Huerfano-Fremont County CO Archives Biographies.....Patterson, Joseph Hunter 1853 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 8, 2009, 10:40 pm

Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918)

JUDGE JOSEPH HUNTER PATTERSON.

    Judge Joseph Hunter Patterson, occupying the bench of the county court of
Huerfano county and making his home in Walsenburg, was born in Airdrie,
Scotland, on the 11th of April, 1853, a son of George and Elizabeth (Miller)
Patterson. The father was manager of a coal mine in Scotland and died in his
native land, where his wife also spent her remaining days. They reared a family
of eleven children, six sons and five daughters, of whom Judge Patterson was the
sixth son.

    In his youthful days the Judge had few opportunities to acquire an
education, as he began work in the mines at the age of eight years. However, he
was ambitious to improve and later attended night school, while in the school of
experience he also learned many valuable lessons which have proved of great
worth to him in later years. He continued to engage in coal mining throughout
the period of his residence in Scotland but was a youth of only sixteen years
when he determined to try his fortune in the new world and in June, 1869,
crossed the Atlantic, taking up his abode in Pennsylvania, where he resided for
a decade. In 1879 he arrived in Colorado and his previous experience as a miner
won for him the position of superintendent of mines for the Northern Coal
Company. He afterward held a similar position with the United States Coal
Company, working for this company until 1890. He then embarked In business on
his own account by opening a hotel in Walsenburg which he conducted for two
years. He was afterward connected with business interests in Denver for two
years and on the expiration of that period accepted the position of manager of
the Val Blatz Brewing Company in Denver, acting in that capacity for six years.
He next made a visit to his native country and upon his return to America took
up his abode in Walsenburg. Here he has filled various positions of public honor
and trust. For two years he served as police magistrate, for four years was
deputy clerk of the district court, and in 1916 was elected to his present
position as county judge for a four year term. He has always given his political
support to the democratic party since becoming a naturalized American citizen
and has taken an active interest in party work, doing everything in his power to
further its welfare and promote its success.

    On February 10, 1873, Judge Patterson was united in marriage to Marion Burns
Sharp, at Sharon, Pennsylvania, and to them were born three sons and two
daughters. Mrs. Patterson died at Williamsburg, Fremont county, Colorado, on May
10, 1883. Judge Patterson married a second time, wedding Margaret King, at
Williamsburg, Fremont county, Colorado, on the 10th day of August, 1883, and to
them were born one son and three daughters.

    The judge is well known in fraternal circles. For the past forty-two years
he has been a third degree Mason, for forty-four years has been identified with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all of the chairs
of the local lodge, and is also a member of the Knights of The Maccabees. He is
widely known in Huerfano county and in Denver and has many friends throughout
the state. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for
he started out in life for himself at the age of eight years, and denied
educational advantages and opportunities which many boys enjoy, nevertheless
through the force of his own character, through laudable ambition and
determination, worked his way steadily upward and is now occupying a position of
honor and trust in Huerfano county that shows him to be a man of genuine worth
and one in whom his fellow townsmen have implicit trust.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918


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