The chronology
The land through time
Every documented event, from the property outward: Beloit, Rock County, the region and the world. Each one links to the page of the source that records it. The record so far covers 1820–1864; more years are being added.
1835
The property
- 1835 William Yost came to Wisconsin and purchased a tract of land in sections 11 and 12, Beloit township.
- 1835 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.
- July 1835 Joseph Thibault came to the Beloit site and built the first building there, a log cabin.
Beloit
- 1835 The first step toward settlement of the town of Beloit was made; the first settlement in that township was made within what is now the corporate limits of Beloit City, and John Inman, the Holmes family and others settled there.
- July 19, 1835 John Inman and William Holmes visited the present site of Beloit, finding no human habitation there.
- December 26, 1835 A survey contract was made with Robert T. Lytle for subdivisions west of the river.
Rock County
- December 1835 Latter part of December 1835 — Samuel St. John and family (including the first white woman settler in Rock County) arrived after the Inman-Holmes party had made the first settlement.
- 1835 D. Butts broke the first sod in Rock County, in Fulton Township.
- 1835 Virgil Pope settled in Rock County.
The region
- February 9, 1835 The lands of the Fort Winnebago reservation were set apart by order of the president.
- October 1835 A company consisting of John Inman, George Follmer, William Holmes, Jr. and Joshua Holmes started from Milwaukee, accompanied by Milo Jones, who soon left for Fort Atkinson and made a claim there.
- November 15, 1835 John Inman, Thomas Holmes, William Holmes, Joshua Holmes, George Follmer and Milo Jones started from Milwaukee with an ox team and wagon; another passage names the party as John Inman, George Follner, William Holmes, Jr., and Joshua Holmes.
Nation and world
1836
The property
- 1836 Caleb Blodgett came to Beloit (early in 1836) and bought Thiebault's claim for $200 — the log cabin becoming the settlers' first abode; the purchase is also dated December 1836 in another passage (see December above).
- May 1836 Caleb Blodgett purchased the claim associated with Joseph Thibault at the future Beloit site. The transaction marked the documented transfer of the location from a French-associated fur-trade claimant to an American settler.
- December 1836 Caleb Blodgett returned to Beloit accompanied by his wife Phoebe Kidder, sons Nelson and Daniel, son-in-law John Hackett, and daughter-in-law Mahaila Norris with her son; the Blodgett house was finished and occupied. One passage dates Blodgett's $200 purchase of Thibault's claim to December 1836, while another places that purchase early in 1836.
Beloit
- Fall 1836 Erastus Giles came from Roscoe, Illinois, to Rock County and helped raise the first house put up in Beloit; he is registered as settling in Turtle in October 1836.
- 1836 The New England Emigrating Company acquired land connected with the future Beloit settlement, and the organization’s arrival was identified by local historical sources as a decisive stage in the community’s growth.
- May 1836 Caleb Blodgett came exploring the site of present Beloit and returned in June; he found Thibault living there with two wives.
Rock County
- 1836 A Mr. William [—] emigrated to Rock County and located on 237 acres in Sec. 33, being one of the earliest settlers.
- Spring 1836 Benjamin F. [—] and Tacey A. came to Rock County and settled in Harmony Township (Rock Prairie).
- 1836 Norwegians settled in Rock County, forming early a nucleus in Luther Valley in the town of Newark.
The region
- 1836 Black Hawk and his braves forded the Catfish River on the site of what is now the village of Indian Ford.
- November 29, 1836 Edward Shepard sold interests in certain tracts [of Wisconsin City] to Peter Cannon for $10,000.
- 1836 Carramana, containing fifty platted blocks, was laid out at the junction of the Rock and Catfish rivers by James D. Doty, Alfred Orendorf, John Bannister and Morgan L. Martin, earlier than April 20, 1836, when Martin conveyed a half interest to Solomon Juneau.
Nation and world
- June 15, 1836 Congress passed an act accepting, ratifying and confirming Michigan's constitution and state government, and an act creating the Milwaukee land district (which included present Rock County).
- Summer 1836 Col. James M. Burgess made the first claim in Lima, on Section 17; he and a partner stayed through the season, made improvements, then returned East.
- April 20, 1836 Congress created Wisconsin Territory by approving the territorial act. The new territory included the southern Wisconsin region that later contained Rock County and Beloit.
1837
The property
- Winter 1837 Tebo/Thibault, the former and earliest proprietor of Beloit, was murdered, by his son Francis and his mother (one of his wives), after a family quarrel over whether to remain and cultivate the land or follow the Indians west of the Mississippi.
- 1837 Caleb Blodgett erected a house of boards, the product of Goodhue's mill — the beginning of the Rock River house.
- Spring 1837 Water was let into the mill race of the Blodgett–Goodhue saw mill.
Beloit
- August 1837 The Crosby family came to Rock County, among the first white settlers of Beloit.
- 1837 Other settlers not connected with the New England company appeared in Beloit, among them Walter Warner, Benjamin Cheney, David Noggle, William Jack, Charles M. Messer (surveyor), and Bradford Colley with his widowed sister.
- January 1837 Caleb Blodgett persuaded a family—the Chauncey Tuttles with four sons—to come from Meacham's Grove to Beloit.
Rock County
- April 22, 1837 George H. Williston settled in Harmony Township, Rock County, on Section 17.
- March 1837 Henry G. Spencer removed to Wisconsin, one of the first settlers of Rock County.
- December 7, 1837 By act No. 12, the seat of justice of Rock county was established on the fraction of land on the east side of Rock River, part of the northwest quarter of section 36, town 3 north, range 12 east.
The region
- April 1837 The first settlements were made on the west side of Jefferson Prairie.
- November 11, 1837 Major Charles Johnson and Cyrus Eames started for Burlington, Iowa, to obtain a charter for a seminary, paddling down Rock River in a dug-out with smoked suckers and cornbread for provisions.
- 1837 B. Allyne located on Section 35 — in 1837 or 1838 (both readings reported).
1838
The property
- 1838 The reminiscence's narrator took his first lessons raking and binding wheat in Caleb Blodgett's wheat field near Beloit during the harvest of 1838.
- December 30, 1838 The First Congregational Church of Beloit was organized at a meeting in the Blodgett house.
- Winter 1838 Little was heard of the Thebault family at the foot of Lake Koshkonong until towards spring, and the absence of the head of the Thebault family was noted.
Beloit
- Spring 1838 S. G. Colley came to Beloit and made a claim of 320 acres in Sec. 21, Range 13, building a little frame house in which eleven lived the first winter.
- 1838 Field & Lusk put up a large store on the corner of State and Race streets in Beloit, generally regarded as the first actual store in the village.
- 1838 The Lawrence family all came out and settled in Beloit; another brother, Clark, purchased land on Turtle Creek.
Rock County
- 1838 Ezra and Matilda (Taft) came to Rock County and settled on Section 2.
- July 15, 1838 James P. Pierce came to Wisconsin and settled in Rock County, his first purchase being eighty acres from the Government on Section 3 of Harmony.
- November 16, 1838 Henry B. and Lucinda Crandall came to Rock County and located on Section 28 [in Milton], claiming 240 acres (a related passage gives 320 acres in all).
The region
- November 26, 1838 R. P. Crane, acting for the Beloit settlers, entered at the Milwaukee land office under his pre-emption claim Lots 6 and 7 in Section 35, Town 1, Range 12 east (78.57 acres), then deeded the lots back to the original owners.
- August 13, 1838 A meeting was held at the house of Ansel Dickinson on Rock Prairie to organize a Congregational church; one passage dates it August 13, another August 16.
- 1838 B. Allyne located on Section 35, in 1837 or 1838 (the passages give both readings).
Nation and world
- June 18, 1838 Congress approved a land grant (the odd-numbered sections on a belt ten miles wide from Lake Michigan to Rock River, 139,190 acres) to aid construction of the Milwaukee–Rock River canal.
- June 16, 1838 A treaty with the Winnebagoes, concluded at Washington City, was proclaimed, by which the Winnebago Nation ceded all their land east of the Mississippi River.
- September 4, 1838 Churchill sold his claim on the prairie to Joseph Goodrich for $125 in goods out of Goodrich's store.
1839
Beloit
Rock County
- November 29, 1839 Gisle Sebjerson Hallan became a freeholder in Rock County; on the same date Gooneal G. Doctor (the widow Odegarden) took title to her first land.
- April 1, 1839 The records of Rock County begin; the first meeting of the county commissioners was held.
- February 19, 1839 Rock County was fully organized (a different reading from the February 13 organization act above and the spring organization below).
The region
- 1839 Biographical events dated only to 1839: a lawyer sold his Illinois farm and opened a law office in Beloit ; a minister toured the Territory for the American Home Mission Society and accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church of Milwaukee ; another clergyman was called to St. John's Church, Marcellus, New York ; a marriage to Lydia S. Ellsworth took place in Berlin, Connecticut ; a marriage to Cornelia A. Reynolds took place ; a Beloit lawyer located there in practice ; a district attorney was appointed ; a sheriff of Rock County was appointed by Governor Dodge ; a settler came to Beloit to look at land ; a settler came to Wisconsin and bought 235 acres of government land ; the Walker brothers (Aaron, Jason, Alfred) came to Milton and took up large claims ; a father and oldest brother came to Wisconsin and built a large log house ; a father came to Rock County and entered government land in Milton township ; Ezra Goodrich came with his parents to Wisconsin ; settlers came from Jamestown, New York, to Janesville ; Norwegian families emigrated to America and to Newark/Clinton townships ; Ole Knudson Natesta built a small log house in Clinton township ; a widow Odegarden came to America with four daughters ; a man left Janesville going to Missouri ; a family removed from the Rock/Walworth county line to Indiana ; William returned to Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and married Alma H. Wright ; a family moved from Albany County to Rensselaer County, New York ; a settler located at Du Page County, Illinois ; a man came West and settled in the lead mines near Galena ; a blacksmith commenced business in York State ; a factory destroyed by fire in 1838 was rebuilt ; Edward V. Whiton moved into Janesville in 1839 or 1840 ; a man united with the Congregational church in Newburyport, Massachusetts ; a marriage to Susan Sorbor took place in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ; a marriage to Amanda O. Daniels took place ; a marriage to Mary E. Blakoslee took place in Oneida County ; a marriage to Miss M. J. took place ; a marriage to Annie E. Lindsay took place ; a marriage to Mary Makin took place ; a marriage to Nancy A. Fordham took place and she came to Rock County ; a marriage to Lavina Cravath took place in Cortland County, New York ; a child, Mary Jane, died in 1839 ; Isaac P. Ferguson removed to Wisconsin and farmed in Johnstown Center ; a man came to Beloit and settled at Shopiere in 1841 ; Judge White moved into the city (1839 or 1840) .
- February 13, 1839 The Territorial Legislature approved the act organizing Rock County. (Other passages date the county's full organization to February 19, 1839, and to the spring of 1839 — see those entries.)
- 1839 A post route from Belvidere to Janesville, via Beloit, was established; John Hackett took charge of the new post office.
Nation and world