The first railroad reached Janesville

The evidence

• “Quick to look into the welfare and future interests of his home town, he never refused to enroll his name in a good cause when sought to do so. He was one of the thirty-six charter members of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company; also one of the original stockholders in the first railroad which made its way into Janesville, in January, 1854, then known as the Milwaukee & Mississippi, later as the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien, which changed to the Milwaukee & St. Paul and at last merged into the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34b-biographical-2.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 381 / book p. 875

  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