Janesville

History

The area that became Janesville was the site of a Ho-Chunk village named (Round Rock) up to the time of Euro-American settlement. In the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, the United States recognized the portion of the present city that lies west of the Rock River as Ho-Chunk territory, while the area east of the river was recognized as Potawatomi land. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Black Hawk War of 1832, both nations were forced to surrender this land to the United States. American settlers John Inman, George Follmer, Joshua Holmes, and William Holmes Jr. built a crude log cabin in the region in 1835. Later that year, one key settler, Henry F. Janes, Despite being named after a Virginian, Janesville was founded by 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. 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. After the Civil…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (1.71%) is water.

Race & ethnicity