USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. I > Part 16
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The Goodhue family did much for Beloit and should be re- membered with respect. The Hon. Charles Frederick Henry Goodhue was for many years a member of the Canadian parlia- ment and lived at Sherbrooke, Quebee, with three sons and two daughters. In the summer of 1835 or 1836 the oldest son, George, with his unele, Tyler H. Moore, came west by lake to Chicago, where they purchased the present site of the Tremont House, going thence to Belvidere for a short time. George's father, being wealthy, sent money to him and to the boy's unele to in- vest in western property, and in 1837 himself came West and joined them. William, being then fourteen years old and having just recovered from scarlet fever, was advised by the family doctor to go also. In May, 1837, he made the trip around the lakes alone and met his brother George on the wharf at Milwau- kee, whence both went to Chicago.
After a sickness there William removed to Belvidere and
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then to Rockford, Ill., where his father and uncle had made in- vestments, and thence in August, 1837, came with them to Beloit, where they built the first store block, and William, as clerk, sold the first yard of calico ever offered in Beloit. In Beloit the Good- hues built (with Blodgett) a sawmill and soon after a framed fouring mill, just west of it on the race, the first built in the then territory of Wisconsin. During the panic of 1837 they permitted their Chicago property, located as they said in a mud- hole, to be sold for taxes.
In the fall of 1838 the rest of the family moved to Beloit and William's mother and his sister Clarissa. later Mrs. Dr. Evans, were the first communicants of the Beloit Episcopal church, while his father belonged to its first vestry. The firm of Good- hue & Co .. consisting of the father and his three sons, was at one time considered one of the strongest firms of the Northwest. They owned much pine land in northern Wiseonsin, and while Beloit was the home. their business extended from the pinery all the way to St. Louis.
After leaving his clerkship William T. Goodhue became the financial manager of the firm, constantly engaged in journeys up and down the river. When the father died in November, 1855, the three brothers continued the firm and, though the panic of 1857 involved them in loss, kept on until 1869.
In 1856 William T. Goodhue was elected first mayor of the new city of Beloit. March 17, 1859, he was married to Miss Car- rie Pond, of Buffalo. N. Y. In later life, while engaged in the grain and flour business, he was largely influential in securing to Beloit the early opening of railway connection. He sold to both railroad companies the lands on which their depots were built and was for many years one of the directors of the Western Union railway. George Goodhue, of Stevens Point, and Mrs. Dr. Bicknell, of Beloit, were the last survivors of the original family who came in 1838.
Mayor "Bill" Goodhue, as he was familiarly and affection- ately called, died April 19, 1879, and among the throng of at- tendants at his funeral were eleven ex-mayors-A. P. Water- man, Charles H. Parker, Henry P. Strong, S. J. Todd, R. H. Mills, B. C. Rogers, S. J. Goodwin. D. S. Foster, H. N. Davis. C. F. G. Collins and O. C. Johnson. He was a Free Mason, and that fra-
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HISTORY OF BELOIT
ternity officiated. We have no portrait of him, because none is known to exist.
The second mayor of Beloit, elected in 1857 and reelected for 1858, was Anson P. Waterman, whose benignant countenance we present herewith. Beloit was started as a "no license" city, and we needed a man of his high principle and staunch charac- ter to maintain that stand. Anson P. Waterman was born at South Ballston, Saratoga county, N. Y., January 15, 1819, of David and Phoebe Hollister Waterman. both parents being de- voted Christians. His father, a farmer. served in the War of 1812. and his grandfather, of English deseent, was a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War, commissioned by Governor George Clinton of New York June 16, 1778. The boy, Anson, attended public school until he was twelve, worked in a store five years, elerked in another store, hardware, at Schenectady, N. Y .. until 1840. and then had a hardware business of his own at Phelps, Ontario county, N. Y .. until his removal to Beloit, Wis., in 1854. December 31, 1840. he married Miss Jennie A. Hubbell. and their children-Belle (Mrs. B. D. Lee) and Annie (Mrs. C. E. Whitman), both of St. Louis, and Jennie S., wife of C. S. Gregory, Beloit-are still living.
Mr. Waterman continued his hardware business here, with John B. Gordon partner after 1866, until 1880. His interest in a heavy hardware business in St. Louis took him to that city and kept him there most of the time from 1876 to 1889, when he came back to Beloit to stay. He was the second mayor of Beloit and served for two years, being elected on the Republican ticket for the years 1857 and 1858. Although the liquor interest was quite strongly intrenched just across the state line in Illinois, Mr. Waterman gave us a vigorous administration and duly main- tained and increased the city's character for temperance and good order.
For more than twenty years Mr. Waterman served on our board of education. He was one of the original members of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, now of Milwau- kee, but organized in 1861 at Janesville, Wis., and was a trustee from the beginning and as long as he lived. Of Beloit College he was a trustee from 1856 to 1902 and was its treasurer from 1869 until his departure from Beloit in 1877. On his return in 1889 he was again elected and later served as assistant treasurer
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of the college up to the last year of his life. In the First Pres- byterian church of Beloit his memory is and always will be eher- ished as that of a Barnabas, rich in good works. He was a mem- ber of the session of the church. reelected as elder term after term for about thirty-seven years. and during most of that time served also as treasurer of the society. It is not too much to say that in various critical periods of its life the continued progress if not the very existence of that church was due to his wise coun- sels and his personal generosity and devotion. His earnest re- ligious feeling, staunch Calvinistic faith and constant liberality made him in the Westminster church, which he started, and also in this First church, the most valued, the leading member.
In 1890 Mr. and Mrs. Waterman celebrated their golden wed- ding, and in 1900 their sixtieth anniversary, in comparative health and comfort. Mr. Waterman enjoyed the full powers of active life up to almost the end of it and after only about a week's real illness quietly passed away at his residence, 516 Col- lege avenue, Beloit. January 8. 1902.
The main business street of that Beloit of our first mayors is well portrayed in a paper written December 25, 1907, by Hon. Ellery B. Crane, of Worcester. Mass., son of our pioneer, R. P. Crane. Mr. Crane is secretary of the Worcester Society of An- tiquity and has a collection of Beloitana which he has been gath- ering for forty years and which should be adequately published while he is living to supervise the work. His paper, slightly corrected and condensed by the editor, is here given under its title :
Strolling on State Street in Beloit Fifty Years Ago.
The sober-minded, cautions New Englanders who established the settlement drew to themselves chiefly those of their kind, or at least persons thought to be in harmony with themselves in attempting to build up an honest, industrious, moral community.
During the period of early Beloit the main business thorough- fare was Turtle street, later known as State street, and fifty years ago all the mercantile trade centered there. And it may be of interest to some people wishing to contrast the present with the past to know. who were doing business on that street fifty or more years ago.
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Had Many Blacksmith Shops.
Beginning at the south end, where members of the New Eng- land Emigrating Company first made their entrance to the place, there was almost continuously a blacksmith shop either on one side or the other side of the street, and near the old millraee. Among those in business fifty years ago were Charles and Isaac Bates. On the west side there had been a saloon for many years, with of course different managers.
[That saloon was evidently just across the line in Illinois. Fifty years ago Beloit was a temperance city and did not allow any saloons within its borders. Another of those early black- smiths was Hiram Hill, of whom the First Presbyterian church bought their church lot. One of his workmen was Comrade Charles G. Turney. who came to Beloit in May, 1841. and is liv- ing here yet.]
Now that the visitor has been introduced, let us proceed northward on the east side of the street. Not far from the mill- race stood Goodhue's boarding house. Then came John C. Burr's tinshop; this building had various occupants. Next came the home of Mrs. Crandall, who kept a millinery store in the front room. A little more than fifty years ago she removed to the old schoolhouse on Race street, now St. Paul avenue.
William Russell, the painter, lived and had a shop in the rear of the Burr tinshop. But all these buildings mentioned as once standing on State street have been removed and the grounds used for railroad purposes. Next in order came the old Beloit House, long known as one of the best public houses in the then Far West. Fifty years ago it was kept by E. N. Lewis, southeast corner of State and Race, or St. Paul avenue.
The Old Crane Residence.
At the corner, north side of Race street, was the residence of R. P. Crane, the home for many years of the writer of this article. Next north was the office of Dr. George W. Bicknell; then Crane's stone block, where Matthew Carpenter first had his law office in Beloit. Then we had C. O. Greene's billiard rooms.
{ Those billiard rooms were in the second story. Mr. John Field. then a boy about ten years old, now president of the
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Knickerbocker Ice Company, of Chicago, recently told me this story about that building: His father, Spafford Field, suspect- ing that his two step-sons. the Cooper boys, might be playing billiards there, would send Johnny to find out. He would go. thrust his head inside the door with his eyes shut and, returning to their home just around the corner on the north side of Broad street, would report that he hadn't seen them. Then if Spaf- ford himself came to investigate the boys would pass out by a side door to an outside stairway leading down to the top of a one- story house next south and by another stairway to the street, and so would be at home when the old gentleman returned. I have a cut showing that stairway and all those buildings in 1855. On the first floor, said Mr. Field. was the fruit store and ice cream restaurant of J. K. Armsby, who afterwards removed to Chicago and became one of its largest and wealthiest fruit deal- ers. This Mr. Armsby came to Beloit in 1862. Later he traveled for a Madison firm until 1873. when he went to Chicago and through his own firm. the J. K. Armsby Company. handled canned fruit and did more than any other man in placing Cali- fornia fruit on the world's market. Before he died in 1894 their trade amounted to several million dollars annually. His motto was "Pluek wins." After the San Francisco earthquake and fire that firm's building was the first business house rebuilt and occupied .- Ed.]
Then a tailor shop. once occupied by Dud Brown, who after a long respite has returned to clothe the needy; then Carey & Gordon's drug store. Next came Hoskins' shoe shop, then Hol- lister's grocery. and I think that Tibals & Stocking were there also. George Stocking's harness shop carried us to the southeast corner of Broad street.
[Hanchett's block, begun in October, 1856. was finished in 1857 and stood on the site of Mr. Battin's house, yard and peach trees at the northeast corner of Broad and State streets. One day Mr. Battin asked J. B. Dunbar to buy his place for $4,000. Mr. Dunbar replied that he would think of it. Next day he said to him. "I'll take it." "But I sold it last evening." replied Bat- tin; "sold to L. G. Fisher for $9,000 in Racine railroad bonds." Mr. Battin lived to regret many times that he had not taken the $4.000 in cash. for those railroad bonds proved the ruin of almost all who invested in them. Mr. Battin among the number. In
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Hanchett's Hall Beloit had the honor of hearing an address from Abraham Lincoln in 1859, October 1.]
In a one-story wooden building north of the corner of Broad street was a store which I think was that of Webster & Rogers; north of that came the shoe store of William H. Allison, which was later carried on by Liberty Rawson and Isaac Thayer and others. Pentland & Harmon began their grocery business on State street about 1849, and Mr. Pentland is with us yet. (Strong & Bishop, early grocers, were on Broad street.) Sev- eral small one-story wooden buildings stood along that side of the street, one a printing office for a while, and a book store. Then came the stone block of stores extending to School street. In early days these stores were occupied by Mr. Poole, Manches- ter & Wadsworth, N. Powell. A. Baldwin and others. On the opposite side of School street stood the Bushnell House, Pierson & Janvrin proprietors. This house was built by Prof. J. J. Bush- nell on the site of the old Rock River Hotel, which was made by adding on to the house built by Caleb Blodgett and to which he removed when he left the log house the Indians helped him to erect in 1836.
[That Roek River House was moved to the southeast corner of State street and Publie avenue and carried on as a hotel by Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Dunbar during the two years, 1853 and 1854, when the Bushnell House was being built. Then Mr. Dunbar for the next two years kept the Bushnell House. After he had left the old Rock River House it was occupied by B. E. Hale as a paper warehouse. There young Lucius G. Fisher (now of Chi- cago and president of the famous $27,000,000 paper bag and box combine) first learned that business. Still later that old Rock River Honse was used as a seminary for girls.]
Brown's Line of Stores.
Crossing to the west side of State street, proceeding south, we have Benjamin Brown's block of stores, occupied, I think. by W. HI. Calvert, Mr. Thayer, grocer, and the shoe firm of Merriam & Eaton. This J. W. Merriam is now a resident of Worcester, Mass. Benjamin Brown's fine residence stood a little back from the street, about three rods, and at what is now Nos. 328 and 330 State, that block of wooden stores being north of his front yard. Next south of that yard was a two-story wooden building
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in which, I am told, he carried on a general mercantile trade (his second place of business) until he closed up his storekeeping about 1848. Later it was Simm's drug store, and Dexter's watch repairing occupied one front window. Then came A. P. Water- man's hardware store and T. W. Laramy's grocery, and next Day & Andrew's fruit and candy store, with those well-remembered ice cream parlors in the second story; and south of that W. H. Sherman's jewelry store, still occupied with the same business by Mr. A. L. Howard; then came Wright & Newcomb, book and stationery dealers, the former being the father of Prof. T. L. Wright, now of the college here; C. Thompson's grocery store; H. R. Moore & Son, dry goods; David J. Bundy and Alfred Field's drug store; then the Stone block of stores reaching to Broad street, in the latter being Clinton Babbitt, Fisher, Bundy & Cheney, also L. G. Fisher and A. O. Winchester, hardware dealers.
Crossing Broad street, we come to Thomas MeElheny's tailor shop, later C. F. G. Collins' drug store, Nelse Howard's restau- rant, Smith & Rust, grocers; E. D. Murray, dry goods ; Benjamin Selleck, hats, caps and furs; A. W. Peters and Jones' Photograph gallery; old store of Howe & Willard, which stood next south of that of Benjamin Durham. Then came the office of W. C. Spaulding, Esq., and it was the postoffice when he was postmas- ter; it was also where L. C. Hyde started in the banking busi- ness. At the corner of Race street was A. P. Willard's watch and clock repair shop. Mr. Willard was in Beloit as early as 1841, and for a time lived in the house of Samuel B. Cooper, Esq., on School street; later Mr. Willard removed to the Hopkins house on Race street. at that time the next one east of R. P. Crane's house. This one-story building was used in after years for the sale of groceries, lunch-room, etc.
Murray's Hall.
On the corner south of Race street was E. D. Murray's stone block. This corner had been since the beginning of the settle- ment the business center for trade. On this site onee stood the store of Messrs. Field & Lusk, who as early as 1841 kept the largest stock of goods for sale in the town. Mr. Field was the second postmaster in the town and during his administration the postoffice was there. For many years Mr. Murray furnished
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the principal hall open to the public. In the hall on the top floor of his block all the great concerts and parties were held fifty or more years ago. Next south were Collins & Son, druggists; then A. B. Carpenter's residence adjoining his store; next came John Hauser, the baker. When Mr. Hauser first came to Beloit he worked for a baker named Borngesser, who had a shop just west of the building known as Brooks' mill, east of Mechanies green. Borngesser went away with a party bound for the gold fields of California in 1849. Dr. G. W. Bicknell, a Mr. Hackett and Mr. Thomas were members of that party. Borngesser was killed on the way while erossing the plains. John Hauser about 1848 started in business for himself in the south basement of R. P. Crane's stone block, where he established a bakery. After a few years he removed to the location assigned him on the west side of State street, where he passed the remainder of his life.
First Mayor Elected in 1856.
Next south was the Goodhue block, and the store, a wooden building early built by the Goodhue family. William T., son of Charles, was the first mayor of Beloit, elected in 1856.
Frank Salisbury's coffee house was the last place on the west side of the street, with the exception of one or two saloons or a blacksmith shop, to which attention was called at the beginning of my story. At Frank Salisbury's coffee house patrons were usually well treated, and the genial Wash Salisbury was ever in good spirits, and he could handle the snare drum quite well- not, however, equal to "Old Wilk."
As population increased the city affairs in all departments grew in number, size and complexity, and need for more com- plete protection against local crime was everywhere felt. To meet this want an amendment to the city charter was secured in 1868 authorizing the establishment of a police court with both criminal and eivil jurisdiction, the latter being the same as that of justice of the peace. This, however, was changed by act of legislature in 1869 limiting the civil jurisdiction to cases in- volving not to exceed $100. Mr. Alfred Taggart, a Beloit College alumnus and a graduate of Harvard Law School, was elected first poliee magistrate in the spring of 1868 and filled that office by reëleetions till his resignation in the early summer of 1874,
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he being succeeded by Mr. E. P. King, who in turn was followed by B. C. Rogers in 1878.
Situated in the heart of a rich farming community. peopled with intelligent. progressive and resourceful men, and surround- ed with wellnigh limitless natural resources, Beloit early became the home of numerous industrial and manufacturing enterprises that have thrived and developed with the passing years until some of them have attained a world-wide influence and reputa- tion. Without giving full details we may here fitly mention the origin of several that have entered largely into the industrial life of the place, leaving the record of latest development to the chapter on Mannfactures.
For nearly half a century the manufacture of paper has been a prominent and leading Beloit industry. As early as 1856 Messrs. Wright and Merrill established the Beloit Paper Mills Company, which was followed two years later by the Rock River Paper Company. the two continuing separately until 1868. when they were consolidated under the corporate name of the Rock River Paper Company, with Mr. S. T. Merrill president, A. L. Chapin vice-president, H. F. Evans treasurer and J. M. Cobb secretary and superintendent. This plant was on the east side of the river.
About the same time Messrs. T. L. Wright and S. T. Merrill started at Rockton. Ill., what became widely known as the North- western Paper Company, Mr. Wright president, with headquar- ters at Beloit, W. H. Wells vice-president and J. C. Newcomb secretary and treasurer, with offices in Chicago. which city was made the chief distributive point of both these concerns.
In 1871 was established the wholesale paper mill establish- ment of Booth, Hinman & Co., east side, which in a few years grew to large proportions. The F. N. Davis Manufacturing Com- pany came into existence in 1875, and its products, comprising building paper, waterproof paper boards, pails, barrels, carpet- ing, etc .. soon became widely known. Then there was the Beloit Straw Board Company, whose large product of building paper found ready market throughout the Northwest. Their buildings were at the west end of the dam.
The Merrill & Houston Iron Works, organized as a stock company in 1873. was the outgrowth of a business established by Mr. O. E. Merrill in 1860; besides paper mill and other machinery
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A. P. Lovejoy
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of a similar nature these works turned out the celebrated Hous- ton turbine water-wheel, an invention of George Houston, as a special product.
As early as 1849 Messrs. Parker and Stone began the manu- facture of farming implements in connection with general job- bing work; the business steadily grew and in 1855 was incor- porated as the Parker & Stone Reaper Company, which came to rank among the leading manufacturing industries of the city, a special product of the business being the Appleby twine binder, invented by a Beloit man.
As a manufacturer of paper engine roll bars, combination and regular sheet steel plates, and nearly every description of cutters and knives, R. J. Dowd was the pioneer in the West; and the business formed here by him in 1877 under his masterful management has grown to large proportions.
In 1860 Mr. John Thompson, carrying on a general black- smithing trade, manufactured three plows; this was the begin- ning of the business of J. Thompson & Co., manufacturers of the Norwegian plows, sulky plows, riding cultivators and kindred products in that line, whose superior quality and extensive sales gave the firm high rank among the city's substantial industries.
The factory established by Mr. James Gray for making sash, blinds, doors, moldings, etc., passed into the hands of Mr. W. J. McDonald in 1878 and filled an important place in the industrial life of the city.
As early as 1844 Mr. N. B. Gaston began here the manufac- ture of scales, coming from New York, where he started in 1842. The preceding six establishments were also on the west side.
The John Foster Company, east side, an outgrowth of the business established by Messrs. Foster and Chapman in 1870, has shown a marvelous advance and its product of ladies' fine shoes has attained a more than national reputation for substan- tial worth and artistie merit.
The glove and mitten factory of Messrs. H. J. Leonard & Co. was begun on a small seale by Mr. H. K. Leonard; but in 1866 the business was reorganized and equipped with facilities for making every kind of fur, kid, buck, sheep, calf and cloth gloves and mittens, and then took its place among the prosperous manu- facturing concerns of the city. It is now the Beloit Glove and Mitten Company, conducted by G. Elmer Thompson. manager.
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Nothing better illustrates the progressive spirit that has en- tered into the industrial life of Beloit than that shown in the development of what was formerly the Eclipse Windmill Com- pany. As stated in the sketch of Rev. L. H. Wheeler, published elsewhere in this work, this industry originated with him while yet living at the Odanal Indian mission in northern Wisconsin. There in the year 1865 Mr. Wheeler contrived a rude self-regu- lating pumping windmill for raising water, to obviate the neces- sity of carrying it by hand from the nearby ravine. The history of this invention was marked at first by failures and partial successes and struggles with poverty; but after Mr. Wheeler's removal to Beloit, whither he brought his family, in 1866, on account of its superior educational advantages, his sons and others formed the Eclipse Windmill Company, with Mr. S. T. Merrill president and Mr. Charles B. Salmon secretary and man- ager. This was in 1873, and by 1876 the business had made a successful start and was prominently advertised at the Phila- delphia Centennial of 1876. In 1880 Messrs. Merrill and Salmon retired from the company, Mr. W. H. Wheeler became president, and the scope of the business was greatly enlarged and the name changed to Eclipse Wind Engine Company. The friction clutch business and engine-making were added and the name made, Williams Engine and Clutch Works. Between 1880 and 1890 the plant was twice rebuilt, Beloit citizens contributing $10,000 towards the improvement. Before 1893 Mr. Charles H. Morse, of Chicago, became prominently identified with the work and, after adding several important lines of manufacture, in 1893 and 1894 finally consolidated the various interests as Fairbanks, Morse & Co., of which company the various buildings and yards now cover fifty acres of land.
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