William S . Hamilton William Stephen Hamilton ( August 4 , 1797 – October 9 , 1850 ) , a son of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton , was a politician and miner who lived much of his life in the U . S . state of Illinois and territorial Wisconsin . Hamilton was born in New York , where he attended the United States Military Academy before he resigned and moved to Illinois in 1817 . In Illinois he lived in Springfield and Peoria and eventually migrated to the lead - mining region of southern Wisconsin and established Hamilton ' s Diggings at present - day Wiota . Hamilton served in various political offices and as a commander in two Midwest Indian Wars . In 1849 he moved to California on the heels of the California Gold Rush . He died in Sacramento , most likely of cholera , in October 1850 . Early life . William Stephen Hamilton was born August 4 , 1797 in New York , third - youngest child and second - youngest son of Alexander Hamilton . In 1814 he was admitted to the United States Military Academy , from which he had resigned by 1817 . Following his resignation from West Point , Hamilton migrated to Sangamon County , Illinois . He lived in Springfield and Peoria , Illinois until 1827 when he moved to the lead mining region around the Fever River . Political and militia service . Hamilton first held elected office in 1824 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Sangamon County in 1824 . While working in the legislature Hamilton sponsored a bill that imposed a state - wide tax intended to fund road repair and maintenance . The tax was proportional to property value , to be paid in labor or money , and replaced an older system which required every able - bodied man to work on the roads five days per year . The bill passed , and the new law was met with much opposition ; it was repealed by the next legislature in 1826 – 27 . Hamilton served as aide de camp to Governor Edward Coles , and while living in Illinois , first in Springfield and later in Peoria , Hamilton worked for the General Land Office as Deputy Surveyor of Public Lands . In that position he surveyed Springfield ' s township . In late 1827 Hamilton served during the Winnebago War in the volunteer Illinois Militia as a captain . Hamilton commanded a company raised in Galena , Illinois known as the Galena Mounted Volunteers . Hamilton ' s company was under the command of Henry Dodge and was mustered into service on August 26 , 1827 and released on September 10 , 1827 . Hamilton moved to Wisconsin and established Hamilton ' s Diggings in 1827 . During the April – August 1832 Black Hawk War , between white settlers in the lead mining regions and Sauk Chief Black Hawk ' s British Band , Hamilton again served in the volunteer militia . Accounts of the war indicated that Hamilton was often in charge of the militia ' s indigenous allies . At the war ' s onset it was known that many of the Sioux and Menominee were eager to join the conflict against the Sauk . Hamilton was sent to the Michigan Territory , north of Prairie du Chien , to recruit the assistance of indigenous allies . The result was successful and several parties of U . S . aligned Native Americans joined the war . In June , Hamilton ' s return to Fort Hamilton with a large group of militia - aligned Native Americans coincided with the arrival of one of the survivors of the June 14 Spafford Farm massacre . The survivor , Francis Spencer , arrived at the fort around the same time as Hamilton did - accompanied by U . S . aligned Menominee . Afraid that the fort , like his party at the farm , had also been attacked , Spencer retreated back into the woods . He avoided the fort for between six and nine days , when hunger finally drove him into the open and he realized his mistake . On June 16 , about an hour after the fight at Horseshoe Bend , Hamilton arrived on the battlefield with U . S . aligned Menominee , Sioux and Ho - Chunk warriors . According to Dodge , the warriors were given some of the scalps his men had taken , with which they were " delighted " . Dodge also reported that the allied warriors then proceeded onto the battlefield and mutilated the corpses of the fallen Kickapoo . In 1842 and 1843 Hamilton served as an elected member of the Wisconsin Territorial Assembly . Hamilton lost an 1843 election for the national - level office of Wisconsin Territory delegate to the United States Congress , and in 1848 he lost an election for delegate to the Wisconsin Constitutional Convention . Though well known as a smelter and miner in the lead region of southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois , Hamilton was unable to achieve the political fame he desired . Mining career . When Hamilton moved from Illinois to Wisconsin in the late 1820s he established a lead ore mine that became known as Hamilton ' s Diggings ; he later renamed the settlement Wiota . During the 1832 Black Hawk War a fort was erected at Hamilton ' s Diggings , it was known as Fort Hamilton . Two contemporary descriptions of Hamilton ' s Diggings provide a glimpse into the mining life of Hamilton and the others settled at present - day Wiota . An 1831 account from Juliette Kinzie noted the unkempt conditions as " shabby " and " unpromising " . Kinzie also decried the foul language from the miners , whom she called the " roughest - looking set of men I ever beheld . " The other description of early Wiota was provided by Theodore Rodolf in 1834 . Rodolf , a one - time political opponent of Hamilton , contrasted the settlement ' s apparently rough exterior with small , finer details , such as the presence of a quarto edition of Voltaire ' s works , printed in Paris . Hamilton never married and presented a rough , garish appearance . His mother , Elizabeth Schuyler ( daughter of General Philip Schuyler ) visited Hamilton at Hamilton ' s Diggings during the winter of 1837 – 38 . During the same period , Hamilton briefly owned the Mineral Point " Miners ' Free Press " ; he sold it to a group from Galena and the paper became known as the " Galena Democrat " . When gold was discovered in California , in 1848 , gold fever spread into the Midwest lead - mining region . Hamilton set out for California , arriving in 1849 , with high hopes , and new equipment . His life in the west would prove to be a disappointment and he later regretted moving there . Hamilton told a friend in California that he would " rather have been hung in the ' Lead Mines ' than to have lived in this miserable hole ( California ) . " Death . Before his death Hamilton fell ill for two weeks . He suffered multiple symptoms , including dysentery , and , according to his doctor , died from " malarial fever resulting in spinal exhaustion terminating in paralysis superinduced by great bodily and mental strain . " William S . Hamilton died in Sacramento , California on October 9 , 1850 at age 53 . He was interred in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery . The section of the cemetery where he is buried was named Hamilton Square in his honor . Hamilton had been in California about one year when he died from what he called " mountain fever " , most likely cholera during an 1850 epidemic .