Caleb Blodgett set up the first sawmill in Beloit.

The evidence

• “Indians and squaws helped him roll up the logs for his house, which was built with two rooms and stood on the banks of Rock river on what is now State street. He dug a race down what is now called South Race street and set up the first sawmill in Beloit in March, 1837. He sold to Dr.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34c-biographical-3.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 433 / book p. 924

  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