Biographical Sketch of John Patee, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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John Patee.  Of all the prominent and active pioneers to whose efforts
St. Joseph, today owes her consequence in the roll of Western cities,
none have contributed more substantially to her aggrandizement, or 
left behind them more enduring evidences of their successful enter-
prise, than the man whose name heads this notice.  John Patee was born
in Milford, Otsego County, New York, on the first day of August, 1794.
He received an excellent education, and in his early days gained his
support by teaching in Utica and other points in his native state.  In
1836, he decided to seek his fortune in the West, and moved to the
state of Ohio.  In 1840, he emigrated to Arkansas.  In 1845, he again
moved, settling this time on the site of the present city of St.
Joseph, Missouri, which he made his final home, and which his energies
contributed so largely to develop.  Here he purchased three hundred
and twenty acres of land, commencing at Sixth Street.  This he after-
wards laid off in town lots.  It is known as Patee's addition to the
city of St. Joseph, and now constitutes a populous, well built and
business portion of the same.  The price which he paid for this land
was thirteen dollars per acre.  Here he erected, at a cost of nearly
$130,000, that stately monument of his enterprise, and faith in the
future of St. Joseph, long known as the Patee House, and, in its day,
not only the most elegant, but most excellently kept hotel in the city.
Mr. Patee was never known to be idle, and though considerably in ad-
vance of his day in his estimate of the prospective development of the
city, he was generally correct in his conclusions.  His large estate
he accumulated by honorable, legitimate means, without oppressing the
poor, whose friend he ever was, and to whom he seet an excellent ex-
ample of industry, economy and unswerving integrity.  In all his 
business transactions he was scrupulously exact.  His well balanced
mind was comprehensive in its grasp, logical and well stored with 
useful knowledge.  The literary tastes acquired in his youth clung
to him through life, and nothing seemed to afford him greater pleasure
than the recreation of reviewing the standard English and American
authors, with whom he had been so long familiar.  His powers of memory,
evinced in the facility with which he quoted long extracts from these
writers, up to his last days, was wonderful.  His belief in the Bible
was constant, but until a late period of his life, though a strictly
moral man, he had not connected hiimself with any religious denomina-
tion.  He was, at the period of his death, which occurred February 14,
1868, a member of the Episcopal Church.  Mr. Patee's taxable property
at one time amounted in value to fully $350,000.  Unlike the common
herd of self made men, he was public spirited and liberal of his means.
A striking evidence of his noble attribute of the man exists today in
the presence of the beautiful Patee Park, which occupies the entire
space bounded by Penn, Seneca, Ninth and Tenth Streets.  He first
donated this to the city on condition of its being improved within
ten years.  At the expiration of that period, nothing having been done,
Mr. Patee notified the city authorities of their failure to comply with
the terms of the gift and declared the same forfeited.  The property,
by this time, had become valuable, and every one expected him to resume
possession.  His native generosity, however, asserted itself, and Mr.
Patee renewed the donation, with the terms of which the city did not
again fail promptly to comply.  He had two children, Elijah and Mrs.
Minerva Russell, both of whom he survived.  A notable feature in the
will of Mr. Patee, was bequest in the shape of the interest of one
thousand dollars to be annually paid by the executor to his former
slave, Ann, the principal to revert to the testator's heirs at her
death.  Besides one thousand dollars to Mrs. Bridget Mansfield, whom,
when a little girl, he had taken under his care and educated.  The
entire property was bequeathed to his six grandchildren.  The funeral
of John Patee was attended by all the old settlers of the city, and
his remains were placed beside his wife and children in Mount Mora
Cemetery.

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