3156 S Riverside Dr · Beloit, Wisconsin
Once upon a house — and every word of it on the record.
One piece of land beside the Rock River: the Ho-Chunk village of Standing Post, the trader Joseph Thibault, the Blodgetts who founded Beloit, William S. Yost's farm and cobblestone house, the Yost Park resort, and the Riverside Motel built around it. Every event below links to the page of the source that records it.
The land through time
…–1835
The first people
The Ho-Chunk village of Standing Post beside the Rock River.
"Indian Manufactures": a canoe, tools and garments of the upper Great Lakes nations, engraved for Schoolcraft's journal of 1821. Not specific to the Ho-Chunk. Source
Schoolcraft, Henry R. Narrative Journal of Travels through the Northwestern Regions of the United States, Extending from Detroit through the Great Chain of American Lakes, to the Sources of the Mississippi River, Performed as a Member of the Expedition under Governor Cass, in the Year 1820. Albany: E. & E. Hosford, 1821. Library of Congress copy via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/narrativejournal01scho.1634–1836
Contact and the fur trade
French, British and American traders; Joseph Thibault.
Sault de Ste. Marie, engraved for Schoolcraft's account of the 1820 Cass expedition through the fur-trade country. Source
Schoolcraft, Henry R. Narrative Journal of Travels through the Northwestern Regions of the United States, Extending from Detroit through the Great Chain of American Lakes, to the Sources of the Mississippi River, Performed as a Member of the Expedition under Governor Cass, in the Year 1820. Albany: E. & E. Hosford, 1821. Library of Congress copy via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/narrativejournal01scho.1836–1843
The Blodgetts
Caleb Blodgett buys Thibault's claim; Selvey K. Blodgett farms the land.
"A Map of Beloit": the early village beside the Rock River, reproduced in Brown's Rock County, Wisconsin (1908). 1843–1897
The Yost farm
William S. Yost settles, farms and builds the cobblestone house.
"Wm. S. Yost" on the 1858 map of Beloit Township, Sections 11 and 12. 1898–1930
Yost Park
The riverside resort: picnics, dances and the interurban.
"Yost Park" lettered by the river on the 1904 plat, beside John A. Yost's Park Stock Farm.
1820
The region
- 1820 The Winnebagoes had five villages on Winnebago lake and fourteen on Rock river.
- Spring 1820 A garrison/community located on the rich bottomlands along the south bank of the St. Peter's removed to an eminence on the west bank of the Mississippi, a mile from the old cantonment.
- Fall 1820 The expedition party, on its return down the lake, was becalmed near the islands in Lake Erie; Schoolcraft took a boat accompanied by Maj. Delafield.
- May 1820 The expedition party traveled by canal and steamboat.
Nation and world
- May 11, 1820 An act was approved reviving the powers of the commissioners for ascertaining and deciding on claims in the district of Detroit, and for settling claims to land at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, in the territory of Michigan.
- 1820 The reign of George III ended.
- 1820 The census of 1820 was taken for Detroit, its results later communicated by James D. Doty.
1822
The region
- 1822 White miners invaded the lead regions formerly worked by Sauks and Foxes, as they had begun to in 1821; the Winnebagoes were in possession and claimed that country.
- 1822 White miners were working the lead mines under the protection of United States troops.
- 1822 Migration to Wisconsin from the State of New York of the remains or portions of the Oneida, Stockbridge, Munsee and Brothertown tribes commenced, continuing at intervals through some following years.
- 1822 The Stockbridge Indians immigrated to Wisconsin lands and occupied the country about Winnebago lake.
1823
The region
- Summer 1823 Summer 1823 — Squatters began taking possession of the rich land occupied by the Sacs toward the mouth of Rock river.
- Fall 1823 Autumn 1823 — In company with his father, a man erected a saw-mill on the Vandermark Creek; a second passage states that the father came out in 1823 and united with him in erecting the first sawmill on the Vandermark creek, which they got to running the last day of that year.
- 1823 1823 — Rev. Eleazar Williams, in the employ of the Episcopal Missionary Society, started a school of white and half-breed children on the west side of Fox river, opposite " Shanty-Town."
Nation and world
- March 1823 March 3, 1823 — An act of congress was approved authorizing the electors of the Territory of Michigan to choose eighteen by ballot at the next election of the delegate for that territory.
- January 1823 January 1823 — An act of Congress provided for a district court and the appointment of a judge for the counties of Brown, Crawford and Michilimackinac.
1824
The property
The region
Nation and world
- May 2, 1824 Congress granted quarter sections of land to counties for seats of justice / county buildings; the two passages give different approval dates.
- 1824 Major Long's expedition took place.
- 1824 The Sacs and Foxes sold to the General Government all their lands in Missouri north of the Missouri river, receiving one thousand dollars that year and an annuity of one thousand dollars for ten years.
1825
The region
- 1825 The Winnebagoes' territorial claim was extensive, its southeast boundary stretching from the source of Rock river to within forty miles of its mouth, where they had a village.
- August 19, 1825 A treaty of peace was made at Prairie du Chien settling boundaries between the Winnebagoes and other tribes (the 1879 history gives the date as August 19; the 1908 history gives only the year 1825).
- 1825 The Winnebagoes' general claim extended north to the Chippewa country.
- 1825 Very general attention was attracted to the lead mines of the western portion of the State, leading to settlement by Americans digging for lead ore.
1826
The region
- February 6, 1826 A treaty was proclaimed between the Sioux and Chippewa, Sac and Fox, Menomonee, Iowa, Winnebago, and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawatomie tribes, for promoting peace and establishing boundaries; the Winnebago country it created was bounded on the southeast by Rock River.
- 1826 A great rush of miners to the lead region of southwestern Wisconsin began, continuing to 1830.
- December 22, 1826 A county named Chippewa was formed from the northern portions of Michilimackinac, including the southern shores of Lake Superior and, within its southern boundary of 46° 31' north latitude, all the territory of the present State of Wisconsin bordering on Lake Superior.
- 1826 The subject of P49 was again elected governor of the state.
1827
The region
- 1827 Mining at Fever river, Illinois, was extended into the Winnebago country and caused an Indian uprising that year.
- June 1827 The Winnebago Indians were aroused to open acts of hostility, and murders became frequent.
- 1827 The Winnebago War occurred, by which the United States gained control of the lead mines.
- 1827 The mining of the lead region had become quite general.
Nation and world
- January 29, 1827 An act of congress was approved authorizing the electors of the territory to elect the members of the legislative council, without submitting names to the president for appointment.
- 1827 Kellogg's trail, a wagon road connecting Galena with Peoria and other settlements in southern Illinois, was opened.
1828
The region
- 1828 The Winnebago war took place; P41 describes it as a war between Colonel Dodge and Chief Red Bird, in which Red Bird gave himself up.
- 1828 Government soldiers made the first recorded cutting of lumber on the stream, at the building of Fort Winnebago.
- August 25, 1828 The United States made a treaty at Green Bay with the Winnebago and other tribes, to remove difficulties arising from white occupation of the unceded mining country of southwestern Wisconsin.
- 1828 A lead-mining rush, called "the lead fever of 1828," occurred.
1829
The region
- July 29, 1829 A treaty was made at Prairie du Chien with the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawattamies.
- 1829 Fort Crawford was built on that tract (construction spanned 1829, 1830 and 1831).
- August 1, 1829 A second treaty was made at Prairie du Chien, with the Winnebagoes.
- 1829 The General Government purchased a tract from Lockwood and James D. Doty, covering farm lots numbered thirty-three and thirty-four of the private land claims at Prairie du Chien, comprising about one hundred and sixty acres.
Nation and world
Faces from the record
Engraved portraits from the county histories of 1879 and 1908. A different dozen each day.