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.
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