ROCHESTER, TEXAS. Rochester is at the junction of State Highway 6 and Farm Road 617, on the Santa Fe Railroad in northwest Haskell County. It was founded in 1906 with the construction of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway and was named for Rochester, New York, by A. B. Carothers, who donated the rail right-of-way and a townsite. Schools, churches, and business houses were built, and the town was incorporated in 1922. By 1915 the population was 400, and it reached 611 in 1940. It declined to 492 by 1980. In 1990 the population was 458. The population dropped to 378 in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert E. Sherrill, Haskell County History (Haskell, Texas: Haskell Free Press, 1965).

William R. Hunt