Mark Hardy began manufacturing plows, wagons, etc., in a wooden shanty on the west side of the river in Janesville.

The evidence

• “In 1847-48, Mark Hardy held forth as a manufacturer of plows, wagons, etc., in a rudely constructed wooden shanty on the west side of the river, on a lot now occupied by Skelly Bros, who are in the same business. Hardy was taken with a violent type of a disease then known as the California gold fever, and, in 1849, he " pulled up stakes " in Janesville and cast his lot with the thousands of fortune-seekers who crossed the plains for the Far West.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/14-rock-county-ch08-janesville.md, PDF p. 559

  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