Wyatt, John

Born: 1797-02-03 Culpeper County, Virginia

Died: 1849-01-06 Morgan County, Illinois

Flourished: Morgan County, Illinois

Alternate name: Wiatt

John Wyatt was the son of a Revolutionary War soldier. He moved from his native Virginia to Scott County, Kentucky. By 1817, he was in Madison County, Illinois, where he married Rebecca Wyatt, with whom he had twelve children. They moved to Missouri, before returning to Illinois in 1821, settling in an area of Madison County, that later became Morgan County. He and his brother were two of the earliest settlers in Morgan County. Wyatt was not only a farmer and a stock raiser but was one of three men who founded the town of Franklin in 1832. He served as a first lieutenant in the Black Hawk War in 1831. He and his brother also built the first band horse mill for grinding corn for public use in Morgan County. Wyatt was also one of the first Morgan county commissioners and identified himself with the first Christian Church that was organized in Franklin. Voters elected him as a Democrat to the Illinois House of Representatives, in which he served from 1832 to 1838, as a representative of Morgan County. Between his last two terms in the House of Representatives, Wyatt also served as a presidential elector for Martin Van Buren in 1836.

Family History of Morgan County, Illinois 1976 (Dallas: Taylor, 1977), 372; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Madison County, 19 August 1817, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Morgan County, ed. by William F. Short (Chicago: Munsell, 1906), 2:980-81; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 203-4, 206; 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), 1:67; Atlas Map of Morgan County, Illinois (Davenport, IA: Andreas, Lyter, 1872), 50; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 12 December 1835, 3:2; Gravestone, Franklin City Cemetery, Franklin, IL.