Hamilton, an Irish emigrant, lived in Lawrenceburg in Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1820, when he married Emerine J. Holman,[1] the daughter of prominent Indiana judge Jesse Lynch Holman.
The firm prospered as Hamilton won the trust and confidence of many Indians, in particular Chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville of the Miami.
In 1834 and 1838 Hamilton was appointed to the U. S. Commission to Negotiate Treaties with the Miami in northern Indiana.
[1] Until his death in 1864 Hamilton remained active in business as president of the Fort Wayne branch of the Indiana State Bank and of the Allen Hamilton National Bank in Fort Wayne.
His great-grandson, Holman Hamilton, is noteworthy for a two-volume biography of President Zachary Taylor.