The first convention to consider organizing a college met in the old stone church at Beloit, with delegates from Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

The evidence

• “At the first convention, which met on the 6th of August, 1844, Wisconsin was represented by sixteen ministers and ten laymen, Illinois by thirteen ministers and fourteen laymen, and Iowa by four ministers. They thought it best that separate provision should be made for Iowa ; but, after two days of earnest consideration of the subject, unanimously resolved that Northern Illinois and Wisconsin ought to unite in a college and a female seminary of the highest order, one in each State and near the border, and appointed a committee of ten leading men from Chicago, Galena, Racine, Milwaukee, Platteville, and other places throughout the region, to study the question of location, and report at another convention in October of the same year.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/12-rock-county-ch06-politics-war-record.md, PDF p. 470 / book p. 474

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

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

  

• “"August 6, 1844, that meeting convened in the old stone church, Beloit. Four came from Iowa, twenty-seven from Illinois, twenty-five from Wisconsin—in all, fifty-six delegates.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/15-colleges.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 327 / book p. 300

  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

  

• “e is light and hope in what he says. A hand from the East will be stretched out to help on the establishment of genuine Christian colleges, judiciously located here and there in the West. Peet seizes on the gleam of encouragement, his uttered thoughts kindle enthusiasm and hope in the rest. There is an earnest consultation — there is a fervent prayer — there is a settled purpose and Beloit College is a living conception.” The men set to work. On August 6, 1844, ministers and educators from Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin Territory, met at Beloit’s Congregational Church to discuss the founding of colleges, including establishing one in Iowa and both a college and female seminary near the Illinois and Wisconsin border. Over the next year and a half, they sponsored three more conventions. At the third, held in May of 1845, 68 of 69 attendees voted to establish a college at Beloit. Then, at the convention in October, they created a Board of Trustees. As their long-held dream took shape, Beloiters felt a palpable enthusiasm. Beloit College now existed, but without a site, without a faculty, and without students. The Trustees, however, were determined: “By the b”

  https://www.beloit.edu/live/news/2884-fridays-with-fred-the-building-of-beloit-college

  beloit.edu, https://www.beloit.edu/live/news/2884-fridays-with-fred-the-building-of-beloit-college

  Grade B: Found on an institutional web page