From The WPA Guide to Wisconsin (Tour 7, pp 389-390):
"BELOIT, 55.5 m. (743 alt., 23,611 pop.), is at the confluence of Turtle Creek and the Rock River. As early as 1824 Joseph Thibault, a French Canadian, traded with the Winnebago here. When the Indians were removed westward after the Black Hawk War, Thibault sold to Caleb Blodgett of Vermont as much of his claim as could be encompassed by "three looks," a standard Indian unit of measurement. In 1837 Dr. Horace White, agent of the New England Emigrating Company bought one third of Blodgett's tract; in the same year a large part of Colebrook, New Hampshire, moved here bag and baggage.
Known successively as Turtle, Blodgett's Settlement, and New Albany, the village was given the name of Beloit in 1857. In 1886 when times were hard and "Beloit was whistling to keep its courage up," local businessmen formed an association to publicize the city through a folder, intimating that Beloit was not only beautiful, but also willing to make concessions to new businesses. In 1887 the association brought to the city the Berlin Machine Works, now the Yates-American Machine Company, which in 1937 employed 500 workers in the manufacture of 200 different types of woodworking machines. The Williams Engine Works, with Charles Hosmer Morse its sales manager, came to the city in 1889 when citizens raised $10,000 to encourage development and donated 10 acres of land. Later this concern combined with the Eclipse Wind Engine Company to become the Fairbanks, Morse Company.
In 1935 some 60 industrial plants in Beloit paid $7,350,000 in wages to 6,100 workers and produced wares valued at more than $29,000,000. These products included pumps, stokers, home water plants, light plants, automobile radiators, shoes, refrigerating units, X-ray tubes, powdered milk, farm engines, electric brakes, fireworks, and hosiery. The Beloit Iron Works has built more than 600 paper-making machines since 1858; each of these machines is almost 400 feet long and so large that a train of 65 cars is required to ship it.
Beloit early gained the reputation of being "refined, cultured, and elegant," for members of the New England Emigrating Company had resolved "to unite in sustaining institutions of science and religion and all the adjuncts that contribute to happiness, thrift and the elevation of society." Soon after their arrival they built a church and chartered Beloit Seminary, a coeducational school. In 1847 the Congregational Church founded BELOIT COLLEGE,
Bushnell and College Sts., on the east riverbank. Two professors
were hired at a salary of $600 a year, but their contract contained
the proviso "if we can raise it." The early buildings gave no
architectural unity to the campus, for each was in a different
style. Later buildings are Georgian Colonial, with slight
adaptations. The college has approximately 600 students. One of its
strongest departments is that of anthropology and archeology; an
alumnus, Roy Chapman Andrews, writer and explorer for the American
Museum of Natural History, has become famous in these fields.
On the campus is the Logan Museum (free; open during school
year from 8:30 a.m. to 12 m. and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mon. through
Fri.; 8:30 a.m. to 12 m. Sat.; 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sun.),
originally planned to depict the culture of the American Indian but
later expanded to present a record of prehistoric man. More than
1,000,000 aboriginal artifacts are displayed here, centered about
the extensive Rust collection, donated by the founder of the
museum, the late Dr. Frank G. Logan, famous art collector, trustee,
benefactor, and honorary president of the Art Institute of Chicago,
and founder of the chair of anthropology and evolution at Beloit
College. The most interesting object in the collection is the
Aurignician necklace fashioned by a Cro-Magnon craftsman 35,000
years ago. Twelve murals in the vicinity (22 on the campus alone)
have stimulated local interest and the study of anthropology and
ethnology."
Beloit today:
Although much has changed in Beloit in 60 years since the WPA guide was written, much remains the same. Beloit College is still there and many of the same buildings are still standing even if they are being used for different purposes. The railroad bridges still cross the Rock River, but now they carry foot traffic instead of trains. The Rock River Iron Works building still stands, but the foundry is no longer active. The Fairbanks Morse Engine company still build engines, although they are much more high tech than they were 60 years ago.
Beloit is defined by the Rock River (as are most cities that are built on rivers). It divides the city in two and the river valley defines the landscape with bluffs rising to the east and west.