Once upon a house — and every word of it on the record.

The property

• 1835 William Yost came to Wisconsin and purchased a tract of land in sections 11 and 12, Beloit township.
• 1835 Caleb Blodgett made his first visit to the Beloit site, found the Frenchman Thiebeau there, and quieted his claim for $250; one passage dates the purchase to 1835 and '6, and Blodgett is described as temporarily located with his family in a log cabin at Meacham's in 1835.
• July 1835 Joseph Thibault came to the Beloit site and built the first building there, a log cabin.

Beloit

• 1835 The first step toward settlement of the town of Beloit was made; the first settlement in that township was made within what is now the corporate limits of Beloit City, and John Inman, the Holmes family and others settled there.
• July 19, 1835 John Inman and William Holmes visited the present site of Beloit, finding no human habitation there.
• December 26, 1835 A survey contract was made with Robert T. Lytle for subdivisions west of the river.

Rock County

• December 1835 Latter part of December 1835 — Samuel St. John and family (including the first white woman settler in Rock County) arrived after the Inman-Holmes party had made the first settlement.
• 1835 D. Butts broke the first sod in Rock County, in Fulton Township.
• 1835 Virgil Pope settled in Rock County.

The region

• February 9, 1835 The lands of the Fort Winnebago reservation were set apart by order of the president.
• October 1835 A company consisting of John Inman, George Follmer, William Holmes, Jr. and Joshua Holmes started from Milwaukee, accompanied by Milo Jones, who soon left for Fort Atkinson and made a claim there.
• November 15, 1835 John Inman, Thomas Holmes, William Holmes, Joshua Holmes, George Follmer and Milo Jones started from Milwaukee with an ox team and wagon; another passage names the party as John Inman, George Follner, William Holmes, Jr., and Joshua Holmes.

Nation and world

• October 1835 George W. Jones was elected a delegate for Michigan Territory.

The property

• 1836 Caleb Blodgett came to Beloit (early in 1836) and bought Thiebault's claim for $200 — the log cabin becoming the settlers' first abode; the purchase is also dated December 1836 in another passage (see December above).
• May 1836 Caleb Blodgett purchased the claim associated with Joseph Thibault at the future Beloit site. The transaction marked the documented transfer of the location from a French-associated fur-trade claimant to an American settler.
• Fall 1836 Caleb Blodgett sold one-third of his property near the future Beloit to Charles Goodhue. The two built a dam, sawmill, and race on Turtle Creek, establishing documented early water-powered infrastructure in the settlement area.

Beloit

• Fall 1836 Erastus Giles came from Roscoe, Illinois, to Rock County and helped raise the first house put up in Beloit; he is registered as settling in Turtle in October 1836.
• December 1836 Caleb Blodgett returned to Beloit accompanied by his wife Phoebe Kidder, sons Nelson and Daniel, son-in-law John Hackett, and daughter-in-law Mahaila Norris with her son; the Blodgett house was finished and occupied. One passage dates Blodgett's $200 purchase of Thibault's claim to December 1836, while another places that purchase early in 1836.
• 1836 The New England Emigrating Company acquired land connected with the future Beloit settlement, and the organization’s arrival was identified by local historical sources as a decisive stage in the community’s growth.

Rock County

• Spring 1836 Benjamin F. [—] and Tacey A. came to Rock County and settled in Harmony Township (Rock Prairie).
• 1836 A Mr. William [—] emigrated to Rock County and located on 237 acres in Sec. 33, being one of the earliest settlers.
• 1836 Norwegians settled in Rock County, forming early a nucleus in Luther Valley in the town of Newark.

The region

• June 1836 Robert and Daniel Stone started from Michigan for the Wisconsin Rock River valley (Fulton).
• 1836 Carramana, containing fifty platted blocks, was laid out at the junction of the Rock and Catfish rivers by James D. Doty, Alfred Orendorf, John Bannister and Morgan L. Martin, earlier than April 20, 1836, when Martin conveyed a half interest to Solomon Juneau.
• 1836 Just the body of a house was put up in 1836 on the Churchill claim [near Fort Atkinson], built by Elias Ogden and Augustine Churchill with only an axe.

Nation and world

• June 15, 1836 Congress passed an act accepting, ratifying and confirming Michigan's constitution and state government, and an act creating the Milwaukee land district (which included present Rock County).
• 1836 A settler left Shelburne, Mass., in 1836 (going to Michigan in 1841, later to Beloit).
• Summer 1836 Col. James M. Burgess made the first claim in Lima, on Section 17; he and a partner stayed through the season, made improvements, then returned East.

The property

• Winter 1837 Tebo/Thibault, the former and earliest proprietor of Beloit, was murdered, by his son Francis and his mother (one of his wives), after a family quarrel over whether to remain and cultivate the land or follow the Indians west of the Mississippi.
• 1837 Caleb Blodgett erected a house of boards, the product of Goodhue's mill — the beginning of the Rock River house.
• Spring 1837 Water was let into the mill race of the Blodgett–Goodhue saw mill.

Beloit

• August 1837 The Crosby family came to Rock County, among the first white settlers of Beloit.
• 1837 Other settlers not connected with the New England company appeared in Beloit, among them Walter Warner, Benjamin Cheney, David Noggle, William Jack, Charles M. Messer (surveyor), and Bradford Colley with his widowed sister.
• January 1837 Caleb Blodgett persuaded a family—the Chauncey Tuttles with four sons—to come from Meacham's Grove to Beloit.

Rock County

• April 22, 1837 George H. Williston settled in Harmony Township, Rock County, on Section 17.
• March 1837 Henry G. Spencer removed to Wisconsin, one of the first settlers of Rock County.
• December 7, 1837 By act No. 12, the seat of justice of Rock county was established on the fraction of land on the east side of Rock River, part of the northwest quarter of section 36, town 3 north, range 12 east.

The region

• April 1837 The first settlements were made on the west side of Jefferson Prairie.
• Spring 1837 George W. Ogden came and moved into the shanty on the Ogden claim.
• November 11, 1837 Major Charles Johnson and Cyrus Eames started for Burlington, Iowa, to obtain a charter for a seminary, paddling down Rock River in a dug-out with smoked suckers and cornbread for provisions.

Nation and world

• Spring 1837 Stephen Mack was found living at Rockton, Illinois, with a squaw wife and family.
• February 25, 1837 Mr. Payne sold Newburgh to William B. Lamb for $20,000.
• March 29, 1837 Sales of parts of the village of Newburgh began; between March 29 and August 5, 1837, parts of the village were sold to the amount of $95,200.

The property

• 1838 The reminiscence's narrator took his first lessons raking and binding wheat in Caleb Blodgett's wheat field near Beloit during the harvest of 1838.
• December 30, 1838 The First Congregational Church of Beloit was organized at a meeting in the Blodgett house.
• Winter 1838 Little was heard of the Thebault family at the foot of Lake Koshkonong until towards spring, and the absence of the head of the Thebault family was noted.

Beloit

• Spring 1838 S. G. Colley came to Beloit and made a claim of 320 acres in Sec. 21, Range 13, building a little frame house in which eleven lived the first winter.
• 1838 Field & Lusk put up a large store on the corner of State and Race streets in Beloit, generally regarded as the first actual store in the village.
• 1838 The Lawrence family all came out and settled in Beloit; another brother, Clark, purchased land on Turtle Creek.

Rock County

• 1838 Ezra and Matilda (Taft) came to Rock County and settled on Section 2.
• July 15, 1838 James P. Pierce came to Wisconsin and settled in Rock County, his first purchase being eighty acres from the Government on Section 3 of Harmony.
• November 16, 1838 Henry B. and Lucinda Crandall came to Rock County and located on Section 28 [in Milton], claiming 240 acres (a related passage gives 320 acres in all).

The region

• November 26, 1838 R. P. Crane, acting for the Beloit settlers, entered at the Milwaukee land office under his pre-emption claim Lots 6 and 7 in Section 35, Town 1, Range 12 east (78.57 acres), then deeded the lots back to the original owners.
• June 1838 A father's family removed to Wisconsin, locating on the borders of Rock and Walworth counties.
• August 13, 1838 A meeting was held at the house of Ansel Dickinson on Rock Prairie to organize a Congregational church; one passage dates it August 13, another August 16.

Nation and world

• Spring 1838 Ansten Natesta departed for Norway (going by way of New Orleans and Liverpool), and his return that year and the publication of his brother Ole's "Journal" in Drammen led other colonies to Rock County.
• June 18, 1838 Congress approved a land grant (the odd-numbered sections on a belt ten miles wide from Lake Michigan to Rock River, 139,190 acres) to aid construction of the Milwaukee–Rock River canal.
• June 16, 1838 A treaty with the Winnebagoes, concluded at Washington City, was proclaimed, by which the Winnebago Nation ceded all their land east of the Mississippi River.

Beloit

• July 1839 Merritt Bostwick, of New York, settled in Beloit.
• Fall 1839 John Hopkins came to Beloit and made the first recorded survey of the village of Beloit for Horace White and others.
• 1839 John C. Burr came to Beloit in company with Alfred Field and started a tin shop.

Rock County

• November 29, 1839 Gisle Sebjerson Hallan became a freeholder in Rock County; on the same date Gooneal G. Doctor (the widow Odegarden) took title to her first land.
• April 1, 1839 The records of Rock County begin; the first meeting of the county commissioners was held.
• February 19, 1839 Rock County was fully organized (a different reading from the February 13 organization act above and the spring organization below).

The region

• 1839 Biographical events dated only to 1839: a lawyer sold his Illinois farm and opened a law office in Beloit ; a minister toured the Territory for the American Home Mission Society and accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church of Milwaukee ; another clergyman was called to St. John's Church, Marcellus, New York ; a marriage to Lydia S. Ellsworth took place in Berlin, Connecticut ; a marriage to Cornelia A. Reynolds took place ; a Beloit lawyer located there in practice ; a district attorney was appointed ; a sheriff of Rock County was appointed by Governor Dodge ; a settler came to Beloit to look at land ; a settler came to Wisconsin and bought 235 acres of government land ; the Walker brothers (Aaron, Jason, Alfred) came to Milton and took up large claims ; a father and oldest brother came to Wisconsin and built a large log house ; a father came to Rock County and entered government land in Milton township ; Ezra Goodrich came with his parents to Wisconsin ; settlers came from Jamestown, New York, to Janesville ; Norwegian families emigrated to America and to Newark/Clinton townships ; Ole Knudson Natesta built a small log house in Clinton township ; a widow Odegarden came to America with four daughters ; a man left Janesville going to Missouri ; a family removed from the Rock/Walworth county line to Indiana ; William returned to Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and married Alma H. Wright ; a family moved from Albany County to Rensselaer County, New York ; a settler located at Du Page County, Illinois ; a man came West and settled in the lead mines near Galena ; a blacksmith commenced business in York State ; a factory destroyed by fire in 1838 was rebuilt ; Edward V. Whiton moved into Janesville in 1839 or 1840 ; a man united with the Congregational church in Newburyport, Massachusetts ; a marriage to Susan Sorbor took place in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ; a marriage to Amanda O. Daniels took place ; a marriage to Mary E. Blakoslee took place in Oneida County ; a marriage to Miss M. J. took place ; a marriage to Annie E. Lindsay took place ; a marriage to Mary Makin took place ; a marriage to Nancy A. Fordham took place and she came to Rock County ; a marriage to Lavina Cravath took place in Cortland County, New York ; a child, Mary Jane, died in 1839 ; Isaac P. Ferguson removed to Wisconsin and farmed in Johnstown Center ; a man came to Beloit and settled at Shopiere in 1841 ; Judge White moved into the city (1839 or 1840) .
• February 13, 1839 The Territorial Legislature approved the act organizing Rock County. (Other passages date the county's full organization to February 19, 1839, and to the spring of 1839 — see those entries.)
• 1839 A post route from Belvidere to Janesville, via Beloit, was established; John Hackett took charge of the new post office.

Nation and world

• March 9, 1839 Henry Dodge was re-appointed (to territorial office).
• February 28, 1839 An amending act was approved fixing the time for the election of county officers.
• February 1839 A future Beloit lawyer went to Batavia, New York, to read law, afterward coming to Beloit.

Beloit

• 1840 The Hanchett family came to Beloit, bought forty acres in Sec. 34, and Mr. Hanchett built the dam across Rock River at Beloit.
• August 7, 1840 Caleb Blodgett, the first white settler at Beloit, died.
• 1840 By fall, the Rock Prairie Norwegian settlement was established, consisting of five homesteads: Gravdal, Hallan, Odegarden, Lars Skavlem, and Gullik Halvorsen Blakstad (Skavlem); Gisle Hallan had taken possession of his new home in Sec. 6, Town of Beloit, and Gullick Halvorsen Blackstad (Skavlem) located on Sec. 28 during the spring and summer.

Rock County

• September 1840 The parents of Paul M. Green came to Rock Co. and purchased 120 acres on Sections 4 and 5 (Milton).
• 1840 Benjamin Palmer located in Rock County on the farm of 140 acres he still owned.
• 1840 Easton and Gusta Johnson arrived in Rock county and settled in Avon township.

The region

• 1840 The lands in Rock and Jefferson Counties came into market; the sale was at Milwaukee; settlers could first obtain title to the land that year.
• 1840 A Scottish settler came to Wisconsin, locating in Walworth Co., town of Lafayette (moving to Rock Co. in 1849).
• 1840 Widow Gunnel is listed in connection with the Rock Prairie settlement.

Nation and world

• August 5, 1840 James D. Doty was re-elected Territorial delegate.

Beloit

• October 1841 A settler came to Beloit, which then had about three hundred inhabitants, all on the east side of the river.
• April 4, 1841 A settler arrived in Beloit on a Sunday morning, having walked from Racine in the spring of 1841.
• 1841 A Beloit settler went to Michigan in 1841 and then came to Wisconsin, locating at Beloit.

Rock County

• September 1841 Silas and Cynthia Hurd arrived in Rock county, settling in a log cabin on the Rock river east of Indian Ford.
• Fall 1841 Rollin Thorpe came to Rock County and purchased 160 acres in Sec. 11, Town 4, Range 13.
• Spring 1841 W. Wood came to Rock County, locating in Harmony, Sec. 1.

The region

• 1841 The Government sent a military detachment to enforce the removal of the Rock River Winnebagoes beyond the Mississippi.
• June 5, 1841 A steam boat built at Aztalan came down the river; Ogden rode it to Janesville and the boat went on toward St. [Louis].
• October 22, 1841 Quarter-section entries were recorded for Margaret Oles Dater (Mrs. Gullik Springen) and Erek Gulbeitson.

Nation and world

• 1841 A Beloit settler went back to Jefferson Co., N. Y.
• 1841 George Salisbury, father of a Clinton settler, died at the age of 55.
• September 13, 1841 President Tyler appointed James Duane Doty governor of the Territory in place of Dodge; another passage gives the appointment date as September 30, 1841.

Beloit

• Summer 1842 The central bridge at Beloit (a toll bridge built by a private company, a timber trestle structure framed by John P. Houston) was built over Rock River; it was later given to the village in 1844.
• February 17, 1842 The town of Beloit was constituted by an act of the territorial legislature.
• July 6, 1842 The corner stone of the "old stone church" (Congregational) was laid at the northwest corner of Broad and Prospect streets, Beloit; the edifice was erected in 1842 (built in 1842 and 1843).

Rock County

• Fall 1842 A house of worship was constructed on the northeast quarter of section 35, town of Milton, and the congregation became known as the First Congregational Church of Rock County.
• July 1842 Adrien Bassett and Annie Gates came to Rock County.
• February 17, 1842 The town of Rock was organized into a separate town.

The region

• February 19, 1842 Goelick (Goelicke) Holt (Gravdal) was registered as the purchaser of land.
• Fall 1842 Mr. Rollin Thorpe came to Wisconsin, settled on his land, and broke the first ground.
• November 1842 [The writer] visited Fort Atkinson (his sister Amanda was then living at Aztalan).

Nation and world

• May 9, 1842 The government patent was issued to Mr. Crane for lots 6 and 7 (he had entered them in 1838 and had reconveyed them to the parties in interest before receiving the patent).

Beloit

• May 15, 1843 The Moseley family reached Beloit.
• 1843 The Winslow family came to Beloit.
• May 1843 Benjamin Brown joined the Congregational church in Beloit.

Rock County

• November 1843 James Sowle came to Rock County and settled on Sec. 26, purchasing 240 acres; the land was deeded to him from the Probate Court in the fall of 1843.
• 1843 The subject's father moved to Rock county and settled on land his father had purchased.
• 1843 E. Bowerman came to Wisconsin and settled in Fulton Township, Rock Co.

The region

• April 12, 1843 An act was approved appointing commissioners to alter the Beloit–Madison road and lay out roads from Janesville to Ellis's Mill and to Mineral Point.
• 1843 The log schoolhouse at the "big ford" of Rock river was used until 1843, when another log house was occupied by the school.
• 1843 Surveyor Willard Barrows noted Black Hawk's wigwam and grave while surveying.

Nation and world

• December 4, 1843 Henry Dodge took his seat for his second term as delegate at the commencement of the first session of the twenty-eighth Congress.

Beloit

• 1844 John Chamberlin and family came to Beloit; he took up 160 acres in Sec. 8 and built a log cabin.
• 1844 Bennett Wooster came to Beloit and began farming about three miles east.
• April 1844 A settler built and moved to the west side of Rock river at Beloit, the second residence there.

Rock County

• 1844 The Flagler family moved to Rock county and settled on a quarter-section in section 12, Janesville township.
• 1844 The Cleophas Holverson family moved from Dane county to Rock county, settling on forty acres in Newark township.
• May 1, 1844 A settler came to Rock County (Milton Junction).

The region

• 1844 A man first came to Wisconsin (Racine, Rock Co.), prospecting for a location.
• 1844 The red frame schoolhouse of the joint districts of Rock and La Prairie was erected.
• Winter 1844 Julius Gilbert and Francis Smith "shantied" on the s. e. qr. of section 34; they were young men and single.

Nation and world

• 1844 Brynihd and Eli (Siam) Duxstad came to the United States and settled on a quarter section in Clinton township.
• 1844 Charles C. Cheney, Henry Chees(e)bro, William Loyd, Adelmon Sherman and Ephraim Leach, Jr., made their purchases.
• 1844 A settler came West and located in Rockton, Ill.

Beloit

• September 1845 A tavern-keeper came to Beloit and bought eighty acres of land in Section 4, building a log house.
• 1845 The first bridge across Rock River at Indian Ford was built by private subscription, Stephen Allen, builder.
• January 1, 1845 A merchant (a Buffalo former resident) came to Beloit and commenced business as a merchant.

Rock County

• 1845 Arrivals and settlements in Rock County recorded without more precise dates: A. Wyatt Smith removed to Janesville ; Capt. William Macloon came from Boston and settled at Janesville ; A. M. Simmons (father) settled in Harmony about 1845 ; a Beloit lawyer removed to Beloit ; Ezra Philo Doty came to Janesville ; a Walworth lawyer came to Wisconsin and located at Janesville ; a New York farmer bought a farm at Beloit ; a Connecticut man took up eighty acres in Sec. 18 at Beloit ; the Millett family located in Beloit ; Hans and Bargitt Halverson's family came to Newark, buying land in Section 12 ; a Durham Co. settler located in Newark, buying and improving two farms ; the Case family moved to Clinton and settled on 160 acres ; L. Burdick's neighbors ; a Rhode Island man located in the town of Lima ; Abram Caufman emigrated to Center ; an 1837-born resident came to Wisconsin ; E. Footville-resident moved to what is now Footville ; a settler located on his present homestead in Center ; families emigrated to Wisconsin ; a Bennett came to Wisconsin and taught school in Union ; Leonard Bullard's family settled in Union Township ; a Hancock Co., Me., man located in Union Township ; the Hubbard family settled on land entered in 1840 in Union Township ; a Cortland Co. man located in Union Township ; a settler bought 200 acres and built one of the first log houses in Plymouth Township ; Jacob Fisher came to Plymouth Township about 1845 ; a Steuben Co. man located at Darien ; a New York man came to Wisconsin locating at Johnstown ; a Scotland-born man came to America in 1845 and settled on a farm in Harmony ; A. Douglas entered forty acres of land settled in 1843 ; Johnstown settlers from New York located there, purchasing farms [B156]; G. came to Rock County and bought a farm of forty acres of government land ; M. Wilcox located and bought 100 acres in Harmony ; the Miller family came to Harmony Township, buying 240 acres ; families from Ohio settled in Milton township ; a father settled on a 1,000-acre farm in Lima township ; the Marquart family moved from Ohio and settled in Wisconsin ; an Irish couple (Clinchy) came to Wisconsin and bought a farm northwest of Beloit ; a family settled in Milton township ; Thomas bought eighty acres in section 6, Bradford township ; the Moore family located near Milwaukee ; the Bradley family settled on a farm in Turtle township ; Mr. Fifield's brothers later joined his lumber business ; a resident came to Janesville prior to January 1845 and served as probate judge for Rock County in 1845 and 1846 ; Carpenter engaged in general merchandising in Beloit .
• Spring 1845 A Norwegian family (Keesey) came to the United States and purchased and settled on a farm in Rock County.
• October 1845 A Freeborn came to Wisconsin and wintered in Cooksville, Rock County.

The region

• February 24, 1845 Prior to this date Rock and Walworth counties constituted one election district; the territorial legislature of 1845 passed an act dividing the district and constituting Rock County an election district.
• 1845 Charles C. Cheney, Henry Chesebro (Cheesebro), William Loyd, Adelmon Sherman and Ephraim Leach, Jr., made their land purchases (in 1844 and 1845).
• 1845 Halvor H. Husemoen came to Rock Prairie with his father, Hans Halvorsen Husemoen.

Nation and world

• April 8, 1845 Henry Dodge was appointed governor of Wisconsin Territory; the 1908 history gives his term as beginning May 13, 1845, a discrepancy with the April 8 date.
• July 6, 1845 The First Congregational Church at Johnstown Village was organized by Rev. Stephen Peet.