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.
1855
Beloit
- October 1855 A Beloit-area immigrant removed to Beloit from Rutland, Vt., bought a farm of fifty-six acres and farmed it.
- May 19, 1855 G. W. Walkly came to Wisconsin, locating in Beloit.
- October 1855 B. Crosby engaged in the banking business with the organization of the Rock County Bank.
- November 25, 1855 Water-Witch Engine and Hose Company No. 1 was organized (Beloit); Brown's account also places the Water Witch company's organization in 1855.
Rock County
- 1855 Arrivals and settlements dated only to 1855: James Clark came to Canada from Scotland ; Judge Conger came to Janesville ; a lawyer came to Janesville joining Noggle, Williams & Patterson ; Crosby came to Beloit (Newark? — he came to Wisconsin in 1855) ; Keeler came to Wisconsin locating at Beloit ; a carpenter bought fifty acres in Rock Township ; a tailor settled in Beloit and went into business ; Rosenblatt came to Beloit ; a young man came West about 1855 and learned blacksmithing in Beloit ; Cobb came to Clinton and began manufacturing wagons ; Crandall went to Madison and engaged in buying stock and grain ; a home built in Lima about 1855 ; Freeborn located on his farm ; Fritts removed to Rock Co. and owned the Lima store ; a family removed to Wisconsin settling at La Prairie (240 acres) ; a settler located at La Prairie (ninety acres) ; a settler located at Avon ; Fairfield moved to Bradford and purchased 296 acres ; a Fifeshire man purchased a farm on Rock Prairie ; Cooke and son came to Wisconsin ; Magnolia settler returned from California ; a farm rented from J. Montgomery ; a house in Janesville traded for eighty acres in Magnolia Township ; a settler settled in Porter Township ; a broom-maker came to Janesville ; a lime merchant came to Janesville as a teamster ; Wallace came to Footville and went into the mercantile business ; a man came to Rock Co. about 1855 ; a family settled at Turtleville ; a family settled on the present Beloit-area farm ; a family moved from New York and settled in Dunkirk, Dane county ; Finch family came from England ; Grunhuvd family settled in Plymouth township ; a watchmaker went to Fort Wayne, Ind. ; a blacksmith settled on a farm in Rutland township, Dane county ; a man removed to Orleans county, N. Y., and married ; a man came to Beloit and was employed in the lumber yards ; John Murray came to Janesville ; John P. Watson became a resident of Janesville ; a settler came to Johnstown, locating on Sec. 19 ; a man came to Beloit in 1855 and attended school ; Banks returned for Mrs. Banks ; many laborers came to Beloit, including Patrick Mooney and wife, John Leary and wife, and William Condon ; a man came to Wisconsin locating at La Prairie ; the Hardware firm Lawrence, Strong & Co. dissolved ; Magnus Hanson commenced business for himself ; William S. Morgan began learning carpenter trade at Janesville ; a man entered the employ of a lumber firm ; H. Dickinson settled in Edgerton ; Soverhill settled on his present homestead ; settlers came to Footville ; a man came to Wisconsin in 1855 ; a family settled at Footville ; a homestead built in Magnolia ; a homestead built in Magnolia Township .
- Spring 1855 A family came West, locating in the town of Union, Rock county.
- 1855 Mr. [Pease] helped organize the Rock County bank organized as a state bank in 1855.
- 1855 Banks organized in 1855: the Janesville City bank and Rock County bank ; Wadsworth, Clark & Co. ; a State Bank, of which a Janesville man was cashier ; W. Smith engaged in banking ; and bodies buried in the old cemetery block were reburied in Oak Hill and Mt. Olivet in 1855–56 .
The region
- January 22, 1855 Mr. Crane executed a deed to Samuel B. Cooper covering Lots 6 and 7.
- 1855 Erastus and Theodore Hopkins bought the water right and erected a sawmill.
- April 23, 1855 Demmon conveyed Lots 6 and 7 to Paul Dillingham.
- August 1855 A meeting was held in the log meeting house near the residence of A. K. [Hatlestad].
Nation and world
- 1855 An act gave the Milwaukee & Mississippi Company authority to continue their Milton & Janesville branch to the Mississippi River.
- February 24, 1855 An act of congress formed the Fond du Lac land district.
- Summer 1855 A house of worship was erected (dedicated September 15).
- August 8, 1855 A dispensation was granted to establish a Masonic Lodge at Indian Ford (Fulton Center).
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