Kenosha County WI Archives Biographies.....Mygatt, Wallace 1818 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 28, 2008, 3:36 am

Author: Western Historical Society (1879)

    WALLACE MYGATT, one of the pioneers of Kenosha, yet surviving, who has in a
commercial, professional and personal capacity been identified with the
foundation, growth and progress of the city for nearly fifty years, was born in
Oneida County, N. Y., midway between Clinton and Paris Hill, on the 18th of
September, 1818. Sylvester, the father of Wallace, as the latter says, was an
extensive farmer who educated his sons to hard work. He believed that whatever
was done at all, either agriculturally or otherwise, should be well done, and
that exacting labor was always attended by the harvest that invariably waits
upon industry. In all the work constantly recurring upon an extensive farm, he
always "pulled the heaviest oar himself, and was often afield before the rising
sun gave promise of the advent of another day. Mr. Mygatt's father and mother
were both born and reared at Berlin, Conn., and previous to their settling in
Oneida County, the head of the family followed merchandising near Newbern, N.
C., at which place he boarded in the family of a skipper named Wallace, after
whom the subject of this sketch was christened with appropriate ceremony. His
mother's maiden name was Abi Booth. In harmony with the views that appear to
have been mutually entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Mygatt, Sr., all books, except
the Bible and an elaborate commentary upon the same, were excluded from the
household in Oneida County; this exception also included school-books and one
solitary volume on agriculture. To these alone were the ambitious minds of the
hero and his sisters and brothers wedded; with the patience of Job and the
greatness of Mordecai, the psalms of David, the acts of the Apostles, the
conservation and co-relation and adaptation of soils and seeds and plants as
treated by the Department of Agriculture through its officiant were the growing
members of his family more familiar than with experiences of Japhet, the
eccentricities of Gulliver and Sinbad the Sailor. Indeed, Mr. Mygatt don't
remember to have read any other works than those cited previous to attaining the
age of 18 years. The future editor of the Southport American also experienced no
inconsiderable trouble in securing a supply of paper whereon to perpetuate his
reflections and conclusions. His father was in the habit of purchasing one quire
of paper per annum to meet the requirements of the family correspondence. Upon
one occasion, Wallace appropriated the entire outlay to stories, reflections and
conclusions on various themes, and there was none left to answer the purposes
for which it had been provided. At this crisis, a letter of friendship was
received by Mr. Mygatt's father demanding an immediate reply. Search was
instituted for the "foolscap," that the demand might be complied with, and no
little consternation followed the announcement that the complement supplied for
epistolary purposes had been exhausted while yet the year was young. There is no
record of the punishment that may have been inflicted upon the despoiler of the
letter-paper, but thereafter, when prompted by an irrepressible desire to
indulge the fancy, and reduce to writing the creations of his mind, Wallace
utilised the wrapping paper with which the grocery merchant was accustomed to
envelop the family supplies of Young Hyson, Java and edibles, for that ideal
purpose. Surrounded by such influences, and educated in the school of economy,
self denial, patience and indomitable perseverance, the subject of this sketch
was thoroughly qualified and peculiarly fitted to cope with the difficulties,
endure the burthens and accomplished the development of a new country. It was
the possession of these invaluable qualities, coupled with the enterprise and
character to which they gave birth, that induced the fathers of Western
civilization to tear themselves from pleasant associations and home comforts
east of the mountains, and venture into the wilderness and dangers and trials
which encompassed them whithersoever they might wander or settle at the West. In
no man were these qualities more pronounced than in Wallace Mygatt, and to these
qualities was he indebted for the success which has attended his residence in
Kenosha, now upward of forty years. In the month of October, 1838, he left the
homestead in Oneida County, while yet a boy, for the purpose, as he says, "of
journeying to the then new and sparsely-populated country bordering upon the
western shore of Lake Michigan." It was late in the fall before he reached what
has since proved itself to be his domicile and business center from that day to
this, Kenosha, which was then in its infancy, without the promise of future
greatness, or the encouragement of present prosperity, to persuade emigrants to
tarry. Notwithstanding the absence of any cheering prospective, Mr. Mygatt
pitched his tent in Kenosha, where he remained during the winter. With the dawn
of spring, he went into the occupation of a tract of Government land about three
miles west of Racine, the title to which had been vested in his family by
purchase. The property is now known as "Mygatt's Corners." On this place he
remained during the spring the sole occupant of the "Corners" save a
good-natured and genial laborer named Gillespie, who assisted him in "breaking
up" the fields and felling the forests, preparatory to the coming of his
parents, who were expected with the first days of summer, and who arrived on the
20th day of June, 1839, accompanied by their daughters, all of whom were
delighted with their new home, which, though solitary, was made cheerful by the
inmates and the beauty of its surroundings. The home was the center of a
landscape, said to have been exquisitely beautiful and fascinating during the
summer months, but exceedingly unattractive when the winds whistled through the
dead foliage of the trees, and the snowfiakes drifted before the unfettered and
resistless storm. In 1842, Mr. Mygatt returned to Kenosha and engaged in the
publication and editorial management of the Southport American. Though but
scarcely of age, he discharged his duties with such rare fidelity and general
satisfaction to his readers and the public, that he attracted an unusual
subscription for those days, and contributed in no small degree to the
establishment of a line of policy, the influence of which was deferred to in the
Northwest for years. But other interests demanded his attention and, in the year
1843, he abandoned journalism, leased the establishment and pursued a line of
life cast in other places for five years, when he resumed the editorial chair,
conscious that the pen was mightier than the persuasions of the money changer,
or the per cent of commercial profits. In 1850, he finally disposed of the
American to C. I. Hutchinson, who had been recently appointed United States
Marshal, and esteemed "an organ" an indispensable appendage to the office, since
which date Mr. Mygatt has been connected with the fourth estate at intervals,
and to satisfy a longing desire to criticise passing events, which always
predominates in the editorial or reportorial composition. Since the sale, he has
been engaged as a dealer in produce, and from profits accruing during years of
industry, frugality and attention to business, he is provided for against a
rainy day, and is in the enjoyment of a happy old age. Mr. Mygatt was married
February 24, 1846, to Mary Jane, daughter of Jedediah Gibson, of the town of
Somers, who still lives to enjoy the respect of numberless friends, and whose
four sons, grown to man's estate, rise up to call their parents blessed. In
1850, Mr. Mygatt was appointed a Deputy United States Marshal, and, with the
exception of a brief interim, has discharged the duties incident to that
position continuously up to the present time, he has also served as foreman of
the harbor work under the direction of the Government, and is at present
employed as Superintendent of Repairs, made under Federal auspices on that
improvement. In all positions of trust and confidence, and they have been many,
filled by the subject of this brief sketch, he has attracted the respect and
applause of superior and subordinate, and justly earned the fullest meed of
praise which has ever attended his journey down the hill of life.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF RACINE AND KENOSHA COUNTIES, WISCONSIN,

CONTAINING A HISTORY OF EACH COUNTY, ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT,
RESOURCES, ETC., AN EXTENSIVE AND MINUTE SKETCH OF ITS CITIES, THEIR
IMPROVEMENTS, INDUSTRIES, MANUFACTORIES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, SOCIETIES, ETC.,
ETC., WAR RECORD, BIOGRAPHICAL 8KBTCHES, PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEN AND EARLY
SETTLERS, VIEWS OF BUILDINGS, ETC., ETC.; ALSO HISTORY OF WISCONSIN, COSTITUTION
OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF WI8CON8IN, CONDEN8ED AB8TRACT OF LAWS OF WI8CONSIN,
MISCELLANEOUS, ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
MDCCCLXXIX.
(1879)


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