Biography of 	PATTON, George Farrar,M.D.; Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller April 1998

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Patton, George Farrar, M. D., New Orleans, was born at Lee Chase 
plantation, Rankin county, Miss., Feb. 27, 1853; son of William Lee 
and Sarah Holloway (Mayson) Patton, the former of whom was  born at 
Danville, Va., April 5, 1822, and the latter at Richmond, Va., April 15, 
1830.  William Lee Patton was one of the citizens of Jackson, Miss., 
who formed the organization of the Burt Rifles, an infantry company 
which became part of the 18th Mississippi regiment.  He accompanied 
the Mississippi troops to Virginia and took part in the first battle 
of Manassas, following which he returned to Jackson, Miss., and devoted 
his energies and means to the organization and equipment of an artillery 
battalion, afterward known as Withers' Battery, of which he was elected 
lieutenant-colonel and with which he served at Vicksburg during the 
siege of that place.  While in the trenches at Vicksburg, Col. Patton 
contracted typhoid fever, subsequently complicated with pneumonia.  
He was invalided and again returned to Jackson, where he had only 
partially recovered when the retreat of the Confederate forces obliged 
him to move to avoid being captured.  A faithful colored servant 
procured a vehicle and succeeded in conveying him to a place of 
comparative safety only a few hours before the Federal troops entered 
and partially burned the city of Jackson.  Being still physically unfit 
for service in the field, Col. Patton was later selected by Gen. 
Joseph E. Johnston to superintend a shoe manufacturing plant established 
by the Confederate government at Cahawba, Ala.  When the Civil war 
ended Col. Patton was in charge of the Confederate supply department 
at Brandon, Miss.  For a number of years after the war he edited the 
''Conservative Time,'' a weekly paper published at Summit, Miss., 
where Col. Patton also served several terms as mayor of the town.  
On retirement from active life he made his home with his daughter, 
Mrs. C. T. Patterson in New Orleans.  He attained the age of more 
than 90 years.  George Farrar Patton received his earlier education 
on his father's plantation, following which he attended the public 
schools of Jackson, Miss., and later high school at Brandon, Miss.  
This was succeeded by a classical course at Collegiate institute, 
Gilmer, Tex., after completing which he began his medical studies 
at Ohio college, Cincinnati, and later continuing them, entered the 
medical department of Friedrich Wilhelm university, Bonn, Germany, 
from which institution he received the degree of M. D. Aug. 8, 1876.  
In the course of his professional experience, Dr. Patton filled the 
position of assistant resident physician at the Mississippi River 
Quarantine station, and was later inspector for the National board 
of health.  He was a member of the Louisiana state board of health 
and served as secretary of the board for a term of 10 years.  For many 
years he was a visiting physician at the New Orleans Charity hospital, 
and later became registrar for that institution.  He also served as 
professor of Clinical Medicine in the Post-Graduate medical department 
of Tulane university.  Dr. Patton was raised a Presbyterian, and 
politically affiliated with the democratic party.  He was a member 
of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical association, which later was 
merged into the Orleans Parish Medical society; also a member of the 
Louisiana State and American Medical associations, and the Louisiana 
Anti-Tuberculosis league.  At one time he was a member of the Knights 
of Honor and of the American Legion of Honor.  Dr. Patton has 
shown no taste for club life, and after a few years of membership 
resigned from his only connection of  that kind, the Chess, Checkers 
and Whist club.  Throughout his life he has been an ardent patron of 
music.  In his youth he was a leader of an amateur brass band in the 
town of Summit, Miss., and in order to supply his band with suitable 
music he made a study of musical composition and the art of arrangement.  
While residing in Germany he wrote and published, by way of adding to 
his income from literary work, by which he supported himself, a 
text-book on the arrangement of music for military bands.  This work 
was unique among its kind, and as exploited by an enterprising New York 
firm, enjoyed a large sale.  The greater part of Dr. Patton's writing 
at the time was in the form of popular news letters for American papers 
and magazine publications.  While serving as secretary of the Louisiana 
State board of health, Dr. Patton wrote a great deal for publication, 
this including a history of the state board of health and of health 
legislation in Louisiana, with a synopsis of all state laws relating 
to sanitation and allied subjects.  He was later identified with the 
organization and work of the Louisiana Anti-Tuberculosis league, of 
which he was president for 2 years.  In the course of the campaign 
conducted by this organization for popular education in regard to 
preventive and curative measures, Dr. Patton delivered lectures in 
all parts of Louisiana. As registrar of the New Orleans Charity hospital 
he perfected a most useful system for keeping clinical records.  
Throughout his active and busy professional life, as a means of 
diversion and recreation he had access to photography, architecture 
and organ-building, and, in the later years, foreign travel.  In his 
home there is a two-manual pipe organ of 13 speaking stops and more 
than 600 pipes which he built during the leisure hours of 4 years.  
Feb. 28, 1878, Dr. Patton was married to Miss Clara May Simmons, 
daughter of Thomas Mosby and Mary Virginia (Lindsay) Simmons of New 
Orleans.  The following children have been born to them:  Julia Simmons, 
Sept. 16, 1881, lived only 23 days;  Ralph Clifton, Feb. 10, 1887, 
graduated as electrical engineer from Tulane university in 1907 and 
located at Providence, R. I., where he married Miss Carolyn Trillinghast 
Parker June 1, 1912.  Dr. George Farrar Patton married, as his second 
wife, Miss Ruth Lindsay Simmons sister of his first wife, June 4, 1892.  
No children have been born to them.


Source:  Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, 
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), 
pp. 347-348.  Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by 
Century Historical Association.