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.
1850
Beloit
- 1850 The Fletcher family (William D. and Mary C.) settled at Beloit.
- 1850 A family came to the United States from Norway and settled in Beloit (later moving to Newark township).
- 1850 An individual came to Beloit in 1850 to work on paper mills.
- July 23, 1850 The first church edifice (First Presbyterian), at the southeast corner of Broad and Pleasant streets in Beloit, costing about ten thousand dollars, was dedicated.
Rock County
- November 19, 1850 Preliminary steps were taken toward the formation of an agricultural society in Rock County, with a call made on farmers to meet at the Court House in Janesville.
- 1850 An individual came to Wisconsin and located in Rock County, settling in Plymouth.
- 1850 An individual came to Rock County in 1850 and settled in Lima.
- 1850 The Rock County Agricultural Society and Mechanics' Institute was organized, with Mr. Willard elected President.
The region
- 1850 A willow tree was set out from a little sprout near a house in Waterloo (now Shopiere).
- 1850 An act of the Wisconsin legislature was passed regarding the Oak Hill Cemetery Association.
- 1850 Land that had been pre-empted in 1844 was sold.
- December 4, 1850 The Fort Howard military reservation lands were abandoned for military purposes by the war department.
Nation and world
- 1850 The Madison & Beloit Railroad Company was authorized by an act of the legislature to extend its road and its name was changed to the Rock River Valley Union Railroad Company.
- 1850 The town of Harmony was organized as a separate town.
- October 1850 A house of worship (built of brick during 1849 and 1850) was dedicated.
- 1850 Timothy O. Howe was elected to office.
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