Fort Hamilton was built by Col. Wm. Hamilton, the youngest son of the American statesman Alexander Hamilton. Born in New York on August 4, 1797, he spent three years at West Point and was then appointed surveyor on the staff of Wm. Rector. He came west to Illinois, landing at Galena on July 4, 1827, and in 1828 he began lead mining and smelting at Hamilton Diggings, now Wiota. A prominent citizen of the territory and a captain in the Black Hawk War, he later went to California in May 1849 after the gold discovery and died in Sacramento in 1850.