Born on the 1st of June, 1829. He is a son of Joseph Rothrock, a tanner and farmer, and Sarah McKinney. Joseph Rothrock moved to Adams county, Ohio, when his son was about nine years old, and there the latter was reared on a farm and in a tan-yard. He fitted for college at Felicity, Ohio; entered Franklin College, New Athens, and left at the commencement of the junior year; read law with E. P. Evans, of West Union, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar at Columbus in February, 1853. He practiced six years in Greenfield, Highland county, and one year at Hillsboro, in the same county, and in July, 1860, settled in Tipton, Iowa. Here, after two years' practice, he enlisted in his country's service, going into the army in August, 1862, as lieutenant-colonel of the 35th Iowa Infantry. At the end of one year, owing to disability, he was obliged to resign. Returning to Tipton, he resumed practice and continued it until January, 1867, when he went on the bench in the eighth judicial district. He was reelected twice, and during his third term, in February, 1876, he was appointed to the supreme bench in pursuance of an act of the legislature increasing the number of judges of the supreme court. He was elected by the people in the autumn of the same year. As a jurist he is remarkable for his strong common sense and practical ideas. Probably no man has a nicer discrimination between right and wrong. His experience for ten years as nisi Prius judge was an excellent preparatory school for the supreme bench. His decisions made while a district judge were the result of a clear head and a cool judgment, and were rarely reversed. While a resident of Ohio, in 1855, Judge Rothrock was elected prosecuting attorney for Highland county, and served one term. He was a member of the lower house of the general assembly of Iowa in the regular session of 1862 and the war session of the same year, enlisting at the close of the latter session. Although a new man in the state in 1861, when he was nominated for member of the legislature, that nomination was made by acclamation. He had stumped the county in the autumn before, the farmers had become acquainted with him and was their first choice. He proved to be a wise and efficient legislator. Judge Rothrock voted the abolition ticket till the great party of freedom arose and finally, with Abraham Lincoln for a banner bearer, overthrew the slave power. On the 18th of October, 1855, he married Miss A. L. Foote, of Granville, Ohio. Judge Rothrock has long had a passion for agricultural pursuits, and regards it as a noble occupation to improve land. He has a small farm adjoining the city of Tipton, and two large farms farther west, in Sac county. Financially, he has been moderately successful.