BELOIT, a city of Rock county, Wis., U.S.A., on Rock river, 70m. S.W. of Milwaukee, on the southern boundary of the State. It is served by the Chicago and North Western and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific railways. The population was 10,436 in 1900; 25,284 in 1920, of whom 2,819 were foreign born white; and was 23,611 in 1930.
The city has a pleasant situation on high bluffs on both sides of the river, which furnishes abundant water-power. The factory products in 1927 were valued at $21,234,924, and included knives, shoes, steam pumps, engines, windmills, automobile trailers and various machinery. Beloit college, on a commanding site east of the river, was founded in 1846 through the efforts of the Con gregational and Presbyterian churches to meet the educational needs of the new region opened up by the Black Hawk War. It has a campus of 3oac. and a large athletic field, an enrolment of over 5oo, and an endowment of over $2,000,000.
Beloit was founded by New Englanders in 1838, and was chartered in 1856.