THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Patterson Families--Early Settlers in Union
With our annual Thanksgiving
celebration
immediately past we have fond memories of our own family get-togethers,
traditional turkey and dressing and other excellent food, and the good
times
such family events provide for us. We are
grateful for such a highlight in our year and mark each as worthwhile
and a
time to draw together as family.
We don’t know to what extent the early
settlers to Union County observed Thanksgiving.
Maybe they, too, gathered family members and had a special time
of
gratitude for blessings and sharing food.
I took time to examine the 1834 Union census, and discovered
that the
surname recorded with the most families with the name living in the
county then
was Patterson. Four families made up the
Patterson population with heads of households listed as Joseph (8
males, 4
females), Amos (5 males, 2 females), John (4 males, 3 females) and
George (4
males, 3 females). That count brought
the Pattersons living in Union at the time of the first census to 33
persons. Some of the Patterson families
settled in the Ivy Log District of Union County along Ivy Log Creek.
The marriages recorded in Union
records before the 1840 census were as follows:
Lewis Patterson to Jerushia
Denton on December 6, 1836 by
J.
B. Chastain, Justice of the Peace;
Margaret Patterson to Gravit
R. Foster on November 9, 1837 by William Patterson;
Sarah Patterson to William
Carroll on December 31, 1838 by A. Chastain, Justice of the Peace;
John Patterson to Sarah
Beasley on March 13, 1839 by John B. Chastain, Justice of the Peace.
By the 1840 census, which gives only
names of
heads-of-households and the number of males and females and their ages
by
categories of under 5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-30, etc. to over 100, we
find ten
Patterson families listed. The four
families resident in Union had remained, Joseph, Amos, John and George,
and six
more Patterson families with heads of households named William, John,
Samuel,
Lewis, John (the elder—he and his wife were between 70 and 80), and
Bailey. Those in Patterson households
numbered a
total of 55 for the 1840 population.
Those searching their genealogy are
always grateful to come to the 1850 census, for therein they find names
of
husband, wife, children and any others living in the household when the
enumerator visited. There were eleven
households of Pattersons in Union in 1850.
I list them here as I found them enumerated:
Household #45: William Patterson,
37, born in NC, wife
Elizabeth, 32, born in GA, and ten children, all born in Georgia; Mary,
13,
Joseph, 12, John, 11, William, 9, Samuel, 7, James, 5, Nancy, 4,
Alfred, 3,
Manerva, 1, and an infant, gender and name not given, 4 months.
Household # 184: John Patterson,
35, born in NC, Sarah, 29,
born
in NC and children all born in Georgia:
Lidey, 9, Nancy 6, Elizabeth, 4, Andrew, 2, and Nathan, 6
months. These,
I think, are the John Patterson and Sarah Beasley married on March 13,
1839.
Household # 187:
Samuel Patterson, 44, born in NC; Jane, 3 (?)
born in TN, Carroll, 17, born in NC, Decator, 15, born in NC, and the
remaining
children born in Georgia: Amanda, 13,
Julius, 11, Mercilla, 9, Nathan, 6, Sarah, 4, Julian, 2, and Samuel, 6
months.
Household # 333: Joseph
Patterson, 61, born in SC, wife Agnes, 55, born in SC, children still
at home
all born in Georgia: Solomon, 24, Mary, 20, Elizabeth, 18, and Melissa,
16. Listed in Joseph’s household is
Margaret Patterson, age 83, his mother (?), born in SC, and Ann
Patterson, 47,
his sister (?) and Sary Durham, 84, born in VA, his mother-in-law (?).
Household # 335: Amos Patterson,
26, born in Georgia, Jane,
24, born in NC, and children Mary, 4, born in GA, James 3, born in NC,
and
Nancy, 1, born in GA.
Household # 373: John Patterson,
28, born in NC and Mary, 24,
born in SC.
Household # 454: John Patterson,
52, born in NC, owns one
slave; Sarah, 47, born in SC, and children all born in Georgia: Andrew, 18, Humphrey, 15, John, 11, George,
8, Sarah, 3; and Margaret Patterson, age 83, listed again here in her
son
John’s household (she was also enumerated in her son Joseph’s
household), and
Lucinda Hix, 45, born in SC, who probably was a sister of Sarah
Patterson,
John’s wife.
Household # 455: Joseph Patterson,
25; Mary, 22, both born in
Georgia, and children all born in Georgia:
George, 5, Sarah, 3, and John, 2 months. A marriage is listed
for Joseph
Patterson and Polly Hawkins on October 24, 1844 by William Poteet,
Justice of
the Peace. “Polly” was a common nickname
for Mary.
Household # 456: William Patterson,
23, Margaret Patterson,
22, Lucinda 5 and James, 2, all born in Georgia. I
do not find a marriage listing for this
couple in Union’s records unless the one for W. H. Patterson and
Elizabeth
Akins on November 5, 1853 by Hampton Jones, Justice of the Peace is the
entry,
maybe using Margaret’s other name.
Household # 608: George Patterson,
age 50, born in North
Carolina; no wife listed; children all born in Georgia:
William, 19, Elizer, 17, John, 13, Elijah,
11, and Margaret, 6.
Household # 902: James Patterson,
34, born in NC; Easter, 26,
born in NC, and children all born in Georgia:
Martha, 6, Adaline, 4, Jonathan, 2, and Nathan, 11 months. James Patterson and Easter Nicholson were
married in Union on Christmas Day, 1843 by Rev. Abner Chastain.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Back To Union County, GAGenWeb
Site