Lake-La Porte County IN Archives Biographies.....Pattee, Wesley 1836 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 21, 2006, 10:19 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) WESLEY PATTEE. Wesley Pattee, of West Creek township, belongs to that better class of citizens whose lives form the truest history of any portion of country, national or local, and his genealogical and personal record has many points of interest and worth to add to the value of this history of Lake county. He is a native of northwestern Indiana, having been born in the county of LaPorte, May 22, 1836. He was the fifth of a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters, whose parents were Lewis and Susan (Munger) Pattee, and he is the youngest of the three yet living, the other two being: Cyrus, married and a retired farmer of Lowell; and Sophronia, wife of Volney Dickey, of Grant Park, Illinois. Two of the sons were in the Civil war as members of Company B, Twentieth Indiana Infantry, and were taken prisoners at the battle of Gettysburg and starved in the prison pens of Libby and Belle Isle. Mr. Pattee's father was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1803, and died aged seventy-three in 1876, He lived in Canada until he was of age, then came to Huron county, Ohio, where he remained till after his marriage, and took up his abode in LaPorte county, Indiana, at the first years of that county's history. From there, after a few years' residence, he moved over to West Creek township in this county, and twenty years later became a resident of Kankakee county, Illinois, where he passed the rest of his life. He purchased four hundred acres of land in this latter county, and in his later years enjoyed very comfortable circumstances. He was a successful man in business affairs, was known for his decided and strong character, and made his influence felt wherever he lived. His ancestry was traced back to France, while his wife was of Scotch lineage. His wife, Susan Munger by maiden name, was born in Seneca county, New York, in 1803, and she attained the great age of ninety-two years. She was a Presbyterian in faith. Mr. Pattee was reared in LaPorte county during the first twelve years of his life, and then in Lake and Kankakee counties. He is one of the men of the present who can look back to a log cabin school as the scene of their first educational experiences. The building which he recalls having attended in West Creek township was constructed of hewn logs and was about twelve by twenty feet in dimensions. He did his writing on a long board placed aslant on pins driven into the wall, and he sat on a rough bench with no back. The teacher's place of honor was a mere stool. Light and ventilation came through the apertures left by the removal of two logs, filled in with panes of glass. He studied the elementary spelling book and Smith's arithmetic, while seated around the big box stove that occupied the center of the room. Subscription schools were the only kind known at that time, and twenty dollars was looked upon as a munificent salary to pay a teacher each month. During his own lifetime and in this very township of West Creek Mr. Pattee has witnessed a progression and even revolution of educational methods and equipment such as were not brought about in all the centuries before the time of his youth. And not alone in education has Mr. Pattee seen and been a part of progress. He and his wife well remember when not a railroad crossed the bounds of Lake county, while now fifteen lines network the county in every direction. He has been in Chicago when the teams would mire down on the State street thoroughfare; Lowell was not thought of in his youth, and while he was growing up-the now rich agricultural region of West Creek township was mainly a marsh. When Mr. Pattee was twenty-six years old, on December 13, 1862, he married Miss Elizabeth Pattee, and they have lived and plied their daily tasks side by side now for over forty years. During this time six children, three sons and three daughters, were born to them, and three are living. Hattie is the wife of Richard Sailor, a prosperous farmer of Eagle Creek township, this county, and they have seven children, all living, Walter, Munger, Elmer, Chester, Mabel, Cirilla and Mildred, of whom Walter and Munger have reached the eighth grade in school; Mrs. Sailor was a teacher for two years in her home county. Miss Cora, who was educated in the Lowell high school, is noted for her special proficiency as an artist in crayon and oil, and some of her finely wrought crayon pieces hang on the walls of the Lowell National Bank and attract attention from all visitors, while her exhibits at the county fair have always won the ribbons. Cyrus, the only son living of Mr. and Mrs. Pattee, took two years' work in the Lowell high school and completed the course in the Vories Business College at Indianapolis in 1902. He is a member of the Lowell band, affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, lodge No. 300, at Lowell, and with the Knights of Columbia Council No. 37, and is a stanch Republican and an ardent supporter of "Teddy" and his party. Mrs. Pattee was born on Door prairie, Scipio township, LaPorte county, February 13, 1837, and was the second in a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, she being the oldest of the five survivors; Melvina is the wife of C. C. Pattee, a retired farmer of Lowell; Emily is the widow of Israel Koplin, of Kansas; George is married and farming in LaPorte county: and James is married and residing on the old homestead in LaPorte county. Mrs. Pattee's father was born in Canada and came to Huron county, Ohio, at the age of twelve, growing to manhood there. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and was also a sailor on the great lakes, having put into the port of Chicago when there were but two houses there. He came to LaPorte county and purchased land of the government, being among the very early settlers of that county, and his son James has in his possession the parchment deed to the land. He was an old-line Whig and later a Republican. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church at Door Village, and he helped erect the edifice there. His wife was born in Huron county, Ohio, and was seventy years old at the time of her death. Mr. and Mrs. Pattee began their domestic life in Yellowhead township in Kankakee county, Illinois, and lived for a time in a little log cabin home, but prosperity soon came to them and gave them a good home and comfortable circumstances. They resided in Kankakee county until 1882, when they took up their home a half a mile from the postoffice of Lowell in West Creek township. They remodeled the house into a pretty country residence, put up various good buildings on the farm, and their estate is now known as one of the .valuable and model farm properties of the township. They have one hundred and six acres lying in West Creek and Cedar Creek townships, and of this twenty-six acres lie within the corporation of Lowell. One of their valued possessions is a parchment deed executed April 1, 1848, under the signature of President Polk, and this is one of the few documents of the kind in west Lake county. Mr. Pattee is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for the first Republican nominee, General Fremont, and he has never deviated in his support of the Grand Old Party. Mrs. Pattee is a member of the Christian church. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/pattee510gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb