Caleb Blodgett made his first visit to the Beloit site, found the Frenchman Thiebeau there, and quieted his claim for $250; one passage dates the purchase to 1835 and '6, and Blodgett is described as temporarily located with his family in a log cabin at Meacham's in 1835.

The evidence

• “Caleb Blodgett was the first of the settlers. He found at his first visit to this place in. 1835, Thiebeau, a Frenchman, who had taken an Indian wife, who pretended to claim a territory somewhat indefinite in extent, This equivocal claim it was the first care of Blodgett to quiet, and in this he easily succeeded, The consideration paid to Tiebeau was $250. The next object to which he bent his energies, was to fortify his own claim so that it would appear respectable in the eyes of' succeeding adventurers, and stand the test of border law.”

  1856-history-of-rock-county/06-beloit.md, PDF p. 65 / book p. 47

  Guernsey, Orrin, and Josiah F. Willard, editors. History of Rock County, and Transactions of the Rock County Agricultural Society and Mechanics' Institute. Janesville, Wis.: William M. Doty & Brother, 1856. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871593.

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

• “Blodgett had a strong, vigorous mind, clear foresight, restless energy and an indomitable will that nothing could daunt. Passing over the events of his earlier manhood, struggles in the then wilds of western New York and Ohio with successes and discouragements and final disaster in the loss by fire of the accumulations of years, we find him in 1835 temporarily located with his family in a log cabin at Meacham's”

  1908-brown-rock-county/06-history-of-beloit.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 146 / book p. 131

  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