New Milford, IL

New Milford is a small Winnebago County village on the south bank of the Kishwaukee River, just south of Rockford. The 2020 census counted 794 residents. The first settlers arrived along the river in 1835, and the community grew beside the road that became the Meridian Highway, now U.S. 51. That location made New Milford useful without making it a big city: farms, river crossings, highway traffic, and the larger Rockford market were always close by.

The village has had several lives. Earlier settlements near the Kishwaukee and Rock rivers faded, while New Milford held on; later it supported a foundry, reaper factory, grist mill, cooper shop, sawmill, railroad station, creamery, telephone company, and nail factory. Today it is quieter and more residential, with village government and the old cemetery helping hold the community together. The Kishwaukee is still the best way to understand the place. New Milford is not trying to compete with Rockford; it is the small river settlement that survived beside the bigger city and kept its own name on the map.