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.
1836
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.
- 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.
- December 1836 Caleb Blodgett returned to the Turtle Creek site with his wife, sons Nelson and Daniel, and son-in-law John Hackett. The county history states that he bought Thibault’s claims on the east side of the Rock River, described as the “three looks,” for $200, and that Indians still on the west side helped him build a two-room log cabin near the east bank.
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.
- 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.
- May 1836 Caleb Blodgett came exploring the site of present Beloit and returned in June; he found Thibault living there with two wives.
- Fall 1836 William Lawrence of northern Pennsylvania visited Wisconsin on a tour of observation and purchased two claims near Beloit from Caleb Blodget; his son George W. Lawrence came and purchased claims near Beloit the same fall (the family came out in 1838).
Rock County
- 1836 A Mr. William [—] emigrated to Rock County and located on 237 acres in Sec. 33, being one of the earliest settlers.
- Spring 1836 Benjamin F. [—] and Tacey A. came to Rock County and settled in Harmony Township (Rock Prairie).
- 1836 Norwegians settled in Rock County, forming early a nucleus in Luther Valley in the town of Newark.
- Spring 1836 The first land in the Rock/Fulton area was broken and cropped with buckwheat by John Inman, producing a fair yield.
The region
- 1836 Black Hawk and his braves forded the Catfish River on the site of what is now the village of Indian Ford.
- November 29, 1836 Edward Shepard sold interests in certain tracts [of Wisconsin City] to Peter Cannon for $10,000.
- 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).
- 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.
- April 20, 1836 Congress created Wisconsin Territory by approving the territorial act. The new territory included the southern Wisconsin region that later contained Rock County and Beloit.
- April 30, 1836 President Andrew Jackson commissioned Henry Dodge governor of Wisconsin Territory, and commissioned Charles Dunn chief justice and David Irvin and William C. Frazer associate justices.
Faces from the record
Engraved portraits from the county histories of 1879 and 1908. A different dozen each day.
Research in progress
2,413
documented events
41 years so far, 1820–1860
27
on the property itself
614 more in Beloit
9,847
people identified
across the sources
9
sources transcribed
1,456,854 words · 198 clippings