William John Patterson
One of the best known men of the past generation in Fayette county, Ohio, and one whose record is well deserving of a place in this history of his county, is William John Patterson, a resident of this county for more than half a century. He was one of its most prominent and enterprising agriculturists and a man whose heart always beat in sympathy with his fellow men. Perhaps his dominant and most notable characteristic was his fidelity to truth and honor and invariably he sought the things that were honest and of good repute. In the training of his children no precepts were so constantly or so urgently insisted upon as those which concerned sound and worthy character. He taught them that honor and truthfulness were of such commanding worth that self interest should never under any circumstances set them aside, and these principles were the standard by which he estimated men and which he himself religiously held. His life was an inspiration to all who knew him and his memory remains to his friends and children as a blessed benediction of a noble and upright life.
The late William John Patterson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1852, and died in his country home in Fayette county, Ohio, October 8, 1913. passing away on his sixty-first birthday. He was the son of Robert and Mary (Cunningham) Patterson, his father being a native of county Donegal. Ireland. Robert Patterson came to Philadelphia when a youth and worked in the coal mines in eastern Pennsylvania. He was married in Philadelphia to Mary Cunningham, and to their union were born eight children: Ezekiel. deceased; Mary, deceased: William John, whose career is here briefly reviewed: Mrs. John Shields: Robert; Mrs. Sarah Cassell; Mattie, deceased, and H. B.
William J. Patterson attended the public schools of his native city until he was nine years of age, and then came with his parents to Jackson county, Ohio, where he finiished his education. He worked on the farm until he was twenty-four years of age, when he married and began renting land in Jackson township, Jackson county. A few years later he purchased two hundred acres of land near Byer in Jackson county. A short time afterwards he sold this and moved to Fayette county, where he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty-seven acres in Marion township. He continued to farm in this county until 1901, when he went to Oklahoma and bought a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, but four years later sold this tract and returned to Fayette county, buying two hundred and twenty-six acres in Marion township and later bought a farm of one hundred acres adjoining the city of Washington C. H. On this farm he lived until his death in 1913.
Mr. Patterson was married December 27. 1876, to Harriett Wortman, the daughter of Jackson and Elizabeth (Sniff) Wortman. Her father was born in Muskingum county, near Zanesville, Ohio, and was the son of Joseph and Almeda (Patterson) Wortman. Jackson Wortman and wife were the parents of six children, Mrs. Minerva Harper, John Wesley, Isaac, Mrs. Harriett Patterson. Frank and Jesse L.
Mr. Patterson and his wife reared a family of eight children, all of whom are living and filling places in society. These children in the order of their birth are as follows: Ortha B., Frances E., Maud, Clara, Robert, Florara, Mary H. and Arthelia. Ortha B. took a business course at Ohio Wesleyan University, and is now managing the home farm for his mother; Francis E. married Grace Thompson and has two children, Edra and William. He is living at Kingfisher, Oklahoma: Maud is a graduate at Bliss College, Columbus, Ohio: Robert graduated from the Kingfisher, Oklahoma, high school and later took the law course at Lincoln, Nebraska: Flora is a music teacher: Arthelia is a graduate of the Washington C. H. high school, and is teaching: Hazel is also a graduate of the Washington C. H. high school.
Mr. Patterson always took an active interest in the civic life of his comnninity and served on the school board of Marion township, and also as supervisor of the same township. He was an active and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was always interested in church afifairs. His influence for good in the general life of his community was most potent and he will be remembered as a manly man of pleasing presence and an influential citizen of the county honored by his residence.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)