Patterson Families--Early Settlers in Union (pt. 1)
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Patterson
Families--Early Settlers in Union (pt. 1)
In seeking surnames of early
Union settlers
registered in the 1834 census, I was a bit amazed that I had not noted
before
the four Patterson households side by side. With number of males listed
first
and number of females second in each of these residences, we find
Joseph
Patterson (8 m, 4 f), Amos Patterson (5 m, 2 f) John Patterson (4 m, 3,
f) and
George (4 m, 3 f), making the Patterson population 33 in Union in 1834.
By 1840, Patterson households
registered were ten with population with that name 55.
These families were William (3 m, 2 f), Amos
(3 m, 4 f), George (6 m, 2 f), John (1 m, 1 f), Samuel (3 m, 3 f),
Lewis (1 m,
2 f), Joseph (5 m, 4 f), John (2 m, 2 f), John (6 m, 2 f), and Baily (1
m, 2
f). These numbers gave 55 with Patterson
surnames. The fact that heads of four
households were named John posed a definite challenge to identification.
The 1850 census, the first to give
names as well as ages of those within a household, and the states where
born,
can still be confusing about the Patterson clan in Union. To save space, I will just list heads of the
11
Patterson households, the spouse, if married, and the number of male
and female
children: William (37) and Elizabeth
(32) [NC] and 10 children, 6 m, 3 f and an infant—gender unspecified; John (35) and Sarah (29) [NC] and
5 children, 3 f, 2 m; Samuel, 44
[NC} and Jane, 43 [TN], 9
children, 6 m, 3 f; Joseph, 61 and Agnes, 55 [SC] and 6 children, 1 m,
5 f,
with an 84 year old Sary Durham [VA] in the household, as well as
Joseph’s
sister (?) Ann, age 47 [NC]; Amos, 26 [GA] and Jane, 24, [NC] and 3
children, 1
m, 2 f; John, 28 [NC] and Marian, 24 [SC]; no children;
John, 52 [NC] and Sarah, 47 [SC] own 1 slave,
the have 5 children, 4 m, 1 f, and living in their household, Margaret
Patterson, age 83 [SC], and also Lucinda
Hix, 45 [SC]; William, 23 and Margaret, 22 [both born in GA] and 2
children, 1
m, 1 f; George, 50 [NC] (no spouse
listed; she had possibly died by 1850), 5 children, 4 m, 1 f; and
James, 34
[NC] and Esther, 26 [NC] and 4 children, 2 m, 2 f.
A tally of these Patterson residents in 1850
shows that they and those living with them somehow related, no doubt,
numbered
76 people, plus the one slave held by John and Sarah.
How did the Patterson name
originate? We find that it is a
patronymic—named for the father long ago, as is almost any surname with
the
suffix son. Some who have
studied the history of
names say it harks back to Peter (spelled in the Latin, Pater); others
say it
stems from followers of St. Patrick. It
is Scots-Irish-English in origin. A
William Patterson founded the bank of England in 1694. He was a farmer’s son from Dumfriesshire who
did well. It was through him that the
“Darien Scheme” in Panama
was begun, an economic development that collapsed in 1700.
I owe much to the research and
writings of Wesley Patterson (b. 1968) who has done extensive research
and
posted an online blog about the Pattersons in his line, who go back to
the
early settlers in Union—and much beyond that.
It is from his research that I learned the four Patterson men
listed in Union
County’s
1834 census were brothers from North Carolina who came into the
county when land became
available from some of the first Cherokee Removal.
Wesley Patterson believes that the father and
mother of the four brothers were also in Union County
in 1834, then living in the household of Amos, their youngest child and
the
first to settle in Union
County. The father and mother were John Patterson
(born about 1765, died in Union
County before
1850) and
his wife, Margaret (oftentimes called “Peggy”) Black Patterson (b.
about 1767,
died between 1850-1860). Wes Patterson
believes that the elder John Patterson and his wife Margaret were
buried in
unmarked graves in the Bethlehem
Baptist Church Cemetery,
Union County,
where some of their children and other descendants were buried. John and Margaret were married in the
Pendleton District of South Carolina about 1788 (no marriage record
found). They had at least ten children,
maybe eleven. In his extensive research,
Wes Patterson has traced his fifth great grandparents’ children and has
them
listed as follows:
(1) A son (?) born in Lancaster County, SC
before 1789
(2) Joseph Black Patterson
(1789, SC – 1860, GA)
(3) Margaret “Peggy”
Patterson (b. about 1790, SC)
(4) Isabella Patterson (b.
about 1792-95, SC. died in Ga, 1869;
married a Price (?)
(5) Amey Jane Patterson
(1793-SC – 1889, GA) married William
D. Kincaid
(6) Robert Patterson (1796,
SC – 1860/70, TX)
(7) John Patterson (1798, NC
– 1854, GA)
(8) George Patterson (1800,
NC – before Nov. 1866, GA)
(9) Ann Patterson (1802, NC –
after 1870, GA) – never married
(10)
Amos Patterson (1803/04, NC – 1861/70, TX).
Wesley Patterson believes, after
having studied land transactions in the Ivy Log section of Union County
for the early days of the county that Amos Patterson, the youngest
child, was
the first to purchase land in the about-to-be Union County,
and then some of his brothers and sisters, along with their parents,
moved to Union. It
was a rather
tightly-knit community where the Pattersons settled—Amos leading the
way, with
his brothers Joseph, John and George following shortly.
Also in the 1834 census was William D.
Kincaid who had married the Patterson brothers’ sister, Amey Jane. Later this couple became citizens of Fannin County
when their land lots were absorbed into the new county Fannin
in 1854. If, as Wes Patterson believes,
Isabella Patterson married a Price, she purchased land as Isabella
Price on April 8,
1837, Land Lot 290,
District 9, in Lower Young Cane. Her
household was listed in the 1840 census as living next door to the
elder of the
John Pattersons (who was her father?).
Many questions still remain about
early settlers with the surname Patterson.
But one thing we can say with certainty:
Many remained, for that name is still quite prevalent in the
mountain
counties of North Georgia. And from Wes Patterson I learned that the
combined Patterson-Turner Family Reunion is an event of the 3rd
Sunday in October each year at Oak Grove
Baptist Church on the Loving Road
(That
will be October 17 this year). The church building is located right on
the
Union County/Fannin County line in the section where so many of the
early
Patterson ancestors settled. Descendants
of John and Margaret Black Patterson, and of Bailus E. Turner are
especially
invited to attend. The service begins at
10:30 a. m., with
“dinner
on the grounds” at noon,
and visitation and “reunionizing” in the afternoon.
c2010 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Oct.
7, 2010
in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated October 30, 2010
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