro-shel'), La, a seaport of France. Its harbor is still sheltered by the remains of Richelieu's famous dike and is surrounded by fine quays, close to which lie the principal streets and squares. Many of the latter are regular and well-built, and present a handsome appearance from the number of houses adorned with porticoes and balconies. Rochelle, which was known until the i2th century under its Latin name of Rupella or Little Rock, of which its present name is a mere translation, was settled by a colony of serfs of Lower Poitou, who, fleeing from the persecutions of their lord, settled on the rocky promontory between the ocean and the neighboring marshes. A stronghold of the Huguenots, it was unsuccessfully besieged in 1573, and in 1627-8 it offered 14 months' resistance to the forces sent against it by Cardinal Richelieu, but was at length compelled to surrender. To-day it is a fortress of France of the second class Population 31,559.
Rochester, N. H., city in Strafford County, on Salmon Falls and Cocheco Rivers about 30 miles from Concord. Its chief manufacturing establishments are shoe-factories, woolen-mills, brick-works and box-factories, while it also has smaller factories. The city has public and parochial schools, private commercial schools, a public library, several churches, and Gaff-ney Home for the Aged. Rochester was settled and incorporated in 1722, and chartered as a city in 1891. Rochester has the service of four railroads, all controlled by the Boston and Maine Railroad. Population 8,868.
Rochester, N. Y., the third city in size and commercial importance in the Empire State, is located in the Genesee river-basil"^ seven miles from Lake Ontario. Its eleva-
tion above the lake ensures perfect drainage, which, with an inexhaustible water-supply, enables it to rank in healthfulness first among the cities of the state. It was settled in 1812; incorporated as a village in 1817 and created a city in 1834, and now contains 181,666 population. It contains 125 churches (67,000 communicants), four well-equipped hospitals, a municipal hospital (for contagious diseases), the insane asylum or state hospital, five orphan-asylums and a home for the friendless. It has 38 public schools, 18 parochial schools, three academies, Rochester Theological Seminary (Baptist), Saint Bernard's Theological Seminary (R. C.), Rochester University, Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute (a technical trade-school), a large deal-mute school, private classical and preparatory institutions and one public library. Here is Western New York Industrial School, a state-reformatory, containing about 1,000 pupils of both sexes. Rochester's principal industries embrace the manufacture of shoes leather-products, clothing, flour, optical instruments, buttons, kodaks, photographic materials, sewer-pipe, beer, tobacco, furniture, candy, canned goods, time-locks and typewriting machines. These industries have an invested capital of $52,000,-ooo, and produce $300,000,000 worth of goods annually. The largest nurseries in the world are at Rochester, and the production of flowers and flower-seeds comprises an important industry. As a shipping-point the city has the advantages of nine railways, Erie Canal and a fine harbor on Lake Ontario — Port Genesee. The 19 surrounding townships comprising Monroe County are fertile and productive, having a valuation of $37,000,000. The city is noted for fine parks (666 acres), wide streets, beautiful drives and surrounding pleasure-resorts. Population 218,149.
Rock'efeil'er, John Davidson, American capitalist and president of the Standard Oil Company, was born at Richford, N. Y., July 8, 18393 and at an early age removed with his parents to Cleveland, O., where he was educated in the public schools. His business career began in the office of a commission-merchant, and in the sixties, when he showed gieat aptitude for commerce, he engaged in the oil-business, which in its gigantic developments has yielded him an immense fortune. In the seventies and eighties various oil-operating firms were consolidated into the gigantic trust, now known as the Standard Oil company, of which Mr. Rockefeller is the head. In 1906 Frederick T. Gates, Mr. Rockefeller's business representative, said: Mr. Rockefeller has at various times authorized the statement that his fortune cannot exceed $250,-000,000 or $300,000,000,** His gifts to education, religion and other benevolences have reached an aggregate uf over $87,000,-
