Stapp, Wyatt B.

Born: 1813-04-27 Kentucky

Died: 1851-07-11 Monmouth, Illinois

Stapp lived in Fayette County, Illinois, prior to purchasing land in McLean County and moving north. He eventually settled in Warren County in 1835, obtained a license from the county to sell merchandise, and opened a store with W. S. Berry in Monmouth. Stapp was elected to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1838 to 1840, where he served alongside Abraham Lincoln. Stapp then served two terms in the Illinois Senate, from 1840 to 1843. He married Percess W. Babcock in 1843, and they lived together in Monmouth. At the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, Stapp raised a company of Illinois militia, which he commanded from 1847 to 1848. Upon returning from the war, Stapp was involved in creating the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad Company. In 1850, he lived in an inn and listed his occupation as "clerk."

Gravestone, Monmouth Cemetery, Monmouth, IL; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 19 July 1851, 3:1; The Past and Present of Warren County, Illinois (Chicago: H. F. Kett, 1877), 142-43; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 208, 210; History of Knox County, Illinois (Chicago: Blakely, Brown & Marsh, 1878), 216-17; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:207; Wm. Hugh Robarts, Mexican War Veterans: A Complete Roster of the Regular and Volunteer Troops in the War Between the United States and Mexico, from 1846 to 1848 (Washington, DC: Brentano's, 1887), 47; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, McLean County, 816:47, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Warren County, 5 October 1843, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Warren County, IL, 88.