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.
1853
Beloit
- 1853 The Henry Knile family came to Beloit in 1853 and bought the east half of Sec. 29.
- October 5, 1853 The Supervisors of the town of Beloit passed a resolution to issue bonds to the Racine & Mississippi Railroad Company.
- May 1853 Mr. Ritcher came to Wisconsin in the latter part of May, 1853, and located in Beloit.
- March 28, 1853 The Beloit Board of Supervisors dated a notice regarding the railroad-stock subscription election.
Rock County
- 1853 The Synstegard parents came from Norway about 1853, walked from Milwaukee to Rock county, and bought 220 acres in Avon township.
- Fall 1853 Mr. Rogers came to Rock Co. in the fall of 1853 and settled on Section 33.
- 1853 The Gibbs family settled in 1853 in Porter Township, Rock Co.
- Spring 1853 William (of the Bradford farm family) moved to Bradford, Rock Co., and settled on 480 acres.
The region
- 1853 George Crossman purchased eighty acres (Sec. 34) in 1853.
- January 19, 1853 An Agricultural Convention was to be held at Madison, to which the Rock County society was asked to send delegates.
- 1853 The removal of the Winnebagoes was continued up to 1853, when from 700 to 900 still remained.
- 1853 George W. Parker and Ole Evenson sold their plow-shop site in 1853.
Nation and world
- 1853 Tompkinson erected a three-story brick building in 1853.
- 1853 Col. Ezra Miller was a member of the Senate from the 17th district for the years 1853 and 1854.
- March 25, 1853 An act providing for a geological survey of the State was approved.
- 1853 A gentleman served as Deputy City Clerk in 1853.
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