Guy Patrick
Guy Patrick, mayor of Spencerville, has the honor of being the youngest citizen ever elected to that honorable office, in the whole State. He was born in 1882 in Willshire township, in the southwest corner of Van West County, Ohio, bordering on the Indiana line, and is a son of L. Y. and Cynthia Jane (McColough) Patrick.
The Patrick ancestry dates back to Ireland, where it was later leavened with both Scotch and English connections prior to the family being established in Virginia, where Mr. Patrick's grandparents, Washington and Mary Jane Patrick, were born, and whence they moved to Fulton County, Indiana. There L. Y. Patrick was born; but he was mainly reared and educated at Sheldon, Iroquois County, Illinois. He learned the trade of horse-shoeing, which he followed in Fulton County, Indiana, from 1862 until 1867, when he returned to Sheldon, removing thence to Willshire, Van Wert County, Ohio. While residing there, he took a prominent part in public affairs and was a member of the Town Council. In 1896 he came to Spencerville. He is prominent in the leading fraternities, being a Knight Templar Mason, a Knight of Pythias and an Odd Fellow. He was married first on December 23, 1869, to Louisa Jane Avery, who died in December, 1873, survived by two daughters viz: Mrs. Homer C. Underwood, of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Mrs. J. W. McDonald, of Medina, Ohio. In September, 1874, Mr. Patrick was married to Cynthia Jane McColough of Adams County, Indiana, and they had five children born to them, the two survivors being Hila and Guy Patrick. James W. died in 1875; Ruthford in 1882 and Ollie, two weeks after the latter, a heavy family bereavement.
The early boyhood of Guy Patrick was passed at Willshire, but his education was completed at Spencerville and at the Ohio Normal University at Ada, where he was graduated in the law department in 1901. Since then he has been connected with the office of Attorney R. R. Kennedy, of Spencerville, as a registered law student; but he is also one of the town's popular and successful business men. For several years he was connected with the large mercantile house of Taft & Company, at Spencerville, but since 1904 he has been the proprietor of a large merchant tailoring establishment which has received the custom of the leading citizens. He has secured the best cutters and fitters and the work turned out by his establishment is so satisfactory that already he controls a fastidious trade, which formerly placed its orders outside the town.
Mr. Patrick as a student demonstrated his natural gifts of oratory and on several notable occasions he has bore off the prizes in contests. He possesses also the genial manner and quick wit for which the sons of Ireland are notable the world over, and to these valuable assets adds the energy, enterprise and manliness which mark the successful young Americans of to-day. After being honored by the Republican party with the nomination for mayor, in the face of a Democratic majority of 80 voters, in the city, he determined to win if personal hard work could accomplish it. The result was his election, the vote being very close. He was the only member of his party elected to a town office, a testimonial to the personal regard in which he is held by his fellow-citizens; in fact, Mr. Patrick is the only Republican ever elected to the office of mayor in this town. That his administration will be one to which he may in future years turn with pride, is the conviction of all who have watched his career from boyhood. He is a Royal Arch Mason.