Hide Article Text (OCR)
hite settlers chose to remain in the area along the Rock River that would become Janesville because of the land’s attractiveness and agricultural potential.The first industry here filled agriculture’s need, and the mighty Sinnissippi’s inexorable and inexhaustible power literally turned the wheels of that first industry: milling.Charles Stevens, who gained a reputation as one of the city’s first innkeepers and businessmen, and others had secured a charter for a dam and “water power,’’ but it was H.S. Hanchett in 1843 who urged building the first dam on the Rock at the rapids north of what would become downtown.“Liberal donations of land were given him including most of the water power itself on condition that a substantial dam should be erected,” according to Orrin Guernsey and Josiah Willard’s 1856 history.Stevens put up a sawmill almost immediately to provide lumber for the growing town and surrounding area. Working night and day, it turned out some 3 million feet of hardwood boards a year.The Big MillThe remainder of the water power soon was sold to A. Hyatt Smith and W.H.H. Bailey, and in 1845, they engaged James McClurg to erect a large flouring mill on the raceway at the west end of the Milwaukee Street Bridge. It became known as the Big Mill, “for many years the big institution of the Rock River Valley,” until it burned in1871.“The destruction of this old landmark seems to the older residents of Janesville and vicinity much like the passing away of an old and cherished friend,” a 1908 historyreported.The mill was one of the largest structures in town, located at its center and is considered by many historians the reason Janesville earned a reputation as a milling community and got its start as an industrial center.In 1876, O.B. Ford and Sons built another, smaller flouring mill on the Big Mill’s site. It was fitted with up-to-date machinery but still could only equal half the Big Mill’s 300-barrel-a-day output.In 1856, Ford and J.M. Morton bought the Stevens saw mill and rebuilt it as a flouring mill. By the late 1870s, “they were producing 1,200 barrels of flour per week, shipping their products to the principal cities of the East and also filling large orders in the southern states.”Other milestones in Janesville’sStories by Mike DuPre'early industrial history were:• 1843: First brick burned here by C.C. Phelps. J.M. Alden started making bricks here in 1846 and moved the business twice, finally locating on Bluff Street.• 1845: “During the early 40s the country was fast filling up with settlers, who were anxious to bring the fertile soil of southern Wisconsin into cultivation, and immense quantities of agricultural implements were in demand, so that factories of this class were badlyneeded,” according to the 1908 history.Ag-related businessesThomas Shaw and John M. May started the first such agricultural-related enterprise here on Main Street in 1845. In 1849, they built two stone buildings between Bluff and Main, “where they carried on a large and profitable business. ’’A.W. Parker and Ole Evenson moved into the Shaw and May’s old shop on Main and started making plows. Parker and Evenson moved several times before returning to the Main Street locale and putting up brick buildings. In 1856, the company manufactured 400 steel plows and 200 harrows and cultivators.Many small companies sprung up to serve farmers’ needs, “but there was no united effort on thepart of men of much means until 1859.”That year, James Harris, Zebedi-ah Guild, D R. Angell and LeonardTyler built shops to make farm implements on the West Side near the lower bridge and expanded the business until 1868 when it wastransferred to new owners—J.Harris, E.G. and Leavett Fifield and Horace Dewey—who incorporated the next year.By the 1870s, the corporation, known as Harris Manufacturing Co., employed 125 people and had annual sales of $250,000.From these seeds, Janesville’s farm implement business eventually blossomed into the Samson Tractor Division of the General Motors Corp., which is the direct ancestor of the city’s largest employer today, the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadil-lac Group assembly plant.First furniture maker• 1846: M.W. Frask first made furniture here—in a “small way” on Main Street opposite the public square.The next year, Alvin Miner oper-□ Turn to INDUSTRY/20
Newspaper Details
Janesville Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Aug 14, 1985
Page 45
Full Page
Clipped by
Hedberg P.
Wisconsin, USA 22 Sep 2022
Other Publications Near Janesville, Wisconsin
Janesville Badger State
Janesville Alliance Messenger
Janesville Morning Gazette
Janesville Daily Gazette
Weekly Gazette and Free Press
