Chattahoochee-Muscogee County GaArchives Biographies.....Patterson, Robert Carr 1814 - 1890 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 4, 2004, 10:49 pm Author: N. K. Rogers ROBERT CARR PATTERSON Members of the Patterson family of Chattahoochee County have an ancestry of which they may justly feel proud. The founder of the branch of the family living here, Robert C. Patterson, b. 1814, d. 1890, was son of William and Ruth Clements Patterson. When he was 21 years of age his father, who lived in Jefferson Co., gave him a pony on which he decided to ride to Texas. But when he reached Alabama the Indian hostility was at its height so he returned to Columbus, Ga. and joined those fighting the red men in 1836. His youngest son S. J. Patterson recalls hearing him speak of those days and say that the lots where Springer Opera House and the court house in Columbus are located were duck ponds when he first came there. He began work in Columbus as a carpenter and his name is in the list given by Martin for 1840. Mr. James Hickey employed him that year to build a house (now home of Co. Com. C. N. King) of which Mr. Patterson and his bride Sarah Hickey were the first occupants. With the aid of a negro woman and a boy he cleared the land on the flats surrounding this place and while his horse was resting after night would walk to King's grist mill a mile or two distant, carrying a bushel of corn to be ground into meal, often returning the following evening to bring the meal home. Mrs. Sarah Hickey Patterson died 1852 leaving five children; the oldest James Byron while a mere youth in the Confederate army died from a gangrenous affection which set in when a finger was shot from one of his hands, the others, two sons and two daughters lived honored, useful lives until crowned with old age.. R. C. Patterson married second, Dec. 14, 1853, Mrs. Hester Shaw Fincher. Of their four children Lucy died young, Gertrude (Mrs, W. F. Cook) is mentioned elsewhere, only Bartow and Stonewall J. are now living, the latter one of Chattahochee's present efficient commissioners. Mr. Patterson was Justice of the Inferior Court here in 1857-58, when he severed his connection with Chattahoochee's affairs removing to Stewart Co. from whence his three oldest sons entered the service of the Confederacy. He himself served in the commissary department during the latter part of the war, issuing food and medicine. During the winter of 1868-69 he returned to this county, and during the year 1869 lived in the Huff house in Cusseta where his daughter Sarah Mozelle married John Stephens. While here he was engaged in mercantile business; but the instability of business conditions caused him to desist from this. So he returned to that same vicinity where he had first resided in Chattahoochee (then Muscogee) and settled about half way between the original Hickey home and the house he built in which he and his first wife lived. Here he spent the remainder of his life, one of the leading men in that part of the county. The fervency of his religious ardor is remembered by all who knew him. Family worship was a part of the daily routine of his household and his house was the preacher's home whenever he was in that vicinity. He was one of the most active of the five men to whom Henry King donated land for the use of the Methodist church in the erection of New Bethany Church. Camp meetings were held there for four or five years and Mr. Patterson was a leader in preparing for these meetings. Bad roads made it impracticable for the pastor of this church to visit in the neighborhood often, so Mr. Patterson was frequently called upon to conduct funerals and to perform marriage ceremonies. For he was legally qualified to do the latter as he was Justice of the Peace there for about twenty years. Mr. S. J. Patterson says the year he was 21 and serving first as a juror in Halloca court, after hearing the case, he with the other four men, one of whom was G. W. King, Sr., retired to the woods and built a pine-knot fire on that very cold day, that they might be comfortable while reaching their decision. Mr. R. C. Patterson often said he broke in all Chattahooee's lawyers of that period (aftrewards famous in other places) among them being Eugene Wynn, Charlie Shipp, Joe Chapman and Z. A. Littlejohn. Naturally they were employed as counsel by those having recourse to the law to settle their differences. And sometimes when these young lawyers attempted to stress certain legal points, it is said this old Justice of the Peace would tell them "it might be law, but it wasn't right." Mr. Patterson's educational opportunities had been limited and his son says he kept his own books and did much writing; which was difficult for others to read due to hs own peculiar way of spelling. He was wont to say he did not study a dictionary, but made his own. And he had also made his character so sound and so highly respected that such trivialities as the proper spelling of words were forgotten by those who sought his advice about any and all of the affairs of life and living. The county records show his name constantly as bondsman and administrator of the estates of friends and kinsmen of his wives. For only one of his relatives, a brother, Benjamin Patterson, ever lived here; and he for only a few yars when he married Ann Shaw (sister of second Mrs. Patterson), widow of Charles King and afterwards removed to Texas. Mr. Robert C. Patterson was a plain-spoken, God-fearing, honest man whom his neighbors trusted. His youngest son pays this tribute to this upright pioneer of Chattahoochee.— "A better man never lived." Additional Comments: From: HISTORY OF CHATTAHOOCHEE COUNTY, GEORGIA By N. K. Rogers Dedicated to KASIHITA CHAPTER U. D. C. and all worthy descendants of the County's first settlers. Copyright 1933 by N. K. ROGERS PRINTED BY COLUMBUS OFFICE SUPPLY CO. COLUMBUS, GA. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chattahoochee/bios/gbs563patterso.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.4 Kb