Janesville, Wisconsin

The Janesville area was home to many Native American tribes before the settlement of people from the East. With the Indian Removal Act of 1830, many Native American peoples were uprooted and forced out of their homelands to make room for the new settlers, with many Native peoples, including the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi, being forced onto reservations.[7]

American settlers John Inman, George Follmer, Joshua Holmes, and William Holmes, Jr. built a crude log cabin in the region in 1835.[8] Later that year, one key settler named Henry F. Janes,[1] a native of Virginia who was a self-proclaimed woodsman and early city planner, arrived in what is now Rock County. Janes came to the area in the early 1830s, and initially wanted to name the budding village “Blackhawk," after the famous Sauk leader, Chief Black Hawk, but was turned down by Post Office officials. After some discussion, it was settled that the town would be named after Janes himself and thus, in 1835, Janesville was founded.[9] Despite being named after a Virginian, Janesville was founded by immigrants from New England. These were old stock Yankee immigrants, descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s. The completion of the Erie Canal caused a surge in New Englander immigration to what was then the Northwest Territory. Some of them were from upstate New York, and had parents who had moved to that region from New England shortly after the Revolutionary War. New Englanders, and New England transplants from upstate New York, were the vast majority of Janesville's inhabitants during the first several decades of its history.[10][11][12][13] Land surveys encouraged pioneers to settle in the area among the abundance of fertile farmland and woodlands. Many of these early settlers established farms and began cultivating wheat and other grains.

Some of the key settlers hailed from the burned-over district of western New York State, (an area notable for being a part of the Christian revival movement known as the Second Great Awakening). Some of those in that revival movement were also active in the abolitionist and women's rights movements.[9] One of the settlers in Janesville was William Tallman, who hailed from Rome, New York. Tallman came to the area in 1850 and bought up large tracts of land in hopes of inspiring his fellow New Yorkers to settle in the fertile Rock County. He established himself as one of the most influential and affluent members of the budding Janesville populace. He was passionate about the call for abolition and became a supporter of the Republican Party. One of the crowning moments in Tallman's life was when he convinced the up-and-coming Illinois Republican, Abraham Lincoln, to speak in Janesville in 1859. The Tallman house is now a historical landmark, and best known as “The place where Abraham Lincoln slept.”[9]

As the population grew in the Janesville area, several new industries began cropping up along the Rock River, including flour and lumber mills. The first dam was built in 1844.[9]

Janesville was very active during the Civil War. Local farms sold grains to the Union army, and Rock County was one of the counties in Wisconsin with the highest number of men enlisted.[9] Thomas H. Ruger, of Janesville, served in the war, along with his brothers, Edward, William, and Henry, and he rose to the rank of brigadier general. Ruger later served as military governor of Georgia, and commandant of West Point. He is memorialized at Fort Ruger in Diamond Head, Hawaii.[14]

After the Civil War, Janesville's agriculture continued to surge and a greater demand for new farming technology led to the development of several foundries and farm machine manufacturers in the area, including the Janesville Machine Company, and the Rock River Iron Works. With the boom in the farm service sector and establishment of a rail system, Janesville soon began to ship goods to and from prominent eastern cities, including New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. After decades of rigorous grain farming, the soil quality around Janesville began to degrade. Farmers responded to this by planting tobacco, which became one of the most profitable and prolific crops grown in Wisconsin during the late 19th century.[9]

Another development during the mid-19th century was the establishment of a women's rights movement in Janesville. The movement was founded in the 1850s and continued after the Civil War. One of the key focuses of the group during the 1870s was the Temperance movement.

In the late 1880s, German immigrants began to arrive in Janesville in large numbers (making up less than 5% of the town before this time). They were the largest non-English-speaking group to settle there. Unlike in some other areas, in Janesville, they experienced virtually no hostility or xenophobia. Janesville's founding English-Puritan-descended Yankee population welcomed them with open arms, with many writing back to relatives in Germany enthusiastically. This led to chain migration which increased the German population of the town.[15] Only one German-language newspaper was founded in the town; it was known as The Janesville Journal, and began in 1889, printing for only a few years.[16]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Milwaukee Road and Chicago and North Western railroads had freight and passenger rail connections to the city. Passenger rail service continued until 1971.[17]

One of the key developments in Janesville's history was the establishment of a General Motors plant in 1919. The plant was initially established to produce Samson tractors, a company acquired by GM co-founder William C. Durant. Durant was encouraged by Joseph Craig, the president of Janesville Machine, to build a plant to produce the Samson tractors in Janesville, to which Durant agreed. In the years following World War I, the demand for tractors plummeted and the plant shifted its focus to the production of automobiles.[9]

One of the most prominent turns of the century figures in Janesville was George Parker, who developed new pen technologies and styles and eventually established the Parker Pen Company. His developments included the “lucky curve” ink feed system and the “trench pen”—a pen commissioned by the U.S. Army for use in World War I. Parker designed and established a headquarters and factory in downtown Janesville. The Parker Pen Company was handed down to George's son, Ken, who developed the revolutionary “Parker 51” in the 1940s. A Parker pen was used by Dwight D. Eisenhower to sign Germany's Armistice agreement to end World War II in Europe, and subsequently General Douglas MacArthur used his 20-year-old Parker Duofold in the signing of Japan's surrender at the end of the War in the Pacific. The Parker Pen Company was one of the top employers in the area for over 70 years. The company was eventually sold off in a leveraged buyout in the 1980s.[9]

Another important figure in Janesville's history was John Nolen, who was hired by the city in 1919. Nolen was a city planner who saw the Rock River as a focal point for community and park development. His park planning established Janesville as the “City of Parks.”[9]

Janesville was the site of the first Wisconsin State Fair in 1851, attended by approximately 10,000 people.[18]

Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin's first female lawyer (1874), lived in Janesville.[19]

A tree that once stood in downtown Courthouse Park was the site of a lynch mob that, on their second attempt, having been rebuffed by an opposing crowd the day before, hanged a convicted murderer in 1859.[20] The location of a KKK rally in 1992 is now "Peace Park" with a playground and a peace pole, which when constructed was the tallest in the world and is now the second tallest.[21]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 34.45 square miles (89.23 km²), of which 33.86 square miles (87.70 km²) is land and 0.59 square miles (1.53 km²) is water.[30] The city is divided by the Rock River.

Janesville has had a city manager-council form of government since 1923.[40] The city council consists of seven members, elected at large for two-year terms.

Janesville is represented by Stephen Nass (R) and Janis Ringhand (D) in the Wisconsin State Senate, and Amy Loudenbeck (R) and Debra Kolste (D) in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Bryan Steil (R) represents the city in the United States House of Representatives, and Ron Johnson (R) and Tammy Baldwin (D) in the United States Senate.

Businesses headquartered in Janesville include Impact Confections, a candy maker; Blain's Farm and Fleet, a three-state retail chain; Woodman's Food Market, a regional supermarket chain that built its first store in Janesville; Swing'n'Slide, a maker of wood-and-plastic playground equipment; Hufcor (formerly Hough Shade Company), a manufacturer of room dividers that markets internationally; and Gray's Brewing, maker of boutique beers and soft drinks.

From 1919 until 2008, Janesville was the site of the Janesville GM Assembly Plant. Begun in 1919, when GM bought the Janesville Machine Company and merged it with the Samson Tractor Company, the Janesville plant was the oldest General Motors plant in North America prior to its closing. It assembled light-duty trucks and sport utility vehicles,[41] which declined in popularity as gasoline prices increased.[42] The plant closed in December, 2008.[43][44] Production of General Motors sport-utility vehicles ended on December 23 and the remaining medium-duty Isuzu assembly line ended operations on April 23, 2009.[45]

The Parker Pen Company was founded in Janesville. At one time its factory was the largest writing instrument plant in the world. The company later purchased Manpower, Inc., but eventually sold the pen business to Gillette, which closed the factory in 2000.[46] The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded in Janesville in 1857 but moved to Milwaukee two years later.

The Janesville Mall redeveloped in the late 1990s, and in 1998 Pine Tree Plaza opened. In November 2006, a Walmart Supercenter and a Sam's Club opened after a period of controversy.

The site of the former Janesville Oasis, known for Bessie, a large fiberglass cow at its entrance, began redevelopment in 2007; the anchor tenant is a Super Menards. Bessie the cow was spared by popular demand.[47][48]

The Janesville Gazette,[51] owned by Adams Publishing Group, is one of two daily newspapers in Rock County, Wisconsin, (the Beloit Daily News[52] is the other), and serves a regional market stretching into Walworth County. Delavan-based Community Shoppers, Inc. publishes the bi-weekly Janesville Messenger.[53]

Janesville has two television stations licensed to the city: Ion Plus-affiliated WIFS (Channel 57), which has its offices and transmitter in Madison and serves all of south-central Wisconsin, and WDNW-LD (Channel 45), a low-power translator station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Janesville is in the Madison television market and is served by Madison stations WISC (CBS), WMTV (NBC), WKOW (ABC) and WMSN (Fox), and was originally apart of the Rockford television market. Janesville is served by at least five radio stations: WJVL (99.9 FM, Janesville), WSJY (107.3 FM, Fort Atkinson), WWHG (105.9 FM, Evansville), WSLD (104.5 FM, Whitewater), and WCLO (1230 AM, Janesville).

A basketball game between cross-town rivals, Joseph A. Craig High School and George S. Parker High School

The School District of Janesville[54] has twelve elementary schools, three middle schools, two high schools, and five charter schools. In addition, there are seven parochial elementary and middle schools and one parochial high school.

The Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired[55] has been located in Janesville since 1849 and state-run since 1850.[1] A two-year community college, the University of Wisconsin–Rock County, located on the southwest side of Janesville, is part of the University of Wisconsin System. A two-year technical college, Blackhawk Technical College, is located midway between Janesville and Beloit; Blackhawk also offers degree programs through Upper Iowa University.

The library began in 1865 as a privately supported reading room for the Young Men's Library Association. After a referendum passed in 1884, it became a public library that was housed in rented quarters. In 1903, a new building was constructed with $30,000 from Andrew Carnegie and other donors. The city also agreed to appropriate $3,000 for library operations. The library then moved to its first official home across from the Rock County Court House on Main Street. When it outgrew these quarters in the early 1960s, a new library was built in 1968 at 316 S. Main Street.

Just 20 years later, the library began planning for expanded space. With $4.6 million donated by Don and Gerry Hedberg, local philanthropists, as well as city and other donated monies, an expanded and completely renovated library was opened in 1996. Janesville's public library was then renamed Hedberg Public Library in honor of its largest contributors.[56] The library is part of the Arrowhead Library System.

Rock Aqua Jays

Janesville is known as "Wisconsin's Park Place". Its 2,590-acre (10.5 km²) park system includes 64 improved parks, as well as boat launches, golf courses, and nature trails.[57] This is one of the highest acreages per capita in Wisconsin.

Janesville has a public, internationally themed botanical garden, Rotary Gardens, that was created from an abandoned sand pit.

Traxler Park is home to the Rock Aqua Jays, a water ski team. The RAJ's are the most successful water ski show team in the world with 62 total tournament victories including 19 U.S. National Championships. The team originated and regularly hosts the National Show Ski Championships, and was the host of the first ever World Water Ski Show championship, with teams competing from Australia, Belgium, Canada, and China. Traxler Park is also the site of the city's annual Fourth of July festivities.

Other major parks include Riverside Park, a recreational park along the Rock River including a golf course and a segment of the Ice Age Trail; Rockport Park, largely undeveloped, including the municipal swimming pool and Peace Park; Monterey Park, including the Big Rock, an early natural landmark signaling a good ford of the Rock River (and the namesake of the county, but not the river), as well as a sports stadium used by the school system; Lustig Park, used for a disc golf course; and Palmer Park, which includes a 9-hole golf course and CAMDEN Playground (an accessible play area, considered the largest accessible/integrated playground in the world and the most accessible/integrated playground). Most of the hiking and biking trails in the city are connected to the Ice Age Trail, which will eventually connect to the west with the Sugar River State Trail, north to Milton and Fort Atkinson and east to the Kettle Moraine State Forest.[58]

Janesville also has a nearly 500-acre greenbelt system to provide areas for surface water runoff and habitat for a diversity of plants and animals.

There are four Roman Catholic parishes in Janesville, all part of the Diocese of Madison. The oldest is St. Patrick's, established in a log chapel in 1844 when there were only six Catholic families in Janesville. A Priest arrived in March 1845 and celebrated mass. St. Patrick's present church was built of cream colored brick in 1863 and is located at 315 Cherry Street. Located on a hill near the center of town, the architecturally prominent Nativity of Mary church (St. Mary's) was organized in 1876 by German immigrants who wanted a parish of their own. The present red brick structure was completed in 1902. The remaining two Janesville parishes include St. John Vianney, located on East Racine Street, and St. William on the near west side.

The city is also home to many other Christian churches including Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, and others. The First Baptist Church of Janesville was organized October 13, 1844, and founded by the Rev. Jeremiah Murphy. The Seventh Day Baptist General Conference has its offices in Janesville; the denomination's nearest church is in nearby Milton. All Saints Anglican Catholic Church[59] a part of the continuing Anglican movement, is located in a historic church near downtown that was built by German Lutherans in the 1880s.

There are four cemeteries in Janesville: Oakhill, a municipal cemetery, Mount Olivet, a Roman Catholic cemetery, Dillenbeck Cemetery,[60] and Milton Lawns, a non-demominational private cemetery.

The Gideon Bible organization was founded at the Janesville YMCA in 1899 by Janesville resident John H. Nicholson and a Beloit man after they had shared a Boscobel hotel room.[61]

Janesville has a mosque.[62]

In fall 2009, Janesville became home to the Janesville Jets, an expansion team in the North American Hockey League, with games played at the Janesville Ice Arena. The Janesville Cubs, a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Chicago Cubs, was based in Janesville from 1941 to 1942 and 1946 to 1953. They were called the Bears in 1946.

• Oakhill Christian School

• Adler, Judith, and Den Adler. Janesville. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.
• Cartwright, Carol L., Scott C. Shaffer, and Randal Waller. City on the Rock River: Chapters of Janesville's History. Janesville, Wis.: Janesville Historic Commission, 1998.
• Dopkins, Dale R. The Janesville Ninety-Nine. Janesville, Wis: D. Dopkins, 1981.
• Goldstein, Amy. Janesville: An American Story. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.
• Janes, Henry. "Early Reminiscences of Janesville" in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. VI. Madison, Wis.: Atwood & Culver, 1872, pp. 426–435.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Janesville, Wisconsin.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Janesville.

• Official website
• Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Sanborn fire insurance maps: 1884 1890 1895 1901 1909 1915