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.
1859
Beloit
- 1859 A settler came to Beloit and bought eighty acres in Sec. 8, with improvements.
- 1859 A widow built the residence she occupied (with barns) in Beloit.
- 1859 A farmer bought 120 acres of land in section 28, Beloit township.
- September 1859 J. H. Hendley came to Wisconsin, locating at Beloit.
Rock County
- 1859 A father brought his family to Rock county and settled on an eighty-acre tract in section 26, Clinton township.
- April 1859 D. and Martha D. Bliss came to Rock County.
- 1859 A settler (born in County Meath, Ireland, 1823) settled in Rock County.
- 1859 A miller moved to Milton, Rock Co.
The region
- 1859 Mr. and Mrs. Edwards bought the property from Elder James Rogers.
- 1859 The bond-holders completed the [rail]road to Freeport during the year.
- 1859 Mr. A. Thompson disposed of [the property he kept] to Mr. T.
- 1859 A returnee from Australia came West and made investments in Dodge county, Wisconsin, including a hotel.
Nation and world
- 1859 A seminary building was finished and a school opened therein.
- 1859 A sketch's subject (later Governor) was elected Secretary of State.
- Spring 1859 A sketch's subject returned to Magnolia and bought eighty acres.
- 1859 The great debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas came on in Illinois (per this passage), and Douglas was chosen senator again.
Faces from the record
Engraved portraits from the county histories of 1879 and 1908. A different dozen each day.
