COLBERT COUNTY, ALABAMA
BIOGRAPHIES

JAMES A. PATTERSON

JAMES A. PATTERSON was born March 17, 1813, in Trumbull County, Ohio, and is a son of John and Susan (Adams) Patterson.

The senior Mr. Patterson was born in Fayette County, Ky., and was a saddler by trade. He moved to Trumbull County, Ohio, where he was married; later on he removed to Mt. Vernon, and finally to Mansfield, where he died in 1820. He reared three children, viz.: James A., our subject; Margaret, wife of James Raymond; Augusta, wife of Elijah Worley, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Patterson family were originally from Ireland. The mother of our subject was a daughter of John Adams, a native of Trumbull County, Ohio, and a relative of John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. After Mr. Patterson’s death, his wife moved back to Trumbull County, where the subject of our sketch received his education in the common schools.

James A. Patterson, at the age of nineteen years, came to Alabama, settled at Decatur, and immediately began teaching a private school. He taught about three months, when he entered a store as salesman, where he remained three years. Shortly after entering this store he was made postmaster of that city, which osition he filled seventeen years. In June, 1830, he removed to Tuscumbia, where he has resided ever since.

While at Decatur, Mr. Patterson built a large cotton factory, and was one of the stockholders of the first railroad in Alabama. When he came to Tuscumbia he purchased 2,200 acres of land, on a part of which the city of Sheffield is located. He farmed until the outbreak of the war, at which time he owned about 100 slaves. After the war he engaged in the cotton commission business in Cincinnati for about three years, when he again resumed farming.

Mr. Patterson was married at Decatur, July 6, 1837, to Nancy C., daughter of Dabney A Martin. They reared eight children, viz.: James A.; Susan G., wife of John E. Young; Laura, wife of H. Carloss; Ida, widow of Hiram Crawford; Martin D.; A. A.; Ann E.; and A. W. Mrs. Patterson died in September, 1853, and Mr. Patterson was married to Mrs. Malenia J. Lightfoot, daughter of Archibald McKissach, of Pulaski, Tenn. She died in the fall of 1862.

Before the war, Mr. Patterson had accumulated a large fortune, but sharing the fate of many others, he, at the end of the war, found that he had lost considerable of his fortune. He still owns 156 acres of land near Sheffield, which affords him a comfortable living. He has been a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over forty-five years, and all his children are connected therewith. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity.

[SOURCE: Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical. Illustrated. Smith and De Land, Birmingham, Ala. 1888., p. 437-8] Typed for inclusion here by Linda Ledlow.

Return to Biographies