[ambitious orchestra]
- By the mid-1800s,
Beloit was attracting new residents
and garnering media attention.
The inaugural issue of the Chicago Magazinein March 1857
hailed the many virtues of this burgeoning city
on the Rock River.
-Chicago Magazine: "There's no city
"in the circle of our acquaintance,
"where its business facilities,
"educational advantages,
"and the high moral tone of her citizens
"has made us feel more in love with it and its people
than this."
N- The magazine sang the praises of Beloit College,
a dream of the New England Emigrating Company.
Ten years after the founding of Beloit,
None citizen's generous donation and influence
made the college a reality.
- Fred Burwell: Lucius Fisher was an early settler in Beloit.
He was from Vermont.
As a young man,
he had hoped to go to college and was not able to.
But that stayed with him.
And he was very, very much in favor
of founding a college in Beloit.
And he helped get that going by offering land for the college.
And he convinced some other settlers
to donate the land, as well.
And so, he was vital to securing a spot for the college.
- Fisher nand other community members
donated land on a bluff noverlooking the Rock River.
Mounds made by nthe ancestors of the Ho-Chunk
marked the grounds,
including one that appeared nto be in the shape of a turtle.
[warm violin]
The Wisconsin Territorial Legislature
granted the college their charter in 1846,
making it the second oldest college in the state.
Upon its formation,
NBeloit College had no buildings, professors, or students.
Local industrialist Sereno Taylor Merrill stepped up.
- Fred Burwell: Sereno Taylor Merrill was an educated man.
And as the college plans took shape,
he agreed to train some students for college.
And the idea was that
they would take entrance exams based on Yale College.
And by the fall of 1847,
he had about a half a dozen students ready.
And they entered Beloit College officially.
- That same year, nthe school started construction
Nof the first building on campus, later known as Middle College.
Beloit College looked east for their first professors
and hired two recent Yale graduates.
- Fred Burwell: Beloit College and the city of Beloit
celebrated that Yale connection and used it.
Beloit College became the "Yale of the West."
Having a school that equated itself with Yale
meant something.
- As the college grew, it began to diversify.
An early president expressed a progressive vision
for the student body.
- Fred Burwell: President Chapin,
in his inaugural address of 1850,
wrote that "A college must stand with open door
to youth of every rank and condition in life."
In the fall of 1895, women entered the college.
Within a few years,
the valedictorian of the class was a woman.
The college has done a good job of attracting
students from all walks of life and backgrounds.
And that's been true from early on
in the college's history.
- Along with development of Beloit College,
the city's early economy took shape.
Agriculture dominated the city's early industry,
but that was quickly overtaken by manufacturing growth
as early rail access
allowed for goods to be sold beyond the Beloit area.
- John Patrick: All the goods that they made
were farm-oriented
or products that could be sold or used strictly locally.
But once the train comes,
then the world is your marketplace.
[dramatic, driving music]
A lot of industry expanded in Beloit,
and it made a whole difference in the growth of the town.
- Beloit's growing industries
attracted new businesses and innovators
hoping to build upon Beloit's success.
- John Patrick: Leonard Wheeler was a missionary
for the Ojibwe Chippewa Indians on Madeline Island
at one time.
And those people were fishermen.
So, he taught them how to farm.
And he knew that he needed water.
He needed he needed to grind grain.
And so, he invented a windmill
that could do all these type of things.
And he did that with success.
Reverend Wheeler had children
and he wanted to educate his children.
So he sent his son, William, to be educated at Beloit College.
When William Wheeler convinced his elderly father
that they could sell those windmills,
Reverend Wheeler's family moved to Beloit
and they went in the business of manufacturing windmills
in the 1860s.
And at the same time, of course,
the railroads were heading west.
And every steam engine, every time they stopped,
they needed water.
They needed a windmill to pump water.
That was the real success of the Eclipse windmill.
It became the number one windmill in the country.
- The Eclipse Windmill fueled industrial growth
in Beloit.
In the 1890s, the Eclipse Windmill Company
merged with two other businesses
to create an industrial powerhouse in Beloit.
- John Patrick: William Wheeler sold his interest
in the Eclipse Windmill Company
to the gentleman who was selling his windmills.
They were sold nationally by a guy named Charles Morse.
- Originally in the area as na salesman for Fairbanks Scales,
a growing Vermont business,
Charles Morse quickly saw an opportunity in Beloit.
In 1893, Morse combined Fairbanks Scales,
Eclipse Windmill, and local business Williams Steam Engine Company
into one new business called Fairbanks, Morse, & Company.
At the same time,
another business was emerging in Beloit:
Orson E. Merrill and George Houston's Iron Works Company.
- Beatrice McKenzie: Early on in the business,
the foundry made the water wheels,
horseshoes, spokes,
all sorts of little parts of other machines.
It's amazing to me that they grew so quickly
that they went from being a foundry that made equipment
for other factories-- including paper mills--
to actually making paper mills.
And they sent a complete paper mill
to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
It took 26 railroad cars of equipment.
- John Patrick: So, people from all over the world
came to Chicago and saw the Beloit Iron Works machine.
The Beloit Iron Works machinery
became the standard of the world.
- Beatrice McKenzie: I think what made Beloit ideal
for some of these industries
was its location in the Midwest.
So, it was close to Milwaukee,
it was close to Chicago,
it was close to the Twin Cities.
It was on the rail lines.
But I think another aspect of it is that
it had this small coterie of people making decisions.
And part of their task was
accumulating capital for new businesses.
Beloit's population grew so quickly that actually,
in the period between the census of 1890 and 1900,
Beloit's population grew by 65%,
whereas it was only 21% for the entire United States.
So, the population was growing quickly.
- Businessman Arthur P. Warner
contributed to Beloit's industrial landscape
with his company's invention
of the speedometer nand trailer brake technologies.
In 1909, Warner assembled and flew an early airplane,
earning Beloit the title of "first in flight"
in the state of Wisconsin.
- John Patrick: After the turn of the century, Beloit,
for a small town, became one of the best industrial towns
in the country.
- In the 1930s,
Beloit's agriculture and manufacturing industries
came together to develop a unique food invention.
While processing feed for farm animals,
workers at the Flakall Company
realized that the puffed-up cornmeal
coming out of the machine made a tasty snack.
The Flakall Company soon sold these puffs
as the "Korn Kurl."
Other companies caught on and produced similar cheesy treats
that are still one of nAmerica's favorite snacks today.
- John Patrick: Everybody had a job.
We manufactured everything for the world.
By the time I was a young man,
and I wanted to go look for a job,
I could have got hired five times in five days.
It's just the way Beloit was.
- With a renowned college and robust industries,
Beloit residents took pride in their city.
This sentiment was reflected on a billboard in downtown
that read
"What Beloit Makes, Makes Beloit."