As many of you already know, the Rock County Historical Society
decided that their collection of 1840s to 1920s Beloit newspapers
would be better off at the Beloit Historical Society, and graciously
deaccessioned and donated them to us. Our own Lynda Moon perused
one of these and wrote the following article.
Latest Beloit News and Sales Items on June 11, 1857
The 40 acre Hanchett farm on St. Lawrence was purchased in
1857 in Caroline Hanchett’s name. Their stone house was
being built there, and they were able to move into it during
the early months of 1857. In June of 1857 James and Caroline
Hanchett and seven of their children were crowded into their
small stone house on the corner of Prospect and School St. (School
St. is now East Grand Ave.) Their daughter Augusta had married
William Hodgdon, a Beloit merchant who worked at Keyes, White
and Company Mercantile. The two youngest of their ten children
weren’t born until 1858 and 1861.
B.E. Hale, editor of the Beloit Journal, wrote that 1857 was
the tenth anniversary of the Journal. His motto was “Right
On.” (Sounds quite modern, doesn’t it?) He said he
would “rebuke vice and oppose iniquity.”
Mr. Hale had purchased the paper for $2,000. He added $6,000
in new type, presses and fixtures. He said, “There is no
better furnished office in the state or the country west of Chicago.”
The editor wrote that Beloit’s population in 1857 was 5,000
people living in 900 dwellings. Most of the residents came from
New York State and were Republicans.
“We [Mr. Hale] have traveled extensively and that for general
intelligence, high moral culture and refinement, the people of
Beloit cannot be equaled in any city of its size within our knowledge.
While this is true, we have less of a class system or petty aristocracy
than is usual in such places. --If a man becomes a citizen here
and behaves himself, he is respected, whether rich or poor, and
if he is mean and corrupt, he has a hearty contempt while staying,
and a good riddance when leaving.”
The paper listed scheduled departures and arrivals for three
railroad lines: Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, Chicago, St.
Paul and Fond du Lac RR, and Racine and Mississippi RR.
Beloit College (founded in 1847) was to have its commencement
on July 8, 1857. Professor Emerson (whose portrait and desk are
at Hanchett-Bartlett House) was to give an oration.
Showing that Beloit was a busy commercial center, the paper said,
“There were 100 teams on State Street at one time last Saturday,
which made business lively.” The paper had many advertisements.
The real estate ads told of several houses for rent from $1 to
$6 a week. An eight room house with two lots, wood shed, cellar,
barn and cistern was for sale for $1700.
A.B. Carpenter’s Boston Cheap Cash Store advertisement for
men’s goods stated that “the subscriber had returned
from New York after purchasing a splendid stock of goods in connection
with Mr. Hodgson, one of the finest young men we have and whose
taste cannot be beat.” For ladies, Keyes, White and Co.
(where Augusta Hanchett Hodgdon’s husband worked) had the
“MOST SPLENDID ASSORTMENT of Dry Goods ever brought into
Rock County. They embrace all the varieties possible to be required
or needed for this latitude.” They also had “a fine
selection of hooped skirts.”
The Beloit Journal contained a short story set in England and
articles from many other newspapers.
The Lincoln Center has original copies of the Journal, and the
Beloit Public Library has microfiche copies.
Contents