History of Rochelle
Rochelle was named for the family of Martha Rochelle Perry. She was the wife of Madison Starke Perry, who attained the rank of colonel in the Confederate army and was governor of Florida from 1857 to 1861. Settlers from Georgia and South Carolina first arrived in the area in the 1840's. The town was known as Perry Junction until 1881 when it was named Gruelle after the man who did the original survey for laying the tracks of the Florida Southern Railroad. A post office was established at Gruelle on March 22, 1884, and renamed Rochelle on August 11, 1884. In 1888 the town was thriving, but the terrible freeze of 1894-95, which devestated local citrus crops, precipitated the decline of Rochelle.