Any new city, village, or township is riddled with firsts. The intriguing part of Madison's first is how many rest squarely with one family. In 1837, Roseline Peck, along with her husband, established the first inn for Madison. Mrs. Peck described the evening is in generous detail from her writings of the time. It was completed with the financial help of James Doty no sooner than the afternoon of the city's first 4th of July celebration. Their inn was to draw a crowd of reportedly hundreds to an area that wouldn't be incorporated as a village for another ten years. Locals from the Ho-Chunk Nation also attended the festivities. The evening included beef, veal, feather beds, and a basket of champagne. Roseline embodied the strong, capable Wisconsin woman. Even with her husband purportedly "incapacitated" and herself seven months pregnant, everything is said to have gone off without a hitch. Folks singing into the evening and general joy abounded. Roseline would go on to give Madison another significant first. Firstborn, Wisconsiana Victoria Peck came about soon after.

Independence Day celebrations would not always go as smoothly as the first. In 1871 John Betz was manning a cannon used at the Capitol lawn celebration. When the cannon went off prematurely, John was disfigured and mortally wounded. He survived the incident long enough to be taken to his home at 1036 University Avenue. He passed the next day.

Again in 1889, William Melvin was disfigured and later died from a cannon blast. He was also working on the 4th of July Celebrations on the Capitol lawn. Mysteriously connecting the two is the address they both called home. Though almost twenty years apart, and no known relation between the two, they were both living at the same 1036 University Avenue at the time of their forceful demise.