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Genealogy Trails History Group: Winnebago County, Illinois Township and Town Histories
In August, 1835, William E. Enoch, the eldest son of Henry Enoch, accompanied by two or three men from Will County, came to what is now Guilford township on a land prospecting tour. While out on his trip, young Enoch was taken sick and returned home. In September following, his father, Henry Enoch, and brothers, Richard H and A. I. Enoch, started out, and, following the direction of William, struck Rock River at Rockford. Leaving his sons in camp, he started out, and, going northeast from there two or three miles, he struck the spring brook known as Bucklen Creek (Keith Creek). Believing this stream came from springs, he followed it to its source, which he found in the northeast corner of section 11, town 44, range 2, now in the town of Guilford. Here in the centre of a great prairie he found a sping of water 25 feet in diameter, the water about 24 inches deep and coming up from numerous places in the bottom throught snow-white sand. The water was cold, and clear as crystal; the bank of the spring fringed with tall grass and bright prairie flowers. He was so charmed with the location, the great spring, the apparent fertility of the soil, and the general beauty of the sorroundings, that he at once made up his mind to make it the future home of himself and family. Going to a thicket of hazel and young poplar trees a few rods distant, he cut a small stake, and planting it on the bank of the spring, declared it his "claim". This spring became dry in the early 'seventies (1870's). This location was known for many years as the big spring of "Uncle Enoch" in the prarie. Mr Enoch made this claim his permanent home until the autumn of 1856. Other early settlers of Guilford were Elisha A. Kirk, Thaddeus Davis, Sr., and his sons, David A., Thaddeus Jr., and Daniel; Harry Doolittle, J.H. Kirk, Elisha A. Kirk, Giles C. Hard, G.L. Horton, and Dr. Charles Church. [from "Past and Present of City of Rockford and Winnebago County Illinois", Charles A Church and H.H. Waldo]
Guilford Township ceased to exist as a political subdivision in 1929, when it was absorbed by Rockford Township, and the origins of the name "Guilford" are unclear (although a Mrs. Dolly Guilford and her son, Elijah, settled as some of Pecatonica's first settlers in 1834).
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