From History of Grant County, Wisconsin, 1881, p. 924 - 925.

HON. NOAH H. VIRGIN, Platteville, one of the pioneers of Grant Co.; was born in Fayette Co., Penn., Dec. 6, 1812, son of Eli and Nacka (Hyatte) Virgin. When 6 years of age, his father died, and a few years after his mother married Col. Heaton, of Fayette Co., who owned a flouring mill and a woolen factory, in which young Virgin worked for some time, then learned the millwright's trade of his brother-in-law, Isaac Hill, of Greene Co., Penn. He came to Wisconsin in 1835, and worked at his trade in different places until April, 1836, when he came to Platteville, where he has resided since that time. He, in company with John H. Rountree and Neely Gray, built the Platteville flouring mill, which was completed in 1840, and was the first flouring mill built in Platteville. He afterward bought out his partners, and has owned and run the mill himself up to the present time. Since 1870, he has been engaged in grain dealing in company with his son, Col. Horatio Virgin, in addition to his other business. Mr. Virgin was a member of the Assembly in the last Territorial Legislature in 1847, and also the first State Legislature in 1848, and again in 1855. He also served two consective terms in the State Senate, ending in 1861. He commenced political life as a Whig; was a Republican from 1854 till 1864, and since that time has acted with the Democrats. In 1866, Mr. Virgin was a candidate for Congress from this district, against Amasa Cobb, who was elected. On the 15th of January, 1839, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Pamelia E. Adams, daughter of Rev. Bartholomew Weed, of Platteville, and has had eight children, four of whom are still iving - Horatio H., living in Platteville; Emma, now Mrs. George H. Laughton, of Chicago; Mary, now Mrs. William Laughton, of Platteville, and Eugene, the youngest, living in Platteville. His eldest son, Col. H. H. Virgin, was born in the village of Platteville April 9, 1840, and grew up to manhood in his native village. In April, 1861, he enlisted under the three months' call, and was assigned to the 7th Regiment, but did not go out of the State. The next October, he was appointed Aid on the Governor's staff with the rank of Colonel, and, on the 18th of December following, was appointed Battalion Adjutant of the 2d Wisconsin Cavalry (1st Battalion), and assigned to duty under Gen. Schofield in Missouri, in the spring of 1862. On the 30th of August, 1862, he was commissioned Major of the 33d W. V. I., and, after March 1, 1864, had command of the regiment till the close of the war, being in command in every engagement except three, while he was with the regiment. He was temporarily in command of a brigade in the battle of Yellow Bayou, on the Red River expedition. After the battle of Nashville, he held a Lieutenant Colonel's commission till the close of the war, and was then brevetted Colonel. During his term of service, he was in forty-two engagements, and never received a scratch, though he had three horses shot under him, and on one occasion a ball passed through the top of his boot, and on another he had a lock of hair shot off just above his ear, cutting a hole through the rim of his hat. After the close of the war, he was three years in the corn business in St. Louis, and two years in the grain business in Booneville, Mo. In 1870, he returned to Platteville, Wis.; built a warehouse, and since that time has been engaged in buying grain, in company with his father, under the firm name of N. H. Virgin & Son. Jan. 1, 1874, he was married to Miss Annie E. Kane, of Dodgeville, Wis.

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