Noah Hyatt Virgin Biography - Grant County Wisconsin ***************************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ***************************************************************************** Submitted by David W. Taft, dtaft@cowtown.net Source: The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery Eminent and Self-Made Men, Wisconsin Volume American Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, Cincinnati and New York Published 1877 Page 675-6 HON. NOAH H. VIRGIN, PLATTEVILLE The great-grandfather of Noah Hyatt Virgin came from Wales and settled in Maryland, and one of his sons, the grandfather of Noah, moved to Virginia, and was prominent in driving the Indians out of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The parents of Noah, Eli and Nacka Hyatt Virgin were living in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, when he was born, December 6, 1812. He lost his father when the son was only six years old. A few years later his mother married Colonel Henry Heaton, of Fayette county, and Noah worked in his step- father's flouring will and woolen mill, receiving meanwhile such education as a winter school afforded. Subsequently he lived with his brother-in-law, Isaac Hill, of Green county; learning the millwright trade. He work at that business in the East until 1835, when he found his way to Platteville, there continuing that occupation four or five years. He built the Platteville flouring mill, completing it in 1840 (the first mill of the kind in the place), having in partnership with him John H. Rountree and Neely Gray. These gentlemen he afterward bought out, and he has run the mill alone to this time. In company with another man, in 1856, he built the Genesee mill, two miles from Platteville, on the Lancaster road, disposing of it four or five years later. In 1874 Mr. Virgin added grain dealing to his business, with his eldest son, Colonel Horatio Hyatt Virgin, as a partner. He was commissioner of Grant county at an early day; has repeatedly held the highest official positions in the village of Platteville; was a member of the last Territorial legislature, held in 1847; was a member of the State assembly in the following year, and again in 1855, and served two consecutive terms in the senate, ending in 1861. During the last term he was chairman of the committee on claims, and held an influential position in the upper house. Mr. Virgin began political life as a whig; was a republican from 1854 until the second election of Mr. Lincoln in 1864, and has since acted with the democrats. In 1866 he was nominated by the democrats and reformers for congress, in a strong republican district, and ran ahead of his ticket. On the 15th of January, 1839, Mrs. Pamelia E. Adams, daughter of Rev. Bartholomew Weed, of Platteville, became his wife, and she has borne him eight children, only four of whom are living. Besides the son already mentioned there are two daughters, both married, and a son, Eugene W., unmarried. Emma is the wife of George H. Laughton, and Mary, of William R. Laughton, a brother of George, both living in Platteville. Colonel Horatio H. Virgin, his eldest child and partner in business, was born in Platteville, August 18, 1840; was educated in the Platteville Academy, and a commercial college at Madison, Wisconsin, where he graduated in December, 1859. He was married January 1, 1874, to Miss Annie E. Kane, of Dodgeville, Wisconsin, she being a relative of ex-Governor Henry Dodge. They have two children. Colonel Virgin has a brilliant military record. In October, 1861, Governor Randall appointed him on his staff aid-de-camp and colonel; in December, 1861, he became battalion adjutant of the 2d Wisconsin Cavalry, Colonel C. C. Washburn, commander; August 31, 1862, he was appointed major of-the 33d Infantry; was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in January, 1865, and returned to Wisconsin at the close of the war in command of the regiment, being brevetted colonel just before the regiment was mustered out. He was in forty-two engagements, including skirmishes; had three horses wounded twice each; had his own hair singed, his hat-rim hit, and two or three balls strike his saddle, but received not even a flesh-wound. While major he took command of the regiment in the Meridian expedition, and held the command until mustered out. On the Red River expedition, at the battle of Yellow Bayou, he had command of a brigade. At that time his regiment was in a detachment from the army of the Tennessee, under General A. J. Smith, and they had become so rugged as to be called "Smith's Guerillas." At the battle of Coldwater, Mississippi, April 19, 1863, Colonel Virgin was reported among the killed, and his obituary appeared in more than one Wisconsin newspaper, but he is as "live" a man as Platteville can exhibit, the pet of his father, and, because of his dash and bravery, the pride of the State.