Cultivation of these crops expanded slowly until the Civil War, when Southern sugar was no longer available. At that point, the production of Wisconsin sugar cane skyrocketed, leading to the introduction of annual state sorghum conventions and a Madison publication called the Northwestern Sorgho Journal. (7) This expansion brought a demand for products such as cane crushers and syrup evaporators, which the J. B. and 0. E. Merrill Machine Shop had built as early as 1858.(8)
The Merrill Machine Shop may have done well during its first few months, but before long troubles began. By 1858, a nation wide depression had caused severe shortages of currency and credit. Conditions were particularly bad in Wisconsin because poor wheat harvests in 1858 and 1859 hindered farmers from paying for farming equipment. As the economy worsened the Machine Shop lost business, and consequently they layed-off employees. As a result, their work force in the Machine Shop dropped from sixty, in 1858, to six, in l859.(9)
By the beginning of 1860, Beloit's economy was at an all time low. Unemployed workers became bandits, attacking unwary travelers near the outskirts of the city limits. (10)Town notables met regularly in desperate attempts to come up with some type of solution to the city's economic problems. (11) No matter how hard the notables tried, they could do nothing. On February 22, 1860, the Beloit Journal described the town s condition in one word ' "croaking." (12)
Page 4