Alexander A. Meggett, son of Alexander and Sarah Meggett, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 26 March 1824, and emigrated to Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with his parents when three years of age. The family lived in Chickopee Falls, Massachusetts between 1837 and 1841, where the father opened a mercantile business in 1839. They soon moved to Slaterville, Rhode Island, where the son, Alexander A., continued working in cotton mills.
At the age of nineteen he decided to seek an education. He first attended Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts and then a preparatory school in Washington, Connecticut. After three years at Middletown University, he taught for a number of years while at the same time studying and reading law. He was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1853. In 1847 he had married and had two children. His wife died in 1854, and the following year his second wife died only a month after his remarriage.
In 1857, Meggett visited Eau Claire, Wisconsin and decided to settle there, becoming the first lawyer to reside in the city. That first year he was also editor of the Eau Claire Times. In addition to his legal practice, he became a civic leader, a public speaker, and was active in politics. In 1859, he unsuccessfully ran for state senator on the democratic ticket; and in 1870, ran for Congress on the Union ticket in opposition to Jeremiah M. Rusk, in a heavily Republican district. He served as city attorney for Eau Claire, was defeated for judge of the circuit court in 1876, was appointed Register of the United States land office at Eau Claire in 1885 and the following year made an unsuccessful bid for the office of county judge, this time on the Republican ticket.
Meggett was a prominent Mason and was installed as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin on the evening of 10 June 1868, the day of his third marriage--to Sarah A. Drew of Milwaukee. Impaired hearing restricted his activities in later life. He died in Eau Claire in 1907.
