COLONEL WILLIAM PATTERSON

PATTERSON, JOHNSON, TIMBERMAN, BROWNE, BOGGS, HAWKINS, TAYLOR, PAINE, HUGHES, LEFFLER

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/21/2020 at 09:49:50

COLONEL WILLIAM PATTERSON was born in Wythe County, Virginia, on the 9th of March, 1802. When he was about four years old his father moved to Adair County, Kentucky and settled on a farm where William was brought up and received the advantages of a common school education. In 1822 he was married to Miss Eleanor Johnson, a native of Maryland, and in 1829 moved with his family, consisting then of his wife and four children, to Marion County, Missouri, where he remained three years, when he moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, and settled near Springfield. Here he purchased a farm on which he lived till the spring of 1837, when he moved to West Point, Lee County, Iowa, having the year previous purchased a claim and made preparations for the settlement of his family. He lived here as a farmer till 1846, when he removed to Keokuk and engaged in merchandise and pork-packing. In 1848 he went exclusively into the latter business, which, with several partners, he has followed till the present time. William Timberman has been his chief partner and is at present a member of the firm.

Few business men in Keokuk have been more successful than Colonel Patterson. And his success is a good illustration of what may be achieved by persevering steadily in one branch of business. He has followed pork-packing exclusively for over thirty years, and there has never been a year during the whole time that he has not packed from five to thirty thousand hogs. The result of this steady perseverance and good management is seen in the large and lucrative business which he has built up, which not only affords him and his partner a handsome income, but adds an important interest to the trade of the city.

It is only by such special direction of talent and enterprise that the business of a city can be developed. Some branches of business are more lucrative than others, and there is a strong temptation to rush into those which pay best for the time being, and the result is that such branches are often overdone and the profits of them destroyed, while other interest, equally important, are neglected. The true policy is, for each man to take hold of his own special business and pursue it with energy until he makes it successful, putting it on a permanent and prosperous footing with all other successful industries of the city. Thus all branches will be developed, and there will be a healthy competition in each department of trade, rather than a shifting and restless scramble for those which seem for the moment to pay the best.

Colonel Patterson has acted on this wise and far-seeing policy, resisting all temptations to a change of business, and has steadily pursued that which he first undertook over thirty years ago, studying the best methods of building it up and making it successful, and applying the improvements which have from time to time suggested themselves to his mind. In this way he and the firm which he represents have become the leaders in their special department of business in the city.

Colonel Patterson has also, from the early period of his settlement in this county, taken a prominent part in public affairs. He was elected a member of the first Legislature of the Territory of Iowa in 1838, and while in that body was influential in settling the disturbance about the boundary line between his portion of Iowa and Missouri.

It is well known to those acquainted with our early history that the Missourians of Clark County claimed the point of Iowa lying below a direct extension of the northern boundary line of their
State to the Mississippi River, and that the people of this section resisted their claim and determined that the boundary line should follow the Des Moines river to its mouth. The Sheriff of Clark County, in undertaking to serve legal processes for the collection of taxes over this territory, was arrested by the sheriff of Van Buren County and lodged in jail. The contest grew so hot that war between the contending parties seemed imminent. The militia were, in fact, called out on both sides, and general orders issued for them to march to the scene of action. Governor Boggs of Missouri ordered ten thousand men into the field - probably more with a view of scaring the Iowa people than with any expectation that such a force would be needed. At this junction Colonel Patterson was commissioned Colonel of Militia by Governor Lucas of Iowa, and authorized to raise a regiment, which he proceeded at once to do. The following was the first general order for the campaign:

[GENERAL ORDER NO. 1]

Head Quarters, Burlington, I. T.

December 7th, 1839
Col. William Patterson: -

Sir: In pursuance of an order from the commander in Chief, under date the 7th inst., and in compliance with the requisition from the Deputy Marshal of the same date, you are hereby directed to furnish from your regiment one company of mounted men, armed and equipped for active service, directing the officer to have his command properly furnished with the necessary implements and munitions of war, and that he report to me at Farmington, Van Buren County, with the least possible delay.

J. B. Browne.

Maj. Gen. Comd’g 1st Div. Ia. Militia

The company was ordered forward, but although Governor Boggs had seven hundred men on the ground and fifteen hundred more on the march from Palmyra, no blood was shed. Clark County opened negotiations with the authorities at Burlington. A delegation was sent to the Legislature of Iowa, then in session. Asking them to do something for the settlement of the difficulty. The Legislature replied that they could do nothing about determining or settling boundary lines, as they represented only a territory acting under an organic law of Congress. Col. Patterson was at that time a member of the Legislature, and some of the delegates being his personal friends, besought him to use his influence to have the Legislature do something to prevent the effusion of blood, which they felt must be the next scene in the drama, if no satisfactory action was taken. They did not wish to return home from a fruitless mission. The Legislature, at least; could pass resolutions declaring their inability to take action, and asking the suspension of hostilities till the whole question could be referred to Congress for final settlement. Col. Patterson laid this proposition before Sheppard Leffler, another member of the House, and at his suggestion, the latter drew up the resolutions, which, though opposed by the Governor, where finally passed by a two-thirds majority. Col. Patterson, Hawkins, Taylor, J. D. Paine and Mr. Hughes were appointed a committee to return with the Missouri delegation, and lay the resolutions before the authorities of Clark County. They were completely successful in their mission. In a few days the militia were disbanded, and soon after, Congress established the boundary line according to the claim of Iowa.

Col. Patterson was several times elected to the Legislature, both to the upper and lower house, and served in all during nine sessions, regular and special. He was a member of the constitutional Convention which convened in Iowa City in 1857. He has been three times elected Mayor of Keokuk – first in 1860, and again in 1865, and last in 1866. He was postmaster of Keokuk seven years, during Pierce and Buchanan’s administrations.

In the church of his choice he has been a leading member for nearly forty years. He was the first Elder of the Old School Presbyterian church elected in Iowa, having been chosen to that office at West Point in 1837. He was one of the chief movers and most liberal donors to the erection of Westminster Church in this city, which is one of the most beautiful church edifices in the state.

Source:
Illustrated Historical ATLAS of Lee County, IOWA
A. T. Andreas
Chicago, ILL.
1874

Transcription by Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer