EXTENSIVE BIO: Captain James Patterson 1700's Juniata Co Pa
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It will be noticed that Captain James Patterson, of whom it is claimed by some that he was the first settler, is not mentioned in the letter of Richard Peters, and it is also shown, in the caveat filed by William Curran, March 13, 1765 (hat is elsewhere given), that one John Savage had made an improvement at the mouth of D. O. Run, which he had purchased ten years before, or upwards, and which Curran had purchased. This property, however, Captain Patterson secured a warrant upon, and held it. It is now Mexico, but was known many years as Patterson’s Mills.
Captain James Patterson was the most illustrious pioneer settler in Juniata County, and deserves more than a passing notice. His father came from Salisbury, England, and settled, in 1717, on the northern line of the Conestoga Manor, Lancaster County.
James Patterson, who was prominent in Juniata in the early days of the settlement on the Indian purchase of 1754, was a son of the James Patterson, of Lancaster County, referred to. His early life was passed in the woods and among the traders. He moved on a three hundred-acre tract in Cumberland Valley (now Franklin County), left him by his father at his death, and lived there until the Juniata region was opened to settlement. His sister, Susanna, was the wife of James Lowry, an Indian trader in Donegal; Sarah was the wife of Benjamin Chambers, who settled at Chambersburg; Rebecca was the wife of John Keagy, who occupied part of the mansion farm. Mrs. Chambers was the mother of General James Chambers, of the Revolution.
The mother of James Patterson was a remarkable worman, and was twice married after the death of his father. She was the wife of Thomas Ewing and Dr. John Connolly, and the mother of the notorious Dr. John Connolly.
As already stated, Captain James Patterson moved on this tract on the Conococheague after his father’s death, and his name may be found regularly on the Lurgan township tax-lists, and he remained there until 1754.
The Land Office opened February 3, 1755, and on the 4th James Patterson got his warrant for a tract of four hundred and seven acres at Mexico, which he had surveyed on the 29th, and it was the first, and in 1763 the only, tract patented in this county. Hence, the whole story told of his bidding defiance to the provincial authorities, and refusing to go through the formalities of the Land Office for a title, as told in Jones’ “Juniata Valley,” is without the slightest foundation in fact, and does the captain great injustice. As he followed the Indian trade with his father in his youth, and later also on his own account, he had doubtless often been back and forth over our Juniata streams and hills, and his selection of land was not a chance location, but carefully picked out as a mill-site. We cannot admit that he settled here, as claimed by some writers, in 1751; but he may have been here then, and long and often before, but not as a settler, for such settlements were forbidden by law prior to the purchase from the Indians, in 1754.
James Patterson, in 1767, built the first grist-mill and a saw-mill east of the river. His residence had been used as a base of supplies during the years 1756-57, as is shown by the following letters of T. Lloyd under date October 14, 1756, who says,--
“That there was 20,000 weight of Provincial flour left at Capt. Patterson’s, on the Western frontier, and (as supposed) in the rout from Duquesne (Pittsburgh), to Shamokin (Sunbury), or near it, of which he (Col. Clapham) commanded me to make a minute, and know whether it was your Honor’s pleasure that the house should be burnt and the flour destroyed or not.”
On November 23, 1756, Colonel Clapham wrote from Fort Augusta to Governor Denny,--
“The bearer, Captain Patterson, had been very serviceable on two detachments of great fatigue, and has in every other respect during his stay here behaved himself like a brave and honest man. He is the owner of the house where I mentioned the flour was left, and accompanied the detachment sent to that place. He will be able to inform your honor more particularly on that head.”
Some time later he again wrote,--
“The party I sent to the Great Island (Lock Haven) returned by the Allegheny road without finding any enemy . . . Immediately on their return I detached two parties, one to the place where the Allegheny road crosses Juniata, with orders to examine into the state of the flour at Capt. Patterson’s, and, if possible, to abuscade the enemy, the other to Hunter’s to escort provisions.”
What Allegheny road this was, and where it crossed Juniata, is hard to tell, but it was probably near the captain’s residence. Probably the seven thousand seven hundred pounds of flour brought to Fort Augusta January 7, 1757, by Ensign William Patterson, with sixty-six horses, was part of the flour above spoken of. Patterson warranted and purchased a number of tracts near Mexico and across the river; also up the river at Raystown Branch, in Canoe Valley and other places.
His residence was called Patterson’s and was so laid down on maps of this time. To the river boatmen it was known as “Patterson’s Landing.” He died here. His will is dated June 9, 1771; recorded at Carlisle; probated January 22, 1772. The grave-yard is on his tract, but no stone records the exact date or age. By his will he left the Juniata lands and the mill properties to James, his second son, and George, the youngest son. George is first a single freeman on the Fermanagh tax-lists in 1781, and that year may be safely set down as the period of his majority.
The wife of Capt. James Patterson was Mary Stewart. She was executrix of his will, and lived at Mexico until 1783. She moved to her daughter’s, Mrs. Moore, at Middletown, and died there in 1785. Her will, probated April 29, 1785, mentions as her children William, Mary (wife of General Potter), Susanna (wife of James Moore), James and George. Mary had been married first to Thomas Chambers, who was killed by Indians at Big Island (Lock Haven). See “Border Life,” (p. 126). With Genl. James Potter she became the mother of James, the husband of Mary Brown; Mary, wife of George Riddle and then of William McClellan; John, deceased; Martha, wife of Hon. Andrew Gregg, once U. S. Senator, and grandfather of Governor A. G. Curtin; Margaret, wife of Edward Crouch.
William Patterson first married a Galbreath, and by her had one son, who was named Galbreath Patterson. He studied law and lived in Harrisburg, where he gained considerable distinction. He was the father of Mrs. Judge Hayes, of Lancaster, and Dr. Edmund B. Patterson, of Lewistown. About 1800 Galbreath removed to near Williamsport, where he had a large tract of land and soon after died there. William married, as a second wife, Esther Finley, granddaughter of John Harris, of Harrisburg, and by her had John, born 1767; Isabella; William Augustus, born 1771, died July 15, 1854, in White Deer Valley, aged eighty-three years; James, born 1776. Esther patterson died in East Pennsboro township, Cumberland County.
The father of this branch is known as Capt. William Patterson. He settled opposite Mexico and owned a large tract of land. In 1756 he is Ensign; in 1757, Lieutenant; in 1758, Captain in the Provincial service. He was with the forces which brought Fort Augusta in 1757, and described in the Shippen papers as “a gentleman of limited education, a very good soldier and does his duty well;” and he is often mentioned in Burd’s Journals.
James Patterson, son of Captain James, married Jane Harris, daughter of John Harris, founder of Mifflintown.
George, youngest son of Captain James, married Jane, daughter of Colonel James Burd, the most noted military man in this province during the French and Indian War.
George Patterson was justice of the peace, and lived at Mexico until 1810, when he moved to Mount Airy, near Philadelphia, and from that place his sons, Burd and George, moved to Pottsville, where the family have been prominent citizens ever since. The children of George are six, of whom Burd was born at Mexico July 8, 1788, died at Pottsville March 30, 1861, wife, Matilda Dowers; Charlotte, wife of William Thompson; Eliza, wife of Rubens Peale, the artist.
James Patterson and Valentine Sterns took out a warrant for three hundred and thirty-nine acres of land, February 6, 1755, directly below Patterson’s Mill tract, at Mexico. This tract was divided, Patterson receiving the upper part (now the farms in part of W. P. Thompson and David Sieber); Valentine Sterns took the lower part and soon after died, as Widow Jean Sterns is assessed on the property and appears many years later.
A part of this land was patented, March 28, 1807, to Martin Motzer as “Farmers’ Hope,” and then contained two hundred and ninety-seven acres, and was part of the warrants of James Patterson and Valentine Sterns of February, 1755. Matthew Atkinson’s land joined it on the north. The land is in part owned by Henry Hartman.
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