BIOGRAPHY: Hon. Samuel D. PATTERSON, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 139-41
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HON. SAMUEL D. PATTERSON, a member of the House of Representatives of 
Pennsylvania, from Cambria county, is a son of Thomas and Magdalene (Dunkle) 
Patterson, and was born in Green township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, 
February 16, 1845. As the name would indicate, the Pattersons are of Scotch-
Irish origin. The progenitors of the American branch of the family, after 
landing at Philadelphia, with the characteristic energy of their wonderful race 
pushed westward to find ample room and untrammeled freedom. They came about the 
commencement of the present century and were pioneer settlers in one section of 
Juniata county. From this Patterson settlement Samuel Patterson (grandfather) 
removed to the Manor settlement of Indiana county, when the latter was largely a 
wilderness. He was a Presbyterian, like most of his race, and cleared a large 
farm, on which he died about 1830, at fifty years of age. He supplied his table 
with meat by killing bear and deer, which then were plenty in that section. He 
married Elizabeth Evans, and they sleep side by side in the Presbyterian 
cemetery at Penn Run or Greenville, in Indiana county. They were the parents of 
four sons and three daughters: John, William, Thomas, Robert, Mrs. Elizabeth 
Eigness, Mrs. Margaret McLaughlin, and Mrs. Nancy Lockhart. Thomas Patterson, 
father, was born in the Manor settlement, July 7, 1814, and lived to be seventy-
four years of age, dying May 11, 1888. He was a shoemaker by trade, spent 
several years as a clerk in a store at Caseyville, Kentucky, taught school in 
Indiana county for fourteen consecutive terms, and passed the latter part of his 
life in agricultural pursuits on a Green township farm. He was a whig and a 
republican in politics and a member and class-leader of the Methodist Protestant 
church, in which he was a pillar of strength in times of darkness or periods of 
depression.
     He served fifteen years as a justice of the peace, was noted as a man of 
stainless character and excellent judgment, and enjoyed the respect and 
confidence of all who knew him. Thomas Patterson married Magdalene Dunkle, who 
is a daughter of John Dunkle, a member of the Dunkle family of York county. Mrs. 
Patterson, who is still living, was born in   Brush Valley township, Indiana 
county, 1821. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson had nine children: Hon. Samuel D., John W., 
residing on the old homestead; Kezia N., wife of R. F. Templeton, a farmer; 
William E., Martin L., and Robert N., all farmers in their native township; 
Caroline M. married John T. Evans, a farmer of Cambria township, this county; 
Mary Ellen, wife of Evan Davis, of Buffington township, Indiana county, where he 
owns a farm; and Emma Catherine, who married William Douglass, a farmer of her 
native township.
     Hon. Samuel D. Patterson was reared on the farm and learned the trade of 
shoemaker with his father. He went through the common schools and then entered 
Pine Flat academy, which he left in a few weeks to enter the Union army, at the 
early age of seventeen years. He enlisted on August 10, 1862, in Company I, 
Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania infantry, and served until June 19, 1865, when he was 
honorably discharged at Harrisburg. He was taken prisoner at Milroy's defeat at 
Winchester, June 15, 1863, and spent three months in Libby prison, Castle 
Thunder and on Bell Island, being paroled in September. He was then sent to the 
parole camp at Annapolis, where he remained until exchanged in March, 1864, and 
sent back to his regiment, with which he served until June 20, 1864, when at the 
battle of White House Landing, he was captured a second time and sent to Georgia 
to spend ten months in Andersonville, Millen, Savannah, Thomasville and 
Blackshire prisons of that State. He was released April 28, 1865, at 
Andersonville, and sent to Harrisburg by the way of Jacksonville, Florida. 
Returning home, he went to school that winter, attended the Pine Flat academy 
one session and then taught one term in a neighboring school district. His next 
employment was as engineer on a steam saw-mill, which he left in 1870, to 
purchase one hundred acres of woodland in Barr township, that he has cleared out 
and changed into a fine and productive farm.
     On September 29, 1870, Mr. Patterson married Kate Evans, a daughter of 
Richard J. Evans, of Cambria township. To their union have been born four 
children: Harry E., Norman Arthur (dead), Annie M., and Roy B.
     In early life Mr. Patterson united with the Methodist Protestant church, 
but coming to Barr township and finding no church of his profession, he became a 
member of the Congregational church, of whose Sabbath-school he has served as 
superintendent for ten years. He is a member of the Ex-Prisoners of War 
Association of Pennsylvania and vice-commander of Captain John M. Jones Post, 
No. 556, Grand Army of the Republic, of Ebensburg, and but few union soldiers 
have had such a prison experience as Mr. Patterson for length of time and number 
of horrible pens.
     His political career commenced in 1876, when he was appointed as a school 
director, in a district strongly Democratic, and then elected for one term. He 
served as school director for four years, and as assessor for thirteen years, 
and in 1890 was appointed by John H. Jones of Philadelphia, as census enumerator 
of Barr and Blacklick townships. Four years later, he was nominated for the 
legislature by the Republican party, and at the ensuing election was elected. He 
served with efficiency and credit during the session of 1894-95, was a member of 
the committees on congressional apportionment, constitutional reform, labor and 
industry and military affairs, and is now the candidate of his party for re-
election. A staunch republican, and a firm   supporter of his party and its 
measures for the last quarter of a century, Samuel D. Patterson has been an 
influential factor in Republican success during repeated county campaigns. He 
has shown good judgment in dealing with questions of public policy, has always 
been deeply interested in educational and religious matters, and enjoys the 
reputation of being a safe and conservative businessman. Mr. Patterson is a 
pleasant and congenial gentleman, popular with all who know him, and yet never 
lacking in proper dignity when occupying any office of trust or responsibility.