After selling his farm, Mr. Fifield opened the first lumber yard in Janesville.

The evidence

• “After selling his farm in 1845 Mr. Fifield opened the first lumber yard in Janesville, locating it at the west end of what is now the Court Street bridge, and near where he built his home. Associated with him at a later period were his three brothers, who had moved to Janesville, so that since its establishment in 1845 there has continuously been a Fifield lumber yard. As the years passed the business enlarged and for nearly forty years the yard occupied the entire block between Pleasant and Dodge streets.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34b-biographical-2.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 386 / book p. 880

  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