The sleighing of the "hard winter" ended.

The evidence

• “" I came to Beloit in October, 1841 ; the settlement had then about three hundred ; it was all on the east side of the river ; I held through the winter a line of singing-schools at White- Water, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Beloit and Rockford ; the winter was, beautiful, from six to ten inches of snow ; the next winter was the hard winter ; sleighing from the 9th of November, 1842, to the 10th of April, 1843 ; teams crossed Rock River on the ice the 11th of April. I was lost on Roek Prairie the 17th of November, 1842, in a snow-storm ; the snow was two feet deep and increased during the winter to four feet ; cattle, horses, hogs and sheep perished by cold and hunger ; the bridge was built at Beloit that summer; in April, 1844, 1 built and moved to the west side of the river, and from May 10, it rained almost continuously for fifty days.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/15-rock-county-ch09-beloit.md, PDF p. 612 / book p. 616

  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