BREAKING NEWS: Uncle Heman P. Hamilton is Found!
Glen Hamilton
August 20, 2025
It finally happened, after 22 years of looking by myself and years before that by the late Joyce Elthea (Stover) Hamilton, wife of Gordon Wilbur Hamilton, .... and 175 years after his death, we (his family) have "found him", and with that found information on the last mystery of the adult children of our common ancestors, John and Altha (Judd) Hamilton.
John & Altha had nine known children who survived to adulthood. One of those was Heman P. Hamilton, likely named for his uncle Heman Judd. NOTE: Heman's younger brother, Supplina P. Hamilton, named one of his sons after Heman, who was also named Heman P. Hamilton.
We had correctly triangulated from 1830 census records that Heman was born in 1823 or 1824, but had no other documentary evidence other than the mention of Heman in his brother, James M. Hamilton's, will in 1869 by the initials H.P. Hamilton. It's unclear in the will if James believed his brother was alive or if (as he mentioned all his siblings in his will, even those that had passed) it was to cover the fact that Heman may have had living heirs.
So, even though there was mention of a few Heman Hamiltons in the documentary record born in the same general time, it was not possible to say with confidence that any given Heman Hamilton was our 'lost uncle.'
That all changed last evening, when searching on Newspapers.com I found the linked reference below to a death notice for Heman P. Hamilton, dated: March 25, 1850, from The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-journal-heman-p-hamilton/179303516/
"DIED, in this city (Louisville, Kentucky), on the 21st at inst. (instante mense, meaning "in the present month"), Mr. Heman P. Hamilton, in the 26th year of his age. [Notice to other papers] Springfield and Jackson (Illinois) papers please copy."
This tells us that a Heman P. Hamilton, born in 1824, living in Louisville, Kentucky died with family and next of kin living in Central Illinois (Springfield and Jacksonville). Jacksonville, Springfield, in Morgan, Sangamon, Menard and Cass Counties, Illinois is where this family was from and Heman grew up.
This is our uncle Heman P. Hamilton!!!
We suspected that he had died young and had no heirs as we've not found any descendants with paper or DNA connections to him... but now we know more of the story.
Somehow Heman found himself in Louisville, Kentucky in May 1846 and volunteered in the Mexican-American War when the Governor of Kentucky and President Polk called for volunteers.
https://kygs.org/kentucky-soldiers-mexican-war-1846/
Heman served for at least 12 months as a Private in Capt. Francis "F.C." Triplett's company in the 1st Regiment of Kentucky Volunteer Infantry.
Heman survived the War and was awarded a Land Bounty of 160 acres, in Iowa, as had been promised to the volunteers by President Polk. Like most veterans, Heman assigned (sold) his land bounty rights to another, a Samuel Fowler, who got a land patent (land title) on this bounty claim on Jan 1, 1850.
The land patent document mentioned Heman P. Hamilton and that he had been a private in Capt. Triplett's Company in the 1st Reg., Kentucky Volunteers, as the veteran who was the originating source of the land bounty claim.
I'll start the process to see what records there may still be in the National Archives on our Uncle Heman and his service in the Mexican-American War. It feels great that we can now remember this Uncle and honor his place in the family and in American history.
Footnote: "Have you heard from my brother Heman?"
I don't think Heman's siblings (his parents had died before 1850) ever knew what happened to him. In an 1894 letter that Heman's brother John P. Hamilton wrote to another brother, Supplina P. Hamilton from Santiago, Chile (John was sick and asking for affivadits from family to help him get his Civil War pension), he writes, "Have you heard from my brother Heman?"
Photos
Record of uncle Heman P. Hamilton's death, in The Courier-Journal newspaper, Louisville, KY., dated March 25th, 1850. Jan 1850 Land Patent (land Title) for land in Iowa for Samuel Fowler to whom was assigned (sold to) the award of land ('A land bountry') for Heman P. Hamilton, for his service in the Mexican-American War. Record of Heman's Captain, Capt. Francis "F.C" Triplett, of the 1st Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, in the Mexican-American War. Record of Heman (here spelled "Haman") P. Hamilton, a Private in Company H, Kentucky Infantry in the Mexican Amercian War.