Washington Co., AR - Biographies - Col. Isaac Mitchell Patridge *********************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: The Goodspeed Publishing Co Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org *********************************************** Col. Isaac Mitchell Patridge, son of Isaac C. and Elizabeth Patridge, was born at Chapel Hill, Orange Co., N. C., November 12, 1833. His father was publishing a paper there at the time, and was also postmaster of the place. His parents were both born and reared in New Berne, on the seaboard of the State, and were representatives of some of the oldest families in that region, whose ancestors were among the first settlers of Eastern North Carolina, and I. M. Patridge is related to the Hawkers, Mitchells, Willises, Pearces and other prominent families of the "Old North State," who have made their mark in political, legal, mercantile and mechanical life. I. M. Patridge received a fair education in the schools of New Berne, where his mother had removed after the death of his father in 1839. His youth was uneventful until he was about prepared for college, when circumstances induced his mother to put him in a newspaper office to learn the printing business. Accordingly he was sent to Norfolk. Va., where he entered the Beacon office, a daily paper published by Cunningham & Gatewood, in the spring of 1850. He remained with this paper for several years, and early exhibited a capacity for higher things than the mechanical drudgery; he passed through the position of reporter, until in January, 1855, he was announced as one of the editors of the paper. During the summer of that year a fearful epidemic of yellow fever passed over Norfolk, claiming among its victims both of the proprietors of the Beacon, and the paper was suspended and never revived. In the spring of the following year Mr. Patridge [p.999] moved "out west," and having an uncle at Friar's Point, Miss., George H. Mitchell, an attorney at law, he entered his office to prepare himself for the bar. During that summer, however, in the heat of the presidential contest, he was induced to re enter the field of journalism. He therefore moved to Memphis, and accepted the editorship of the Memphis Whig. The paper, through financial mismanagement, however, survived but a short time, when, upon invitation, he went to Holly Springs, Miss., and conducted the Times of that place during the remainder of the canvass of 1856. Returning to Memphis after the election of that year, he did work upon the Eagle and Enquirer until the following summer, when, in connection with several other gentlemen, he purchased the Memphis Evening News, and remained with it until the fall of 1857, when he accepted a call to remove to Vicksburg, Miss., and take charge of the Vicksburg Whig, then published by the venerable Marmaduke Shannon (who still, 1888, survives at the ripe age of nearly ninety years). His connection with this paper continued until the breaking out of the war. Vicksburg has long been noted for its journalistic fights and duels, and Mr. Patridge was not exempt from his share of the troubles. He fought a duel with Maj. William H. McCardle in July, 1858, but several other calls to the field were happily adjusted by mutual friends of the parties. In 1858 he was elected colonel of the Mississippi militia, and in 1860 major-general, but has always borne his first title of colonel. In 1860 he was chosen by the State convention of the "Constitution Union" party of Mississippi a delegate to the National Convention, at Baltimore, which nominated Bell and Everett for the presidency and vice-presidency. He was an uncompromising Union man until his State declared in favor of secession, in January, 1861, when "he went with his State," enlisting for the war in the Vicksburg Southrons. He was subsequently appointed commissary of the Twenty- first Mississippi Regiment, and the following year promoted to the rank of major in the same department, and was assigned to duty with the Mississippi Brigade, commanded by Gen. W. S. Featherston, who was succeeded by Gen. Carnot Posey, and then by Gen. N. H. Harris. At the close of the war he returned to Vicksburg, and finding a paper there called the Herald, which had been established after its capture by the Federal troops by an ex-Federal officer, named Ira A. Batterton, he was induced to take charge of its columns. Mr. Batterton a short time after was accidentally killed in a shooting gallery, and the paper passed into the hands of Mr. James M. Swords, Mr. Patridge continuing as its editor until the summer of 1868. His health demanding his removal from the malarial region, Mr. Patridge went north in the following year, traveling for nearly two years, when he finally made his home at Fayetteville, Ark. He was the first manager of the Sentinel, a Democratic paper, established by Col. J. R. Pettigrew in 1875. He remained with it until the spring of 1881, when he removed to Meridian, Miss., engaging in newspaper work until December, 1885, when he was induced to return to Fayetteville, forming a partnership with Col. Pettigrew. who had in the meantime been appointed a member of the Utah Commission. Col. Pettigrew died in October, 1886, and Mr. Hugh F. Reagan is his successor in the Sentinel, and the paper, since April, 1887, has been under the management of Messrs. Patridge and Reagan, who by their energy and ability have made it one of the leading journals of the State. Mr. Patridge studied law, and was granted a license by Judge J. S. Yerger, of the Vicksburg Circuit Court, in December, 1865, but has never applied himself to legal practice. He has never been a hunter after official positions. Since living in Arkansas he has served twice in the city council of Fayetteville, each time having been chosen to fill vacancies, Col. Patridge, though a gentleman in the highest sense of the term, of genial disposition, a cultivated mind and manners, of generous heart and refined feelings, appreciating and placing the highest estimate upon the fair sex, has never married, and his most intimate friends know of no romance in his life, nor have they ever had a single intimation that he has ever longed for connubial bliss.