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This place was originally called New Albany; the name Beloit
originated with a committee appointed by a convention of citizens
who were not satisfied with the old name. The committee having
the matter in charge being in consultation, one of its members
was laboring to shape a French word to an English termination,
when Mr. L. G. Fisher, a member of the body, catching a sound
somewhat analogous, pronounced the word "Beloit," which
was at once agreed upon, and adopted as the name to be worn by
the city in the future. Some one has said that the more he saw
of the West the more he was convinced that the wise men came
from the East. To none is the truth of this remark more vivid
than to him who, having spent most of his life among the rocky
and almost barren hills of New England, has finally chosen the
valley of the beautiful Rock River as his home and field of future
effort. The Western Eden--the Rock River Valley--has lost none
of those attractions which Margaret Fuller Ossoli once rendered
classic with her charming verse and still more charming prose.
Forty years, it is true, have worked wonderful changes in the
beautiful regions of Wisconsin. Then it had been frequently said
that the country bore the character of one that had been inhabited
by a people skilled in all the arts of landscape gardening. Villas,
castles, and inclosures only were wanting. Everywhere were velvet
lawns, flower-gardens, and stately parks, as if scattered by
the hand of art, with frequent deer and peaceful cattle, yet
all suggestive more of man than of prodigal nature.These lovely
features of landscape still remain, only the peaceful herds have
multiplied a thousand fold, the villas have arisen as by enchantment,
the inclosures have been built, and field and lawn and garden
do not waste their fragrance now as then. The stately thickets
have grown to luxuriant forests, from which the deer have fled,
and what was then a paradise to the eye, has become the fruitful
garden of the West. Little more than a decade had then passed
since Black Hawk had made these beautiful regions romantic with
the memories of Indian warfare; but the unexampled progress of
civilization, the advent of almost numberless strangers, and
later events that drained the blood and energy of a nation, are
fast dimming the recollection of this romantic strife, and the
traveller, as he whirls over the country in a palatial car, is
no longer pointed to the spot where the red man last fought with
the white usurper for the home of his fathers. The valley of
the Rock River, abounding in all the advantages of water and
wood and soil and climate, stretching out through a good portion
of two States, watered by a clear, rapid stream, which affords
a water-power scarcely equalled in this country, and upon whose
banks are located many beautiful and thriving cities and towns,
in the space of a few years has become one of the richest and
most flourishing sections of country in the United States. Among
the many beautiful towns located in this valley, perhaps there
are none which for beauty of location surpasses Beloit. It is
situated on either bank of the river, and is nearly equidistant
between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, eighty-seven
miles from Chicago, seventy-five miles from Milwaukee, and forty-eight
miles from Madison, the capital of the State. The present population
is about six thousand. The city is about equally divided by the
river, which passes through from north to south with a broad,
rapid, and clean current, with high banks, furnishing within
a distance of two miles two large water-powers, one of which
has been improved since the earliest settlement of the place,
and the other soon to be improved. The city has also two other
water-powers on Turtle Creek, which empties into the river near
the city; these are both improved. On one of these powers is
situated the "Old Red Mill," built in 1836,--the first
grist-mill erected in the State, by Mr. Goodhue, now owned and
operated by his son, W. M. T. Goodhue. The early settlement of
the city does not date back of the recollection of many of its
inhabitants, as many of the first settlers are yet alive and
reside in the city. They have lived to see and to reap the fruits
of their early toils and hardships in commencing the building
of what has proven to be a flourishing town, equalled by few
and surpassed by none in the Rock River Valley for beauty of
situation, for morality, for educational, social, or religious
advantages, or as a manufacturing or shipping-point.
Beloit as a manufacturing town offers inducements not surpassed
anywhere. The supply of water-power is practically inexhaustible,
and, with railroad lines radiating in four different directions,
the material for use can be easily procured, and the manufactured
article shipped to all points in the West with the greatest possibly
dispatch. To give an idea of the freight handled at Beloit, we
will present the figures of export for one year, beginning on
the 1st day of May, 1871, and ending the 1st day of May, 1872.
On the W. U. Railroad, 15,233,889 pounds were shipped, and over
the C. and N. W. Railroad, 23,581,649 pounds. The amount of freight
received was correspondingly large. The manufacturing of the
place is represented by O. B. Olmsted & Co., who employ twenty-five
to thirty men in the manufacture of windmills, etc.; John Thompson
& Co., who employ about fifty men in the manufacture of plows
and wagons; Beloit Reaper and Sickle Works of Messrs. Parker
& Stone, who employ about seventy-five men in the building
of their popular machines, which find a market all over the Northwest.
The leading manufacturing establishment of the city is that of
O. E. Merrill & Co., engaged in the manufacture of the celebrated
turbine water-wheels. There is, in addition to those mentioned,
the Northwest Paper Company and the Rock River Paper Company,
doing a very extensive business in the making of all kinds of
paper. The Rock River company employs about sixty men; their
buildings cover an area of about three acres; they average about
twelve tons of manufactured paper every day. The Beloit Strawboard
Company, I. Williams president, is one of the leading paper companies
in the West. They employ twenty men, and turn out about three
and a half tons of paper daily. |