The second term of the District Court for Rock County convened in the unfinished hall of the Janesville Stage House.

The evidence

• “Some other cases were called, and ex-parte matters were attended to, but the business of the first term of the District Court for Rock County seemed to be mainly to get the machinery in order for future work. The next term commenced on Monday, the 21st day of October, 1839. A public hall having been finished in the Janesville Stage House, the first hotel of any pretensions in the village, the court convened in this new and unfinished hall, where their sessions were afterward held until a Court House, which was erected on an elevation very near the site of the present Court House, was completed in the month of December, 1841.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/10-rock-county-ch04-early-maps-courts-railroads.md, PDF p. 360 / book p. 364

  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

  

• “With the transaction of various items of routine business necessary to the full organization of the court, the first term of court adjourned on April 17. At that time there was no court house, and when, on the 21st of October, 1839, the second term of the District court convened, it met in an unfinished hall in what was known as the Janesville Stage House, and continued to meet there until the completion of the first court house, in December, 1841. There were quite a number of cases on the civil docket at the opening of the second term, but some of these were settled, in others, judgments were entered by default, and those not so disposed of were continued to the next term, so that although a petit jury was impaneled, it had nothing to do.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/32-courts-and-legal-profession.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 209 / book p. 713

  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 · may repeat 1879-history-of-rock-county, so not counted as independent

  

• “ssigned to the district. The Act provided for holding of at least two terms of the District Court in each organized County in the District. The first term of the Second District Territorial Court held in Rock County convened in Janesville, April 15, 1839, to organize the court, and adjourned April 17, 1839. The first judgment rendered was in the case of Milton W. Warner vs. Charles Johnson, entered on default when Mr. Johnson failed to appear. There was no courthouse in Janesville, but on October 21, 1839, the Court convened again in Janesville and met in an unfinished hall in what was called the “Janesville Stage House” and continued to convene there until completion of the first Rock County Courthouse in December, 1841. Although no photographs of the first Courthouse can be located, a description can be found in the 1879 History of Rock County, by C. W. Butterfield: “Rock County’s first Court House was a two-story frame, erected in Janesville in 1841. It stood upon the exact spot now occupied by the present Court House, but was much more difficult to rea”

  https://beloithistory.org/court-history-rock-county-wi/

  beloithistory.org, https://beloithistory.org/court-history-rock-county-wi/

  Grade B: Found on an institutional web page