JAMES L. PATTERSON, banker, Burgettstown, is one of the most prominent citizens and successful financiers in the northern part of Washington county. The family have been residents of Pennsylvania for many years, and Josiah Patterson (grandfather of subject) was born, about the year 1750, on a farm in the Cumberland Valley, eastern Pennsylvania. He was there united in marriage with Mary ______, and in 1806 came with his wife and four children to Washington county, the journey being made in an emigrant wagon, which carried the family and all their worldly goods. He purchased and located upon a farm of 197 acres in Smith township, near Burgettstown, the land having been a part of the Samuel Whittaker tract. Of the children born to Josiah and Mary Patterson, Elizabeth was married to Ebenezer Smith, and died in Guernsey county, Ohio; Mary was never married, and took care of her mother until the death of the latter (this daughter died in her eighty-third year); Robert is spoken of farther on. Josiah Patterson always followed farming, and in religion was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He died in 1823, and was buried in Cross Creek cemetery. The farm was left to his son Robert, and the widowed mother then resided with her daughter, passing away in 1856, at the patriarchal age of ninety-seven years. Before the death of Mrs. Mary Patterson, there were four of the same name living together at one time: grandmother, daughter, granddaughter and daughter of James L. Patterson, the subject proper of this sketch.
Robert Patterson, son of Josiah and Mary Patterson, was born in 1786, in the Cumberland Valley, Penn., and when twenty years of age came with his parents to Washington county. He enlisted in the war of 1812, serving a short time, and in 1814 was married to Mary, daughter of James Linn, both of whom were born in the Cumberland Valley. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Patterson located on his father's farm near Burgettstown, Penn., and he followed the profession of surveyor. He became a very successful businessman, settling up various estates and dealing extensively in wool. In political opinion he was originally a Whig, then a Republican, and served as a justice of the peace for many years. In religious faith he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church at Florence, at which place he was elected an elder in 1832, and served in that capacity until the organization of a Presbyterian Church at Burgettstown, in 1849, to which place he transferred his membership; he was made an elder there also, and served in that office until his death, which occurred in February, 1861. He was regarded as the founder of the church in Burgettstown. Mrs. Patterson died of consumption in 1854, and was first buried at Florence, but her remains were afterward interred in the cemetery at Burgettstown, where they now rest. Three of their daughters died of consumption, viz.: Eliza, at the age of twenty-two; Sarah, who had been married but six months, and died aged twenty, and Jane, who had been twice married, and died at the age of thirty.
James L. Patterson was born November 12, 1824, on the farm in Smith township where he is yet living. After attending the common schools, he entered the academy at Florence, then took a course at Washington College, graduating therefrom in 1842. He always excelled as a pupil, having read Latin at the age of nine years, and graduated when but seventeen. After leaving college he read medicine at home a short time, and about the age of nineteen years he taught school in Burgettstown one winter. In 1849 he began business in a general store, remaining there three years, thence returning to rural life. On April 20, 1854, he was united in marriage with Sarah A., daughter of William Linn, of Cumberland Valley, Penn., and she has borne him the following children: Robert and William (both deceased in infancy), Mary (at home), Addie J. (instructor of instrumental music in Richmond College, Jefferson county, Ohio) and Elizabeth K. (of whom special mention is made further on ), J. Fred. (clerking in the Burgettstown National Bank) and Anna (living at home). Miss Elizabeth K. Patterson was in August, 1890, taken by her father to Paris, France, in order to be placed under the far-famed instructor of vocal music, Madame Marchesi, and here she has since remained. Miss Patterson possesses a fine soprano voice, and bids fair to become prominent in her profession. She was three years at Forest Park University, St. Louis, building up the music department, of which she was instructor; and so efficient was she in her duties that the managers of the university, after she had gone to Paris, wanted her back even to the extent of cabling her to return. Mr. Patterson was elected an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Burgettstown in 1862, and still holds that office. The membership of that church is 430 at the present time.
In 1865 Mr. Patterson was appointed the first agent of the P.C. & St. L. R.R. Co. in Burgettstown, also of the Express company, and opened a store at "the station" as it was then called. In 1867 he left the railroad company, and again began farming. In 1872 he organized the Burgettstown Savings Bank, of which he was secretary and treasurer, and in 1879 (the bank having become the Burgettstown National Bank), was made cashier, which position he has since held. He has been the sole manager of the bank business in Burgettstown, and has been a prime mover in the success of the institution. The bank is in a remarkable state of prosperity, having materially thriven under Mr. Patterson's management. It has a deposit of $300,000, and surplus and undivided profits of $65,000, the capital stock being $80,000.
Our subject inherited a tendency to consumption, and at the age of twenty years was examined by Dr. Lane, of Washington, who decided that he had symptoms of tuberculosis, and that, to preserve his life, he would have to go South. Agreeable to the advice of his physician, he set out in search of health, journeying to Louisiana in 1844. He arrived there in November, and engaged in teaching school in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, returning to his home the following spring. In June, 1845, he fell from a cherry tree, on his father's farm, spraining his left hip joint, from which he has never recovered. Soon thereafter he started with crutch and cane on a Southern trip. He proceeded to the eastern sea-board, and at Wilmington N.C., embarked on a vessel for Charleston; thence sailed to Savannah, and after spending some time on the trip returned to his home, supposing he had not long to live. On June 18, 1892, he fell from a street car in Washington, and again injured his hip, besides having his shoulder injured, from which he suffered for a considerable time. Mr. Patterson has been a victim of dyspepsia all his life, and has not been a day quite free from pain. He is a man five feet nine inches in height, weighing 144 pounds. Has sandy hair, now tinged with gray, and is possessed of a pleasant Roman cast of countenance. He still lives on the farm where he was born, and which he now owns.
Text taken from page 460 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed March 1997 by Jack McNatt of Valrico, FL as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]