Austin McDowell Patterson, Ph.D.
Though born in the ancient city of Damascus, in far-away Syria, Dr. Austin McDowell Patterson has always regarded Xenia as his established home. The son of missionary parents, he was brought by them to their home in Xenia when but an infant and it is here that he continues to prefer to make his home. He was born on May 31, 1876, son and only child of Dr. J. F. and Charlotte Isabella (McDowell) Patterson, both of whom were born in Ohio, the former in Logan county and the latter in Xenia, and who were at that time serving as missionaries in the Syrian field in behalf of the United Presbyterian Board of Missions. Dr. J. F. Patterson was born on May 27, 1842, a son of John and Eliza Ann (Hutchinson) Patterson, who had come to Ohio after their marriage in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and had settled in Logan county, later moving to Warsaw, Indiana, where their last days were spent. Reared in Logan county, J. F. Patterson early turned his attention to the study of medicine and in 1865 was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, shortly afterward opening an office for the practice of his profession in the village of Clifton, in this county, and was there thus engaged for five years, at the end of which time he entered Xenia Theological Seminary and after a preliminary course there entered Princeton Theological Seminary and from that institution was graduated in 1872 and was ordained to the ministry of the United Presbyterian church, with a view to service in the missionary field. On October 22 of that same year, at Xenia, Doctor Patterson was united in marriage to Charlotte Isabella McDowell, of that city, and straightway after their marriage he and his bride departed for the foreign mission field, in due time entering upon their service in the city of Damascus and were there thus engaged when the subject of this biographical review was born in 1876. The arduous character of Doctor Patterson's labors in the foreign field presently began to undermine his health and in 1877 he returned with his family to Xenia, where his death occurred less than five years later, March 22, 1882. Doctor Patterson's widow survived him for many years, living to render a notable service to the community and to the missionary cause to which her heart ever continued devoted, her death occurring on October 14. 1909. She was the founder of the Woman's Missionary Magazine, now the official missionary organ of the United Presbyterian church in the United States, and for years was engaged in the editorial management of that journal. She also was one of the organizers of the Xenia Library Association, the forerunner of the present Greene County Library Association. Mrs. Patterson was born at Xenia on September 2, 1845, daughter of Capt. Austin and Susan A. (Finney) McDowell, who were married at Xenia on March 22, 1842, and whose last days were spent in that city, the house in which they lived occupying the site of the house in North King street in whicli their grandson. Dr. Austin McDowell Patterson, now resides.
Capt. Austin McDowell was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1815, a son of William and Charlotte (Finney) McDowell, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter, of the state of Maryland. William McDowell's father, John McDowell, was the owner of a considerable tract of land in the vicinity of the city of Pittsburgh and of an additional tract now covered by the city of McKeesport. Austin McDowell received his early schooling in a log school house in the vicinity of his father's farm and early was apprenticed to a carpenter. After working thus for two years in the country he went to Pittsburgh and there finished his trade in 1836, under the direction of Andrew Millen. For a year thereafter he worked as a journeyman carpenter there, and then in the fall of 1837, came out to Ohio on a visit to his uncle John Finney and wife, at Xenia, and wao so favorably impressed with conditions here that he decided to remain. Upon locating here Austin McDowell began working at his trade and one of the first houses he built in Greene county is still standing. That house was built for George Gordon on the farm in the Massies creek neighborhood now owned by Mrs. Julia McGervey. Not long after taking up his residence here Austin McDowell formed a partnership with James Laughead and became engaged as a building contractor, one of that firm's contracts having been the erection of the first Associate Reformed church in Xenia, now the First United Presbyterian church, the edifice which they erected serving until supplanted by the present edifice on East Market street. In 1844 Mr. McDowell was commissioned first lieutenant of the local company of the old Ohio State Militia and was thus serving when the Mexican War broke out. During the progress of that war his command was ordered to the front and was at Cincinnati preparing for further action when the war came to an end, but the experience thus gained was of value when, later, during the progress of the Civil War, he earned his title of captain.
On March 22, 1842, at Xenia, Austin McDowell was united in marriage to his cousin, Susan A. Finney, and the two started housekeeping in a small house he had built on East Main street. In 1849 he traded his town property for a farm three miles southeast of Xenia and moved to the farm, where he remained until 1857, when he returned to town and there engaged in the lumber business, in partnership with James McHenry, under the firm name of McHenry & McDowell. It was in that same year that he bought the lot on North King street mentioned above as the site of the present residence of Doctor Patterson, and in the fall of 1858 he built a house there, he and his family entering upon the occupancy of the same in March, 1859, that old house now forming a part of the residence now standing there, the same long ago having been added to and remodeled. In the fall of 1861 when Company D of the Seventy-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was recruited at Xenia, Austin McDowell was elected captain of the same and on December 28, 1861, was commissioned to lead the company in action. On February 24, 1862, Captain McDowell reported with his command at Camp Chase and remained there until ordered to the front on April 20 following. On September 1, 1862. this command was attached to Buell's brigade and Captain McDowell was assigned to recruiting service. While serving in this capacity at Franklin, Kentucky, he was taken prisoner by the enemy and was held at Hartsville, Tennessee, until presently paroled, after which he reported to Governor Wood at Columbus and was granted permission to remain a few days at home, later returning to Columbus, where he remained until he was exchanged, after which he reported to his regiment then doing service in Tennessee. In the meantime an injury which Captain McDowell had received while building a stockade at Franklin in August, 1862, continued to give him growing uneasiness and on February 10, 1863, he was compelled to resign on account of this disability and return home. On December 25, 1863, he was commissioned captain of Company I, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was ordered with that command to guard duty at Johnson's Island, where he was in service until the close of the war.
Upon the completion of his military service Captain McDowell returned to Xenia and resumed his participation in the affairs of the lumber firm with which he was connected. In the spring of 1866 the firm established a branch at Wilmington and Captain McDowell took charge of the same, moving with his family to that city, and there remained until the summer of 1869, when he returned to Xenia and bought his partner's interest in the lumber business. In 1872 the Captain bought the ground now occupied by the McDowell & Torrence Lumber Company at the corner of South Detroit and Third streets and moved his plant there. On March 1, 1873, he sold an interest in the business to Findley D. Torrence and the concern was thereafter operated under the firm name of McDowell & Torrence, which name the company still bears, though the two principals are now deceased, Doctor Patterson holding the interest in the concern which he inherited from his grandfather, Captain McDowell. Early in life Captain McDowell had become affiliated with the Associate Reformed church, in the faith of which communion he had been reared, and by 1847 had become a trustee of the local congregation at Xenia. After the "union" of 1858 he continued his interest in church work as a member of the First United Presbyterian church. He died on May 31, 1892, and when his will was read it was found that he had made provision for the perpetuation of the interest he had taken in the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia by reserving a fund for the creation of an artificial lake in the grounds of the Home and beautiful McDowell Lake is a constant memorial of his interest in the children for whose enjoyment it was created.
Austin McDowell Patterson was but a babe in arms when his parents returned from Damascus, the place of his birth, to Xenia, and he was but six years of age when his father died. He grew up at Xenia and was prepared for college by attendance at Miss McCracken's Preparatory College in that city, after which he entered Princeton University, from which institution he was graduated in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then entered Johns Hopkins University, specializing there in chemistry from 1897 to 1900, and in the latter year received from that institution his Doctor of Philosophy degree. While in Princeton he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Upon leaving Johns Hopkins in 1900 he accepted the chair of chemistry in Centre College at Danville, Kentucky, and a year later transferred his services to Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Indiana, remaining there as instructor in chemistry for two years, or until 1903, when his services were secured by the G. & C. Merriam Company, publishers of "Webster's New International Dictionary," and for four years thereafter, or until 1907, he was engaged as editor of the department of chemical and allied terms in that work, a service which brought him recognition as one of the few unquestioned authorities on chemistry and kindred subjects in the United States. Upon the completion of this monumental task Doctor Patterson returned home and spent the summer of 1908 at Xenia, where he took part in the preparations then being made for the centennial "home-coming" celebration of that year, rendering service in that connection as chairman of the committee which had in hand the publication of the souvenir edition of a history of Greene county, personally taking many of the photographs that were used in illustrating the book and also acting as editor-in-chief.
In 1909 Doctor Patterson became associate editor of the publication Chemical Abstracts, a technical journal of the American Chemical Society then published at the University of Illinois, and a year later became editor of the same, at the same time transferring the office of publication to Ohio State University at Columbus, and continued as editor of that publication until 1914. In the meantime, in 1911, he had bought the Xenia Republican, a once-a-week newspaper that was being then published at Xenia, and in March, 1912, changed it from a weekly to a daily publication and continued as editor, owner and publisher of the same until 1914, when by reason of ill health it became necessary for him to discontinue his labors and seek a change of climate. During the period of his labors as editor and publisher of the Daily Republican, Doctor Patterson also had been keeping up his technical labors as editor of Chemical Abstracts and these two-fold duties, together with his various activities in behalf of certain local political and social-service movements, proved too much for him and he found that he had overtaxed his physical powers. Selling his newspaper to the Gazette, the Doctor left Xenia and went to El Paso, Texas, where he remained two years, at the end of which time, physically restored, he returned to his established home at Xenia and has since been living there, chiefly engaged in his continued labors in behalf of the American Chemical Society and in writing on technical subjects, having in February, 1917, published a German-English dictionary of chemical terms which has already gone through its third printing. As secretary of the McDowell-Torrence Lumber Company he is also interested in the general business and industrial affairs of the city. The Doctor is an independent Republican and has rendered service as a member of the local school board and as a member of the city health board. He helped to organize and was the first president of the Greene County Improvement Association and was a member of the charter committee chosen to get under way the movement which resulted in the adoption of a commission form of government by the city of Xenia in the fall of 1917, serving afterward as vice-president of the commission of fifteen which framed the new charter. The Doctor is a fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science and is an active member of the honorary scientific fraternity Sigma Xi. At the beginning of the present World War, Doctor Patterson offered his services to the government, and on April 1, 1918, was called to Washington, D. C, to assist in the United States Bureau of Mines as a volunteer non-salaried investigator. He and his wife are members of the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia.
On May 31, 1911, Dr. Austin McDowell Patterson was united in marriage to Anna Elizabeth Bailey, who was born at Cadiz, Ohio, daughter of the Rev. Samuel M. and Luella C. (Stewart) Bailey, the latter of whom is still living, a resident of Xenia. Mrs. Bailey was born on a farm in the vicinity of Clifton, this county, August 12, 1851, daughter and only child of John and Elizabeth (Elder) Stewart, both of whom were born in the neighboring county of Clark, the former on April 6, 1827, and the latter of whom died in 1853, her little daughter Luella then being but two years of age. The latter was reared by her father's sister, Mrs. Harvey Jobe, and received her schooling in the Xenia schools, being graduated from the high school in that city in 1870, and was living there when in 1878 she was united in marriage to the Rev. Samuel M. Bailey, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1848, son of Matthew and Ann (Smiley) Bailey, both of whom were born in that same county, the latter on June 9, 1812. Matthew Bailey was a farmer and he and his wife, who were married on March 27, 1834, spent their last days in their home county, the former dying in 1878 and the latter, December 11, 1889. Originally members of the Associate Reformed church, they became affiliated with the United Presbyterian church after the "union" and their children were reared in that faith. There were eight of these children, namely: the Rev. John A. Bailey, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, who married Isabella Porter, of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, held pastoral charges at Sidney, Ohio, and at Sharon, Pennsylvania, and who died at Mt. Jackson, in the latter state; William S. Bailey, former county commissioner of Washington county, Pennsylvania, now deceased; Mrs. Sarah Andrews, a widow, now living at McDonald, in Washington county, Pennsylvania; Alexander Bailey, a retired farmer, now living at Xenia; James P. Bailey, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Margaret, of McDonald, Pennsylvania; the Rev. Samuel M. Bailey, Mrs. Patterson's late father, and M. Carlisle Bailey, a retired farmer, now living in East Market street, Xenia.
Upon completing his preparatory studies at Westminster, Pennsylvania, Samuel M. Bailey began the study of theology and philosophy at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and later entered the Theological Seminary at Xenia. where he completed his studies and on April 12, 1877, was ordained to the ministry of the United Presbyterian church. The next year he was married at Xenia and thus from the very beginning of his ministerial labors had a competent helpmate in the various fields to which these labors called him, among these various charges having been those at Shilo, Indiana; Cadiz, Ohio; Clifton, Ohio; Buffalo, New York, and other points. After twenty-five years of active ministerial labor Mr. Bailey found his health broken and upon his retirement in 1902 he returned to Xenia, established his home there and there spent his last days; continuing, however, so long as his strength remained, to supply vacancies in pulpits not too remote from his home, hisdeath occurring there on Jime 2, 1908. To the Rev. Samuel M. Bailey and wife were born two children, Mrs. Patterson halving a brother, Hervey Smiley Bailey, who also was born at Cadiz, this state, and who was graduated from the high school while the family home was established at Buffalo, New York. He then entered Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and afterward took a course in mechanical engineering at Cornell College and was employed as a mechanical engineer by different firms. In January, 1918, he was united in marriage to Harriet Culbert, of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. They are living on their farm one mile east of Cedarville in this county. Mrs. Patterson, the second child and only daughter of her parents, completed her high-school work at Buffalo, New York, and later entered the Western College for Women at Oxford, Ohio, from which she was graduated in 1906.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918