Paterson, John; 1905 Bio, Unknown, Colorado
http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/costate/bios/patrsnj.txt

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Donated May 2001
Transcribed by Judy Crook <jlcrook@rof.net> from the book:
Progressive Men of Western Colorado 
Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.

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John Paterson

     Almost the only schooling received by the subject of this brief 
sketch was had under the exacting but effective taskmaster Experience, 
and it is due to his own indomitable energy, pluck and perseverance 
that he has succeeded in life and won a comfortable estate from hard 
conditions and under adverse circumstances.  He belongs to the great 
democracy of the United States, which works in its shirt sleeves where 
work will pay, and by persistent effort and undaunted courage builds up 
great industries, mighty marts of commerce, fertile farms in the 
wilderness and rich commonwealths fruitful in all the blessings of 
cultivated life.  Mr. Paterson was born in Scotland on September 8, 
1855, and is the son of James and Jane P. (Stewart) Paterson, of that 
country, where their forefathers lived and labored for many 
generations.  The father was a farmer and also engaged in other 
occupations.  He was a loyal member of the Presbyterian church, as was 
also his wife, and gave intelligent and manly attention to all the 
duties of citizenship.  The family comprised eleven children, of whom 
two died in infancy and one at a more advanced age.  The living are 
Jane, James, Margaret, Alexander, William, John and Barbara.  When John 
was but seven years old he began to make his own living by herding 
cattle, in which he was occupied in his native land until 1880, in 
connection with various other kinds of work.  In that year he came to 
the United States, and located in Colorado on his present ranch, eighty 
acres of which he bought with the improvements out of money he had 
saved from his slender earnings.  He afterwards bought fifty acres 
additional, and to the development, improvement and cultivation of his 
land he has since continuously devoted himself.  He has ninety acres of 
the tract in a good state of productiveness and raises fine crops of 
hay, grain, potatoes and fruit, owning his water rights and having an 
abundant supply of water for necessary irrigation.  He is a man of 
public-spirit and helpful in all commendable undertakings for the 
advancement of the best interests of his community, but is independent 
of party control in political activity.  On January 20, 1882, he was 
married to Miss Mary A. Begg, a native of Scotland and the daughter of 
Peter and Mary (Ross) Begg, of that country, where the father was 
overseer for John Forber, a great land owner and sheep breeder.  He was 
a Presbyterian in church relations, and died in 1884.  The mother is 
still living in Scotland and, like her husband, she is loyal and 
devoted to the king.  Four of their five children are living, Jane, 
Mary A., George and Margaret.  Mr. and Mrs. Paterson have five 
children:  Helen, the wife of S. Geigel, living in the vicinity of 
Carbondale; Marion, the wife of Oliver Jacobs, living in the vicinity 
of Emma; Gladstone E., Clara and Hugh.  The parents are Presbyterians.  
Mr. Paterson's father died in 1881 and his mother in 1891.

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