- Footville, on the northern border of
the town of Plymouth, on the Chicago &
- Northwestern Railway, ten miles west
of Janesville, was first settled in 1845, by Mr. E. A. FOOT,
from whom it derives its name. The locality was formerly known
as Bachelors' Grove, and for six years had the distinction of
being the terminus of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad
(as the line was first designated) then in course of construction.
E. F. RICHARDS was the second settler, and his and Mr.
FOOT's and two other families, who came later, constituted
Footville's population until 1854, when the railroad became an
established fact. The first store was opened by Watson BEACH,
in 1853; the second in 1854, by BANCROFT & NORTHWAY.
The first born here was a daughter of E. F. RICHARDS,
who later became Mrs. N. L. MAXON. The first marriage
was that of E. A. DOUGLASS and Martha BEACH, Christmas,
1846. The first death was that of a woman at Mr. FOOT's
house. Julius GILBERT taught the first school in a log-house
belonging to Mr. FOOT in 1848. About a year later a school
house was built half a mile north of the village, in Center,
which in 1853 was removed to Footville and was occupied there
for school purposes until 1855, when the Methodist Church was
built and the school was removed to it, continuing there till
1875, when the church burned and an adequate frame school house
was built. The post-office, formerly Bachelors' Grove, was established
in 1845, with E. F. RICHARDS as postmaster. The village
contains two stores, two blacksmith-shops, a harness-shop, a
shoe-shop, a hotel and three churches. Population 300.
-
- [Source: The Portrait & Biographical
Album of Rock County, Wisconsin,
©1889 Acme, Chicago, IL; p. 1021; Courtesy of Carol]
|
