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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Stephen
H. Patterson Stephen H. Patterson, the owner and occupant of a beautiful rural home adjoining Newton on the east, was born in Newark, NJ, February 7, 1843, and is the second of four children comprising the family of Robert and Sarah F. (Taylor) Patterson. Grandfather Daniel Patterson was a Scotchman by birth and a man of liberal education and an influential member of the Presbyterian Church. While on his way to this country with his family, in mid ocean Robert, his third child, was born. Reaching
the United States, tee family settled in New Jersey. Referring to their history we find that one of the sons,
William, became a prominent quarryman and furnished large quantities of stone
for the Catholic Cathedral at Philadelphia.
He is now an extensive property owner and is living retired in Newark, N
J. Samuel, formerly a successful
businessman, is living retired in Newark; he is an old bachelor. Barbara married
a Mr. Conn, a quarryman of New Jersey, who died more than forty years ago; she
resides in Newark. Robert, the
third child of the family, at the age of fourteen, commenced to learn the trade
of a spring maker, becoming an expert in this business.
He is said to have made the first car springs manufactured in the United
States. For many years he was
foreman in the spring shop located at the corner of Clay and Spring Streets,
Newark. Subsequently he worked for two years in the shops at Pittsburgh, PA,
whence be returned to Newark. October
10, 1839, Robert, Patterson married Miss Sarah F. Taylor, a native of New
Jersey, who was born near Bloomfield. She
was the daughter of Stephen Taylor and a descendant of an old and distinguished
New Jersey family. Her brother,
John Taylor, was among the first who went to California in 1849, and still makes
his home in that state. Another
brother, George, learned the cabinet-maker’s trade in Newark and went to
Georgia, where he followed that occupation. In 1854 he came to Iowa and located
at Newton, where he now lives. Cornelia,
the only sister of Mr. Patterson, died when a young lady. Robert
Patterson continued to work at his trade in Newark from the time he was married
until 1853, when he entered land in Jasper County, Iowa, north of the Skunk
River, on the southwest quarter of section 30, Mariposa Township. In the 8pring
of 1854 he came west as far as Iowa City, accompanied by his wife and their
youngest child, Robert Clinton. The two eldest children, one of whom was our
subject, had been left with their grandparents and uncles in New Jersey.
In the fall of 1854 the family located in Newton, and in the spring of
the following year Mrs. Patterson went east to buy goods with which to open the
millinery store at that place. Returning,
she brought the other two children with he and they spent the two ensuing years
in Newton. They then removed to a
farm in this county, where the father died to the spring of l861, leaving a
large estate. The widowed mother continued to live on the farm for some years
and then located temporarily in Iowa City for the purpose of educating her son
Clinton in the State University. She
died at Iowa City in 1871, aged fifty-six years. Of
six children comprising the parental family two died young, namely: Sarah
Virginia, who died in July 1854, at the age of one year and three months; and
Robert Clinton, who was born in January 1846, and died September 22, 1846. Those
living are sketched as follows: Cornelia B. was born in Newark, NJ, March 19,
1841, and now resides in Brooklyn, NY; Robert Clinton, who was born June 27,
1850, was named for an older son that died before he was born; he was educated
at the Iowa State University, graduating from the law department. He was
admitted to the Bar and is now a resident of Boulder, CO. Forest
Taylor, the youngest of the family, was born in Jasper County December 11, 1858.
He was educated at Newton and in the commercial college at Davenport, and
for several years has been in the employ
of the United States Express Company at Newton. When
the family came west, the subject of this sketch was a child of eleven. He
remained with his uncle, John Patterson in Newark until his mother brought him
to Iowa in February 1855. He grew to manhood upon his father’s farm, receiving
a liberal education in the schools of the district
and in the Iowa City Commercial College, which
he entered in 1864. After visiting his relatives in Newark he returned to Jasper
County, and August 25, 1866, married Miss Hannah Woods, who was born in
Jefferson County, Ohio. The parents
of Mrs. Patterson, William and Elizabeth (Medag) Woods, came to Iowa in 1865 and
settled near what is now Kilduff, IA, Jasper County.
Mr. Woods, who was a native of Ohio, died in this county February 2,
1892, aged sixty-eight years, nine months and ten days.
He was a prominent member of the Methodist Church, a Mason socially, and
in polities a Republican, and during the Civil War served in an Ohio regiment.
His widow also a native of Ohio, still lives on the old homestead. In
a family of eleven children, Mrs. Patterson was next to the eldest. John, a
farmer residing in Jasper County, was twice married, the last time with Sarah
Morgett. He has one son born of his first union. Margaret Rebecca married William A. Moberly and lives at
Dexter, Iowa. Mary Adeline, the wife of Milford Young, is a resident of Warren
County. Henry married Anna Leach
and they live near Kellogg. Alexander
F. married Miss Price Murphy, daughter of John Murphy, for whom the station
Murphy was named. William, who is single, resides with his mother near Kellogg,
as do also James and Grant. Emma, the wife of Melvin Smith, lives in Sioux
County, Iowa. Sarah Matilda, who
became the wife of David Donahey, resides near Kellogg. After
his marriage Mr. Patterson worked for a time hauling railroad ties for the Rock
Island Railroad Company, and it is said that he did more in that line than any
other man in the business for the same length of time. Later he settled in
Mariposa Township, Jasper County, whence he removed to Kellogg Township. In 1872
he located on his mother's farm north of Newton and there remained until 1875,
when he removed to Newton. During his entire active life he has been a great
Christian worker. Reared in the Presbyterian faith, he became greatly interested
in the good work being done by the American Tract Society, and in 1875 he
commenced to distribute tracts for that association.
This he followed in connection with his other business (dealing in
stock). In 1877 he returned to his
farm north of Newton, although even then, when pressed with business cares he
devoted much of his time to Christian work. In
the spring of 1883 Mr. Patterson, with others organized a Sunday school at
Laurel, Marshall County, of which he was chosen Superintendent, serving in that
capacity for three years. In the
spring of 1887 he took charge of the Sunday school work at Van Cleve, Marshall
County, and during the ensuing winter, he aided in the organization of the
Jasper County Sunday school Association, of which he was elected President.
Through his several agencies he distributed something more than two hundred
Bibles and Testaments. May 1, 1888,
he was appointed by the Jasper County Sunday school Association and commissioned
by the American Sunday school Union as a missionary in the Jasper County
Sunday-school work, and since that time his life and energies have been given to
this great work. To show the amount
of labor he has put into the cause and the great good accomplished, we will give
a brief statement of the work, as follows: Schools organized, sixty-seven;
teachers, two hundred and ninety-six; schools, two thousand and thirteen;
Schools reorganized, thirty-seven; teachers, one hundred and forty-four;
scholars, one thousand and thirty-five. Schools visited, one hundred and thirty;
teachers, six hundred and seventy; scholars, six thousand and- forty-eight.
Visits previously reported, one hundred and forty-four; teachers, six hundred
and eighty-three; scholars, four thousand, nine hundred and sixty-five;
addresses delivered, seven hundred and six; conventions held or assisted in
holding, eighty; tracts distributed, thirteen thousand; Superintendent's texts,
twenty-one thousand and three hundred: Bibles and Testaments, twelve hundred and
fourteen; missionary letters written, two thousand and seventy eight; miles
traveled, twenty-one thousand two hundred eighty. Since
1888, Mr. Patterson has devoted his attention exclusively to his chosen work, in
which he has accomplished a great amount of good. He is one of those
hard-working, upright Christians that have done so much to bring light out of
darkness and to show those cast down by sorrow and affliction that "Behind
the clouds the sun is still shining."
Mr. and Mrs. Patterson were the parents of nine children, namely: Sarah
E., who is the wife of Charles
Beshears of South Dakota; Ida
May, who married Ralph Itskin of Kellogg; Nettie C. the wife of John Wells, of
South Dakota; Mary J.; Samuel E, who was drowned, in August 1893; Stephen II,
William B., Lillian H. and Walter
L., who live at home. Mr.
Patterson was formerly an Elder
in the Presbyterian Church, but is now connected with the Congregational Church.
In 1892 he went to his beautiful
home on his extensive farm just
east Newton, where he now resides his sons looking after the farm work, while he
attends to the duties connected with his religious labors.
. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, 1894, p. 175. |
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