Catherine Patterson

 

SOURCE: "Portrait and Biographical Album of Champaign County, Illinois," Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1887
SURNAMES: CALEY, DAKIN, GILLEPSI, STRONG, SWEARINGEN, WOOD

Mrs. CATHERINE PATTERSON, widow of John K. Patterson, came to this county in the pioneer days when a young woman, and during a period of over fifty years, in which she has passed in and out among the people of St. Joseph Township and vicinity, she has been the recipient of their deepest respect and confidence, possessing those kindly and generous qualities of heart and disposition which have endeared her to hosts of friends and caused her to be widely known as a lady of the kindliest impulses and the highest moral character.

Mrs. Patterson, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (MYERS) SWEARINGEN, is a native of Lewis County, Ky., born near Maysville, Dec. 16, 1808. She removed with her mother to this county in 1835, her father having died in Kentucky. The family included ten children, five sons and five daughters. Catherine, less than two years later became the wife of John K. Patterson, who was born in Madison County, Ohio, Oct. 2, 1810, and was the son of William and Jennie (KILGORE) PATTERSON. The former died in his native State, when his son was a young boy. The latter afterward went to live with his uncle, Thomas Kilgore, who gave him an interest in his business, that of a cattle-dealer, in which the youth became quite proficient, and invested his first capital in 120 acres of land in St. Joseph and Sidney Townships.

On the 1st of January, 1837, Mr. Patterson was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Swearingen, and they settled on a farm one and one-half miles southeast of St. Joseph, this county, where Mr. P. engaged in general farming and became very successful. He added to his landed property until he became the owner of 360 acres, which he spent many years in improving and embellishing, putting up handsome and substantial buildings, and adding all the appliances of a modern country estate. In the spring of 1874 he retired from active labor and removed into the town of St. Joseph, where his death took place the following fall. He left a wife and seven children. One child, Robert, had died when thirteen years of age; Mary M. is the wife of John; Elizabeth married Arthur STRONG; Frances D. is the wife of John DAKIN; Amanda M. was married to Van B. SWEARINGEN; Thomas E. married Miss Nettie A., daughter of Jessie C., and Elizabeth WOOD; Otho married Miss Sadie WOOD, of Indiana, and they reside in St. Joseph Township; John K. married May E. GILLISPI, daughter of Dr. Gillispi, of St. Joseph Township, and they now reside there.

Mrs. Patterson after the death of her husband continued in St. Joseph, of which she has since been a resident and is now in the seventy-ninth year of her age. She is a complete picture of the well-preserved, handsome and healthy old lady, with a fine head of hair in which there is but little gray, and still continues the habits of industry to which she was trained from a child, doing her own cooking and much of her housework, in which she takes delight and sets a fine example of neatness and thrift to many a younger lady. She has been a member of the Christian Church for over fifty years, and has adorned her profession by her modest walk and conversation, doing good as she had opportunity and exerting a happy influence over all around her. She was very active and energetic in her youth, taking delight in all the employments of the farm, a fearless horseback-rider, and engaging with zest in all the pleasures of country life. Upon one occasion, however, while riding she was thrown from her horse and sustained dislocation of the hip and ankle, from which she still suffers.

Thomas e., the fifth child of Mr. and Mrs. Patterson, was born Dec. 7, 1849, and married Sept. 10, 1874. He settled with his bride upon a farm, and departed this life in November, 1881, leaving a wife and one son, Theophhilus C. His wife, Mrs. Nettie (Wood) Patterson, was born in Wilmington, Clinton Co., Ohio, and came to this county with her parents when a girl twelve years of age. She remained under the house roof until her marriage, and by her union with Thomas E. Patterson became the mother of one child only, a son, who was but an infant when his father died. Mr. Patterson was a gentleman greatly respected in his community for his sterling worth of character, his high moral principles, and his value as a straightforward and enterprising citizen, whose place it will be hard to fill.

The Patterson family is of Irish origin, the first representatives in this country having settled, it is believed in Virginia, and the later descendants of whom have been widely and favorably known for the enterprise and energy with which they have conducted their business affairs, and the interest they have taken in advancing the interests of the section of country wherever they have seen fit to establish a permanent home. Mrs. Catherine Patterson, as a lady who has witnessed remarkable changes during the period of a long and eventful life, is tacitly accorded that deference and respect due to one who has watched the development of one of the richest sections of the Western continent, and has always rejoiced in its prosperity, training her children to become worthy residents in a more than ordinarily intelligent community, and of a State which has become great through the enterprise of its pioneers who inaugurated and taught their children to maintain its phenomenal prosperity.

A lithographic portrait of John K. Patterson is shown on a preceding page.