Wisconsin Hometown Stories

Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Beloit

– Announcer: This program is brought to you by the combined resources of the Wisconsin Historical Society and PBS Wisconsin.

[jaunty piano, fiddle music] – Narrator: A Ho-Chunk village at a confluence, emerging on the future state line, built up by New England emigrants and agricultural innovation…

Transformed by a college, the Great Migration, and community revitalization… on Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Beloit.

[sparkly piano] – Funding for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Beloit is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Alliant Energy, the Jim and Cheryl Caldwell Foundation, the Hendricks Family Foundation, Charles R. and Anita B. Williams in memory of William D. and Marie B. Williams, Agrace, the Stateline Community Foundation, Keith and Diane Wilson, Rick Dexter, Mary Alice and Jim Van Gemert and Anne and John Murphy in memory of Jeanne Murphy Haase, Charles H. and Prudence Harker, Western Container Corporation, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[wistful, nostalgic piano] – Narrator: In southern Wisconsin, along the Illinois state line, just north of the confluence of the Rock River and Turtle Creek, sits the city of Beloit.

The area’s flat landscape was created during the last glacial period, peaking more than 15,000 years ago.

The outwash from the melting glacier filled in the once hilly landscape and deep valley, creating a slower and rocky river.

Named the Rock River, it originates in the Horicon Marsh area and empties into the Mississippi River.

As a tributary to the Mississippi, the Rock River was a key waterway for the Ho-Chunk people, particularly to reach one of their largest villages at the junction of the Rock River and Turtle Creek.

– Bill Quackenbush: Beloit sits within the central area of our ancestral homelands.

The Ho-Chunk, we hold the Beloit area near and dear to our heart.

Much like many of our large city or council areas, there’s the utilization of our traditional names for those sites, and Beloit being referred to as “Ke-Chunk,” the Turtle.

[traditional Ho-Chunk flute] In our oral history… that talks about when the Turtle came across and wanted to reside down into the Rock River.

This is where he drug his tail.

And that’s where the confluence is.

– Ke-Chunk, also called “Turtle Village,” thrived.

When Indian Agent John Kinzie visited the village in the 1820s, he conducted a census and reported almost 700 Ho-Chunk people living at Turtle Village.

Kinzie noted the village growing vegetables and tapping trees for syrup.

– Bill Quackenbush: Beloit is unique.

It had its own resources, and this was something that they would supply in abundance and trade to other resources throughout our network.

So, Beloit played a very important role of a place where people would come to enter into that trade process.

[cheerful old-timey music] – These trading opportunities eventually attracted non-native people to the Ke-Chunk area.

– Fred Burwell: Joseph Thibault was a French-Canadian trapper and trader who had been out in this region for quite a few years, had made a lot of inroads with the native population, got to know them well, traded with them.

Thibault claimed a lot of land.

– In the early 1800s, the Ho-Chunk Nation fled Ke-Chunk as the Blackhawk War came into the area, and the government forced them to move west.

– Fred Burwell: Because the Native Americans had mostly moved on, trading was not good for him anymore.

He was looking to move on.

And when Caleb Blodgett from Vermont came out here, he made a deal with Thibault.

– Beatrice McKenzie: Caleb Blodgett was a land speculator and the first settler in Beloit.

In May 1836, he purchased the claim that Joseph Thibault had made for a disputed amount, something between $200 and $500.

– Blodgett bought Thibault’s land claim, which amounted to what they called three “looks,” an estimated 7,000 acres.

As word began to spread out east of available land in the territories, other people started to organize and look west for new opportunities.

– Fred Burwell: The New England Emigrating Company was formed in Colebrook, New Hampshire.

Many of the citizens there were looking for a new place where they could grow better crops and found a community.

– Beatrice McKenzie: So, they sent their most enterprising young member, Dr. Horace White, who was 27 years old, west to look at various potential sites.

Colebrook has a confluence of two rivers that’s very similar to the confluence here.

And so, when they got here and saw the stream and the Rock River, they thought, “Wow, this looks actually quite a bit like Colebrook.”

The New England Emigrating Company decided together to purchase a piece of Blodgett’s claim.

They purchased it for $2,500.

– As members of the New England Emigrating Company and settlers started to stream into the area, a village was soon established, 12 years before Wisconsin was even a state.

– Beatrice McKenzie: It was established as a village in 1836.

[horse neighs, fiddle music] The first European-American settlers were Yankees, were East Coast people from New Hampshire, from New York, quite a number from Canada, French Canadians and English Canadians.

Norwegians came in 1840 to start farms outside of Beloit.

But the largest groups of immigrants in this early period were Germans and Irish.

– Along with these European-American settlers came Beloit’s earliest Black residents, often as domestic workers to escape enslavement in the South.

– Fred Burwell: In the early years of Beloit, there were some Black residents here.

Never a huge number, but more than in most communities in Wisconsin.

And I think some of that has to do with opportunity, again, and some of it has to do with pretty good abolitionist sentiment overall.

– With a growing village and an established community, the New England Emigrating Company began planning the city.

Originally called Turtle, the settlers named their new community Beloit.

– Fred Burwell: In 1837, they hired a man named Kelsou to do this survey.

They wanted to create kind of a planning document– not as Beloit was, but as they wished Beloit would be.

And they included things like a Canal Street, a Hydraulic Street, and a College Street ten years before Beloit College actually opened its doors.

– Originally, the plans for Beloit expanded only as far as the northern border of Illinois allowed.

Before Illinois became a state in 1818, its border was south of Lake Michigan, but population requirements to become a state pushed the border further north– allowing Illinois to have a port on the Great Lakes.

This placement of the state line put the future home of Beloit right on the edge of Wisconsin.

As the city continued to grow, it pushed further south, past the state boundaries.

In 1917, this community was officially incorporated as South Beloit.

Sitting on the state line, Beloit was in a key location to receive the first interstate railroad in 1853, even before Milwaukee.

Access to the new rail established Beloit as an early industrial center in the Midwest.

– Fred Burwell: The coming of the railroad to Beloit, super important for the community– not only to connect, in terms of being able to travel to these places, but all of a sudden, you have easier ways of exporting farm produce, animals, and its industry.

– Beloit quickly became a crossroads amidst major developing cities in America’s new frontier.

The city’s position on the state line soon earned Beloit the title “the Gateway to Wisconsin.”

[upbeat fiddle] [ambitious orchestra] – By the mid-1800s, Beloit was attracting new residents and garnering media attention.

The inaugural issue of the Chicago Magazine in 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.”

– The magazine sang the praises of Beloit College, a dream of the New England Emigrating Company.

Ten years after the founding of Beloit, one 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 and other community members donated land on a bluff overlooking the Rock River.

Mounds made by the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk marked the grounds, including one that appeared to 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, Beloit 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, the school started construction of 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 a 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 and 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 America’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.”

[gentle guitar] – At the turn of the century, Beloit’s growing economy was fueled by European immigrants looking for work, but their arrival slowed with the start of World War I.

This created an opportunity for Beloit’s Black community to grow as Black families moved north.

From 1910 into the 1970s, roughly six million Black people left the South to escape oppression and look for better employment.

This movement would later be called the “Great Migration.”

– Cheryl Caldwell: The North, I believe, appealed to Black people because it gave them more opportunities to kind of escape the Jim Crow laws that were still being enforced in the South.

They knew better jobs up North, and better education, just a better living.

[plucky folk guitar] In wanting to know more about my family’s migration to Beloit, I started to research when a lot of Blacks came to Beloit.

Very little was mentioned about the African American history.

I came across the name of Tom Polaski.

He is one walking encyclopedia on the Great Migration and Fairbanks.

– Tom Polaski: The Great Migration actually involved almost every southern state.

Anywhere where there’s a strong industrial base that offered decent and consistent pay, you begin to get migration of Black people coming in from the South.

– With a shortage of European immigrant labor, Beloit industries needed new workers.

Fairbanks Morse found a solution to their employee shortage through a Black janitor named John McCord.

– Cheryl Caldwell: John McCord was from Pontotoc, Mississippi.

Migrated north as a young man.

He came in contact with personnel manager, Eugene Burlingame.

John McCord was going to go home to Pontotoc, Mississippi, for the summer to visit his parents, and he was asked by Burlingame, “Hey, do you know any other good workers?

If so, bring them back.”

In September of 1916, John brought 18 men from Pontotoc, Mississippi, back with him.

And that was really the beginning of the migration of Black men and families from Pontotoc.

And so, within a matter of years, a lot of the residents in Beloit were from Pontotoc.

There were other areas that they recruited, but most of them came from Pontotoc, Mississippi.

And so, they did call it the “Pontotoc Up North.”

– Tom Polaski: Most of the Black migrants that were recruited by Fairbanks were placed either in the foundry or in the powerhouse.

In fact, John McCord never made mention of the foundry.

He did not want anybody to have second thoughts about coming north.

What he did emphasize, though, was the 22 and 1/2 cents per hour.

What they didn’t realize is that Fairbanks could save five to six cents per man-hour.

Fairbanks would not have to pay as much to its Black labor as its white labor.

But even though the wage is lower, it’s a better wage than what they were earning in the South.

– When Black workers saved up enough money, they paid for their families to move to Beloit, causing a large jump in the Black population.

From 1910 to 1920, Beloit’s Black population grew from just 60 to 834 residents.

The influx of new families coming to town created a housing crisis.

– Wanda Sloan: The Black workers that migrated here were promised housing and employment.

The housing part didn’t work out as well.

The Eclipse area homes were housing for Fairbanks workers.

The neighborhood was built up adjacent to Fairbanks for people that were working there.

There were about maybe 140 single family homes built for those employees.

Eventually, they could purchase those homes.

However, it was only for the white employees.

So, when Fairbanks Morse had to find housing for Black workers, the debate over integrated housing arose.

There was a lot of objection.

So, the Fairbanks Flats were constructed in about 1917.

The Fairbanks Flats were comprised of about four blocks of separate units.

Each unit had two bedrooms and one bath.

– Originally called the “Edgewater Flats,” the buildings were soon nicknamed the “Fairbanks Flats” and, later, simply “the Flats.”

Modest in design and construction, the Flats are the only example of housing built specifically for Black workers in the state of Wisconsin.

The Black families who had moved North to escape racial oppression still fought to overcome discrimination in their new home.

– Cheryl Caldwell: A lot of the white organizations did not let Blacks join.

So, they created their own organizations.

There, within steps of the Edgewater Flats, was the Black YMCA that Fairbanks built.

That was a vital place for the Black community.

The Black churches in Beloit were important because it was important in their upbringing down South.

And when they came North, they weren’t going to be without a church.

It was their support system, their refuge.

It was a place for them to gather, worship.

In 1919, Beloit formed the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

That was the first chapter in the state of Wisconsin.

So, they began to tackle some discrimination issues that were going on in the city.

– The Flats themselves provided a place for people to build community.

– Wanda Sloan: I describe it as a village because everyone knew everyone.

Even when new tenants came in, we were able to meet each other right away, greet each other.

If they had children, that was just a bonus for the rest of us kids.

We were kind of self-contained.

And we had to create activities, games, and any socialization that we wanted to do; it was contained pretty much within the Flats.

So, we had a lot of fun in the village.

– The Flats housed generations of Beloit residents, and the community grew to encompass the surrounding neighborhood.

The Flats fell into disrepair, and in order to protect the buildings, they were put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Despite their historical value, the Flats were in danger of being torn down.

– Wanda Sloan: I grew up in the Fairbanks Flats.

Did I want to see the wrecking ball?

No way.

No way!

The city got the land and those apartments by eminent domain.

They purchased them for demolition.

And we were fortunate enough to have a group of people very small indeed, to want to get into this fight.

It was the Fairbanks Flats Revitalization Committee.

That’s who we were.

But our mission was to save the Flats.

There were a few of us that were intent on those houses, those units being salvaged, reconstructed, remodeled so that people could live in them again.

We wanted housing for people.

It was just amazing.

The small band of people that got together to salvage the Flats.

And so, more and more interest began to kind of level up.

– The Fairbanks Flats Revitalization Committee’s community outreach and hard work with city council members paid off.

In June 2009, the committee members took part in the ribbon cutting of the restored Flats.

– Wanda Sloan: It’s important that Fairbanks Flats were saved.

Regardless of how some people wanted to erase this from history, it’s here.

It’s still standing.

I don’t ever want the Black history of Beloit to be diminished, erased, or forgotten.

[carefree, uplifting guitar] – Moving into the 20th century, Beloit’s varied industries became ingrained in the community, providing jobs for generations of Beloit residents.

– Pat Bussie: My dad worked at Fairbanks.

My mother had worked there part-time.

And when I left high school, my dad says, “Why don’t you go try an apprenticeship program at Fairbanks?”

I worked with people that worked here during World War II.

I was inquisitive.

So, I got all these stories from all these people.

They said they’d work seven days a week, three shifts, and we were upwards of 7,000 people at Fairbanks during that time.

– Archival Footage: Pearl Harbor, December the 7th, 1941.

[dramatic music, flames roaring] [patriotic military march with snare drums] – In 1941, Beloit residents and Beloit College students left Wisconsin to join the war.

[missiles soaring] Beloit’s industries, including Fairbanks Morse, were well positioned to shift their production in support of the war.

– Pat Bussie: So, Fairbanks has had highs and lows, and I would say the highest was probably during World War II, no doubt.

It was the Navy that came to us and said, “Hey, this engine you’ve designed for locomotives would be perfect to put inside a submarine.”

So, we built engines for the Navy that went to submarines.

They went to aircraft carriers.

They went to surface ships and other fleet vehicles.

Right after Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy came in, and they built a massive building on our northeast side of our campus.

– With the Navy’s expansion of the Fairbanks Morse campus also came patriotic signage.

Walking through the Fairbanks gates, employees were reminded of their contributions to the war.

– Pat Bussie: When you come in here during World War II, and you’re working at Fairbanks Morse, the feeling was immense pride.

They weren’t out fighting the war, but they felt that their contributions were so important here that everyone was just all working together.

Everybody produced things as quickly as we can because it makes a difference.

– Across the nation, women stepped into factory jobs left empty by servicemen.

In Beloit, women of all ages were answering the call for industrial work.

– Fung Scholz: When I graduated high school, I went and worked at Fairbanks.

I worked in the Navy building, and they called me a Navy inspector because I would go around and inspect the welds on these blocks of the engines.

Working during wartime made me feel like I was really contributing to the war effort.

And everybody that was working in the shops felt the same way.

I just did it for the summer because that fall, I went into nurses’ training.

They needed more nurses to fill in the staffs at the hospital because the nurses that did join the service were automatically commissioned as second lieutenants.

So, this drew the nurses into the service.

[triumphant march] – Archival Footage: He wanted to give them the highest honor that can be paid to any industrial establishment in America: The Army and Navy “E” for Excellence, generally… – Recognizing the contributions to victory made by everyday Americans on the production line, the military awarded five percent of manufacturers nationwide with a prestigious award: the Army and Navy “E” for Excellence.

Several Beloit industries earned this honor, including Beloit Iron Works, Gardner Machine Company, and Fairbanks Morse.

These industries weren’t the only organizations supporting the war.

Beloit’s “College on the Hill” also shifted its focus during wartime.

– Fred Burwell: Looking at the college and the city, the war affected both in vast ways.

The city, of course, many men went off to fight in the war.

And some of those men were also Beloit College alumni and students.

And if they looked up the hill And if they looked up the hill at the college, they’d see a very different student body than just a few years earlier because most of the men were gone fighting.

– Women made up the majority of students at Beloit College during these early war years.

However, the campus did not remain free of men for long.

[military march] – Fred Burwell: The Army Air Corps that trained… Beloit College campus, and lived here for a few years, was the 95th College Training Detachment.

They took some college classes; they had military classes.

They lived in the dormitories.

And some actually trained at Fairbanks Morse.

All the armed forces branches wanted trained men to lead and a college education, a good strong background in reading and writing, and critical thinking, all that could be very important to an officer and even to an enlisted man.

So, there was a relationship between the college and the city to see the war through.

– Archival Footage: …Times Square.

It’s official!

It’s all over.

It’s total victory.

[cheering] – The Beloit community joined in global celebration when victory arrived in 1945, and many felt the gravity of the end of the war.

[classical orchestra music] At that time, the Delaney family was one of the largest Beloit families.

Of their twenty children, five sons served during World War II.

Youngsters at the time, Ron and Gary Delaney, remember feeling inspired by their uncles’ service.

– Gary Delaney: Elvin, he got the Purple Heart because he was actually killed.

That was given to my grandma for Elvin.

They said that, you know, they were proud to serve the country and to keep everybody over here free.

– Ron Delaney: We were just proud to have heard that all of them got to serve.

And that’s why we both served.

– Gary Delaney: My mom put me in a sailor outfit, and I went in the Army.

[brothers chuckling] When I was in high school, I was in the ROTC.

Well, that naturally led me towards the Army.

And having the backing of the family that had so many people in the service, the thing that I enjoyed was the fact that I knew I was defending this country.

– Ron Delaney: I was in the Navy.

And the ship that I was on had a Fairbanks motor in it.

It was pretty impressive, really, to have a Fairbanks Morse engine right behind me and standing watch on it.

– Following the end of the war in 1945, Beloit thrived with booming industry, a busy downtown, and a renewed community spirit.

Families enjoyed recreational activities again.

The Delaney family was known for their ice-skating shows.

[opulent big band music] – Ron Delaney: Mom and Dad put on quite a few shows, and they put them on at the lagoon.

That was just a good thing to be involved in.

[swish, clack] The entertainment and the laughter, the hands we got, and thinking we were something a little special.

– Gary Delaney: I think this is a good thing that Beloit had.

It brought families together.

– Ron Delaney: The river was a big playground to us really, and we just enjoyed the heck out of it.

– Beloit moved towards the second half of the century with a renewed sense of pride and hope.

[extravagant crooner music] [introspective piano music] – Throughout the 20th century, Beloit stood out as a city of opportunity with robust manufacturing industries.

In addition to securing jobs, many newcomers found Beloit an ideal place to pursue an education.

– Fung Scholz: Anybody that wanted to have a better life, of course, would migrate.

Many people came.

Well, my uncle came to Beloit first, started a restaurant, and then my father came to join him.

– Charles Wong arrived in Beloit from Guangdong Province in 1920, and eventually brought his wife, Yee Shee, in 1923.

– John Wong: The Wong family is one of the first Chinese families to ever immigrate to Beloit, Wisconsin.

Charles and Yee Shee Wong had seven children: Gim, Fung, George, Helen, Harry, Frank, and Mary.

Moving to the United States was going to offer them opportunity that they would not have had in China.

Not only opportunities as far as jobs, but probably more importantly for our family: education.

And they knew that the educational system was going to be stronger in the United States than it would have been in China.

Eventually, my grandfather was shot and killed in July of 1938.

My dad was the oldest at age 14.

– Fung Scholz: When we lost my father, that was truly a struggle ’cause my mother didn’t speak any English.

It was up to us.

And that was kind of a struggle, to begin with.

I was number two; I was the oldest daughter.

I grew up only speaking Chinese in the home, and then, learning English, playing with neighborhood friends.

Education was a thing that my mother insisted on.

That was one reason they came to the United States.

– John Wong: Higher education was extremely important to the entire family.

And I think that they knew that education was the one tool that nobody could ever take away from them.

When they were in the community and involved, they knew they were different, but they tried to be different in positive ways.

All of them excelled in school.

Many of them were class presidents, or treasurers, or secretaries of each of their respective classes.

I think knowing what they had to go through, and then, to find out that all seven of them ended up going on to college, having successful lifestyles, successful families is probably the greatest part of the story.

– Fung Scholz: We didn’t go back to China because the neighborhood, the community was so supportive of us.

I think that’s why we all got an education.

Of course, my mother expressed her feelings about it all the time, too.

She was just glad we all got through.

[drum roll, jazz] – By mid-century, children of the Great Migration were also making their mark on the Beloit community.

Arriving in Beloit from Mississippi, Barbara Hickman immediately developed a passion for education.

– Barbara Hickman: Academically, I did very well in high school.

That just was part– whatever you do, you do your very best.

I wanted to be a third-grade teacher.

That was my goal in life.

I wanted to go to college.

I decided to go to Stevens Point.

I was the only Black student on campus for three years.

And so, it was after I graduated from Stevens Point that I became aware that I was the first African American female to graduate from Stevens Point.

– After receiving her teaching degree in 1960, Barbara searched for a position as a teacher in Wisconsin.

[bell, students] – Barbara Hickman: Growing up in Beloit, there were never any African American teachers.

I never wanted to forget where I came from and my background.

I never wanted to part from that.

I couldn’t be average.

You know, you had to stand out in order for them to even think or consider.

There were people who were honest with me to say, “Well, we’re looking and want to hire, but they got to be twice as good.”

[small laugh] In Beloit, they offered me a contract.

I started my career in the building that I had attended.

And from there, I spent about 60 years in the District of Beloit.

Every opportunity I got, I never said no to anything.

– With Barbara’s success, she became a role model to young Black students.

By the end of her career, she had worked in ten Beloit elementary schools and earned distinction as the first Black administrator in the school district.

In the later years of her career, Barbara witnessed a new pattern of immigration in the school district.

She, along with other educators, shifted their focus to set up new Beloit residents for success.

– Rosamara Laursen: The growth of the multilingual students, about 98% of them were Spanish speakers, really started to take off in the early 2000s.

There was a large increase in immigrants in Wisconsin because of agriculture and manufacturing industries.

It attracted many families here.

– Coming from Mexico and countries throughout South and Central America, these families sought educational opportunities through English literacy programs like Even Start and the dual language program in the School District of Beloit.

– Rosamara Laursen: Having an education really not only opens doors for you, but it also gives you that complete freedom and flexibility to live the way that you want to.

Anecdotally, I have heard students say that they loved attending Beloit schools because it taught them how to interact with people who are different than they are, and it really set them up for success in a larger global society.

– Barbara Hickman: We wanted to make a difference in our students’ life.

You get an education; can’t anyone take that away from you.

And that was the driving force.

– Education has long been a pillar of Beloit’s community, from the college to the public schools.

These educational institutions now stand as a beacon for those in search of a better life.

– John Wong: People that are coming in from other countries, they want the same thing that my grandparents and great-grandparents wanted.

They want their family to have a better opportunity for the future than they had.

That is no different today than it was a hundred-plus years ago.

– Rosamara Laursen: I truly believe that Beloit is on its way to being a supportive community where anybody’s welcome and is able to thrive.

– Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, major industrial cities deteriorated as America’s manufacturing steadily decreased.

Once the thriving Beloit Iron Works, Beloit Corporation, along with Fairbanks Morse, experienced decline in the 1970s and 80s…

Eventually, Beloit Corporation had to close its doors, while Fairbanks Morse eliminated jobs.

– Jeff Adams: Fairbanks Morse, shortly after World War II, employed 6,000 people.

It was an economic powerhouse.

By 1979, 1988, it was down to 600 people.

And you could see that in vacant and abandoned factories.

You could see that in the working-class neighborhoods.

The life had simply been sucked out of those neighborhoods.

And if you ventured into our downtown, you would have seen lots of vacant storefronts.

When the cameras would show up in Beloit, it was, you know, “Tell us about the crime that took place,” or “Let’s look at the unemployment rates.”

There was just a constant reminder that things had been better at one point.

Some of the business leadership decided to begin to meet and to say, “We’ve got to do something.

What can we do?”

– Archival Footage: That group, which called itself Beloit 2000… – In 1989, Beloit business leaders formed Beloit 2000, a non-profit aiming to improve the city and its image.

As an economics professor at Beloit College, Jeff Adams took on the role of project manager.

The organization hired landscape architect Phil Lewis to develop a roadmap.

Later known as the “Lewis Sketch Plan,” this vision for the future of Beloit became a framework for Beloit 2000’s principal focus: The Riverfront Project.

– Jeff Adams: One of our early themes was “Rediscover Beloit.”

It was the notion that while we had some image problems, things weren’t nearly as bad as people from the outside kind of thought.

And we wanted to bring people here to kind of see and to rediscover this place.

We had a 3D model of the riverfront project.

We would take that down to Riverfest, which was our music festival in July.

And we had a tent, and we had all the plans, and so on.

And we would bring people in– we’d have one at a time– to kind of see this idea.

– Over the next 20 years, Beloit 2000 accomplished several projects that now make up Riverside Park.

– Jeff Adams: There are some boat docks.

There’s quite a bit of sculpture.

A lot of it Verne Shaffer’s work.

There’s the lagoon, which was renovated.

There’s Harry Moore Pavilion.

We have dancing at Harry’s Place.

There’s Movie on the Big Lawn.

In the space is the Rotary River Center.

There are walkways and fountains and paddle boats, and other kinds of things.

But the kind of the beating heart of Riverfront is Turtle Island, which is the kid’s playland.

I’m really very proud of having gotten that started.

– Resident: The piers and the docks, the new center that’s down there along the river is very nice, very attractive, and I think it’s going a long way in the improvement of the city of Beloit.

– Marc Perry: I grew up at a time when Beloit had a thriving downtown and the mall and all of that and it was a thriving little community.

And then, slowly started to diminish, and you saw downtown kind of become a ghost town, and businesses started to close.

To see the transition, the rebirth over time has been really tremendous.

To see downtown come back and be revitalized, to see our riverfront revitalized… it’s awesome to see.

– Marc Perry grew up in the Merrill Neighborhood, a unique area of Beloit where Black residents could become homeowners and find community.

– Marc Perry: Beloit was just more welcoming than most communities in Wisconsin.

You had people who were working in factories and industry.

Our teachers lived in the same neighborhood that we lived in, as did other African American professionals.

So, it was really neat growing up in that time frame.

At one point, I was like, “I’m leaving here, and never coming back.

“It’s a small town I can’t handle.

I need to be in a bigger space.”

My mom especially was concerned about just making sure I had opportunities.

And so, I migrated to larger communities.

Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis.

I was, you know, 34 years old, and then, Beloit was on an economic upswing.

So, I wanted to come back and be a part of that because there were certain communities that were still being left out of that upswing.

– At the same time Beloit hit hard times, so did the city’s historically Black neighborhoods.

[pounding] Now, organizations like Community Action work to revitalize those spaces.

– Marc Perry: Merrill was our focus initially back in 2007.

It was a neighborhood where we wanted to make sure things weren’t falling behind and that people had housing and homeownership opportunities.

[drilling] – All the way out?

– Yeah.

– Since 2006, Fresh Start has built 14 houses.

We focused on getting people housed, making sure that people have a safe roof over their head.

[drill clutch clicking] – Through these initiatives, Beloit residents not only hope for but create a better future for their community.

– Marc Perry: Really making sure that the Merrill neighborhood is not isolated, that economic growth that’s swelling everywhere else doesn’t miss that neighborhood.

Remember that this community isn’t whole until the whole community has access.

– Revitalization continues in Beloit, with community partners coming together and creating new goals through Beloit 2020.

– Jeff Adams: Because, well… 2000 had come and gone.

We kind of broadened the scope of our concerns beyond the riverfront to what we call the city center.

The idea also provided a framework for the Hendricks Development Corporation to make their major and significant real estate investments on State and Grand and also at the Iron Works.

And we were able to eventually get into South Beloit and to accomplish Nature At The Confluence.

– Julie Uram: Our building is located just two or three blocks south of the state line with Illinois and Wisconsin.

There’s both Beloit and South Beloit, local businesses, neighbors, and the folks that want to see this area become an ever more beautiful place.

We’re all invested in making the confluence area a beautiful and central place for the community.

I often tell students that visit “Nature doesn’t know our boundaries and the boundaries that we create as people.”

So, South Beloit and Beloit are really one community.

There’s absolutely full-circle things happening here all the time.

And we appreciate that we get to work with the Ho-Chunk people and we want them to know that they are welcome here.

This is their land and their home.

And we, as our staff and our volunteers, try our best to make this a beautiful space that honors that history.

– Bill Quackenbush: When we speak about the Nature at the Confluence, that brings a special smile to my face.

Our tribal youth going there can see, you know, all the wonderful work they’re doing in not only restoring the environmental, you know, context of what this area used to be like, but they also promote it in a good way down there.

To be able to sit there with your youth and talk about the history of “Your ancestors have been here for thousands of years, “sitting in much the same way.

“And they needed the vital resources that you see out there today.”

– Julie Uram: Getting to witness those community connections here makes my heart overflow, and I think is meaningful for our visitors, as well, especially those that keep coming back.

– Bill Quackenbush: Beloit was just a beautiful hub for us to come together and share stories.

It has everything you need and more.

And those cultural resources, you know, is something that we look forward to working with Beloit to protect and preserve.

– Today, Beloit is a vibrant city… [angle grinder howling] still defined by its industry… – Look at you, Noah!

Great job!

– …education, community gatherings, and hopes for the future.

– Pat Bussie: The city of Beloit, on a Friday, Saturday, during the week, it’s busy.

We’ve got good shops there, good places to eat.

It’s alive!

You look at the companies around Beloit, they’re investing in Beloit.

They want Beloit to grow.

And quite honestly, it’s working.

And I’m gonna do my part to keep it going.

[birds chirping] – Fred Burwell: I like to think that the college will continue to be innovative, unconventional, and to take a chance on students that show talent– academic talent– but haven’t found their way yet.

I also like to think that the city and the college can come together even more.

The college will seek ways to have students be a real strong part of the community.

– Cheryl Caldwell: I really, really do hope that young kids stop and look at what came before them, who came before them, and what they did.

– Wanda Sloan: I want to leave Beloit a better place for my children and grandchildren to thrive in– not just live, but to thrive in and be as successful as they want to be.

Becoming greater human beings in the process, more welcoming, more knowledgeable, more accepting.

I believe we all have a story and when we respect each other’s stories, I think unity is achievable.

My hope for Beloit is that we can truly live out the meaning of a great American city.

[warm, smooth strings and piano] [sparkly piano] – Funding for Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Beloit is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Alliant Energy, the Jim and Cheryl Caldwell Foundation, the Hendricks Family Foundation, Charles R. and Anita B. Williams in memory of William D. and Marie B. Williams, Agrace, the Stateline Community Foundation, Keith and Diane Wilson, Rick Dexter, Mary Alice and Jim Van Gemert and Anne and John Murphy in memory of Jeanne Murphy Haase, Charles H. and Prudence Harker, Western Container Corporation, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.