Major Charles Johnson and Cyrus Eames started for Burlington, Iowa, to obtain a charter for a seminary, paddling down Rock River in a dug-out with smoked suckers and cornbread for provisions.

The evidence

• “"The first application made by this infant community to the legislative power for any purpose whatever was a petition for a charter for a seminary of learning. On the 11th of November, 1837, Major Charles Johnson and Cyrus Eames started to Burlington, Iowa, the then seat of the territorial government of the country now embraced in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, to obtain such a charter. In a dug-out they paddled down Rock river to the Mississippi, taking with them for provisions a supply of smoked suckers and cornbread, and then went by steamer to Burlington.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/11-beloit-schools.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 267 / book p. 244

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources