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 (part 2)
Last week’s column introduced
early settler
families in Union County with the last name Patterson.
In 1834, four families with Patterson surname
numbered 34 persons; in 1840, that number had climbed to ten Patterson
households with 55 total; and by 1850, there were eleven Patterson
households
with a total of 73 persons and one slave.
Continuing with Patterson families, we
will look a bit more closely at some of them.
We noted that John Patterson was here in 1834.
Family information holds that he and his wife
Margaret Black came to the area that became Union as early as 1829. Their son, George, also settled along Ivy Log
Creek in Union about the same time his father came.
In the 1834 census, John’s household had four
males and three females, and George’s family also had four males and
three
females. Both of these had farms along
Ivy Log Creek, but George Patterson was also a milliner by trade,
making hats
from sheep’s wool. George was married
twice. His first wife was Rebecca
Chastain. After her death, he married
Sophia Dunnigan.
One of the sons of George and Rebecca
Chastain Patterson was named William Harden Patterson (b. April 10,
1832, d.
1883). He married Elizabeth Akins on
November 5, 1853 with Hampton Jones, Justice of the Peace, performing
their
ceremony. When the Civil War came William Harden Patterson and his younger
brother, John, both enlisted in the Confederate Army.
They were mustered into Company B, 6th
Regiment, of Georgia Volunteers. Both
lived through the war.
William Harden Patterson and Elizabeth
Akins Patterson had a large family of twelve children:
James Alonzo, Sarah Florence, Martha
Elizabeth (nicknamed “Jeff” because her father, William Hardin, known
as “Bill”
was such a staunch supporter of Jefferson Davis, President of the
Confederacy),
Rebecca Emmaline, Mary M, John Lumpkin, Lewis, twins William Elisha and
Joseph
Elijah, Vienna Caledonia, Lula L, and George Bunyan.
Bill and Elizabeth’s oldest son, James
Alonzo Patterson (Nov. 30, 1855 – 1953), was ordained a Baptist
minister. He married Rozella Sparks. Their children were Semon, Howard, Harden,
Ellen, Milton, Maude, John, Howell and Elizabeth. Bethlehem
Baptist Church in Lower Young Cane
District was formed in 1848. Some of the
Patterson families attended and were active in that church, and William
Harden,
Elizabeth, Rev. Alonzo and Rozella and other of the Pattersons were
buried in
the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery.
Twins of William H. and Elizabeth
Patterson, William Elisha and Joseph Elijah, were born September 12,
1871. Elisha Patterson (1871- ?)
married Julia
Brackett (1875-1933) on July 24, 1895 with Rev. D. A. Sullivan
performing their
ceremony. I did not find a list of their children.
The other twin, William Elisha Patterson,
married Nancy Jane Ammons in 1901. They
lived in Fannin County near her parents until Nancy’s untimely death
with
tuberculosis. Elisha farmed
and sold fresh produce. They had six
children: The first infant died at birth,
The other
five were Clinton, Nellie, Grace, Earl and Kathryn.
On a cold day, December 31, 1917, Elisha
Patterson loaded his five small children into a covered wagon and moved
them
and their household goods from the foot of Aska Mountain in Fannin
County back
to Young Cane in Union County. Later
they moved to Ivy Log and then to Upper Young Cane. Back in Union, some
of his
relatives helped him with the children while he worked to make a living
for
them. Elisha Patterson, almost blind in
his old age, was killed when he walked into an oncoming automobile in
November,
1957. He was interred at Bethlehem
Baptist Church Cemetery.
The Patterson surname is still
numerous in Union and other North Georgia counties.
The name Patterson derives from the Scottish
and Northern English patronymic form, Patrick, shortened sometimes to
Pate,
hence son of Patrick, son of Pate, and then Patterson.
By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in
England, Scotland and Ireland, the name Patterson was common. William
Patrison
was listed as a “gentleman” in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1446.
James Patterson was noted as a Sheriff Deputy
in Inverness, Scotland, in 1530. John
Patersoune was a Burgess in Northberwyck in 1562. George
Patersoune was a monk in the monastery
of Culross in 1569. Whether related to
the Pattersons who migrated to Union County in 1829, I do not know, but
Rev.
Hampton William Patterson was born June 18, 1806 in North Carolina and
died in
Henderson County there February 28, 1880.
He was ordained to the ministry by Mountain Creek Baptist Church
in
Rutherford County, NC in 1834, and was appointed superintendent of
public
schools there in 1841. Pattersons have
been contributing citizens in various aspects of culture, education,
politics
and ministry.
[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.]