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.
1848
Beloit
- Spring 1848 An unnamed settler came to Wisconsin and located at Beloit, where he farmed.
- 1848 The earliest school on the west side of the river in Beloit was taught by Miss Foot.
- Spring 1848 The Crossman family came to Wisconsin; one son settled at Beloit.
- Spring 1848 W. Bullock came to Wisconsin, locating at Beloit.
Rock County
- February 1848 A farm of seventy-three acres in Rock County was purchased.
- August 17, 1848 Surveys were commenced in Rock county for the Rock River Valley railroad.
- December 20, 1848 A meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Madison & Beloit Railroad Company was held at Janesville, with stock subscriptions agreed to.
- September 18, 1848 The first term of the Circuit Court for Rock County convened at the Court House in Janesville, Judge Whiton presiding.
The region
- February 21, 1848 The territorial legislature approved an act authorizing A. Hyatt Smith, Ira Miltimore and associates to erect a dam across Rock river.
- 1848 Mr. Millett bought 240 acres of Government land in Section 9.
- August 19, 1848 A charter was granted the Madison & Beloit Railroad Company by an act of the first legislature.
- 1848 From 1840 to 1848 six companies of United States soldiers had been kept in Wisconsin to protect citizens and remove renegade Winnebagoes.
Nation and world
- May 29, 1848 Wisconsin was admitted into the Union.
- November 24, 1848 A supplementary treaty was made with the Stockbridges.
- May 8, 1848 William Pitt Lynde was elected Member of Congress for the First District.
- November 7, 1848 Robert C. Cowan was elected Sheriff; at this election a vote on "equal suffrage to colored persons" was taken.
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