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.
1854
Beloit
- Fall 1854 An Irish-born settler came to Beloit
- July 1854 A town was laid out at the junction of Bass (Afton) creek with the Rock river
- 1854 The first Catholic church at Beloit was built by Father Norris
- April 6, 1854 The Murray block in Beloit burned
Rock County
- 1854 Settlers and families arrived in Rock County and vicinity: the Baker family to Rock County ; Austin B. Burpee to Janesville ; an Irish family to Center Township ; a settler to the town of Lima ; a settler to Harmony ; a settler to the town of Rock ; a settler to La Prairie ; Wilden Hughes moved to La Prairie ; a settler located at Shopiere ; a settler purchased land at La Prairie ; a young resident of La Prairie ; a settler located at Milton ; Elijah Bullock settled in Wisconsin ; a banker removed to Argyle, Lafayette County ; a settler located in Union Township ; a settler located at Bradford ; a settler located in Bradford ; a family bought land on Section 10, Harmony ; the Dillenbeck family located in Harmony Township ; the Wilcox family settled on a 110-acre Harmony farm ; a physician came to the village of Milton ; a gunsmith located in Beloit ; Simon Nolan came to Janesville ; the Grinnell family settled at Johnstown ; the Fillingham family landed in Buffalo, N. Y. ; the Hansen parents were married in Janesville and moved to Beloit ; John Murray moved to Wisconsin and engaged in stonecutting ; a father returned and bought a Clinton township farm ; the Leonard's wife (a teacher) died ; a family removed to Fulton township ; a Norwegian father emigrated and settled on a farm in Dane county ; Mr. and Mrs. Finney/Hutson-related English families moved to Edgerton [P366, cited above]
- Fall 1854 Almeron Eager came to Rock County and bought eighty acres in the town of Union
- 1854 Rock County was visited by a light choleraic epidemic
- March 22, 1854 The Rock County Board of Supervisors purchased the county poor farm
The region
- 1854 Another congregation built a house of worship at a cost of $1,500 on a lot given by Peter McEwen
- 1854 The Bushnell House was completed
- 1854 A Congregational society built a small chapel on section 34
- May 12, 1854 A supplementary treaty was made with the Menomonee nation
Nation and world
- 1854 Rev. John M. [Baker] served by appointment following Judge Doolittle
- 1854 Hudson & co. conducted the American House from 1854 to 1858
- December 15, 1854 Congress approved an act granting seventy-two sections of land in aid of the state university
- 1854 A seventh judicial circuit was formed by act taking effect that year
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