Alameda County
Biographies
GEORGE W. PATTERSON
Among the men who assisted materially in the development of Alameda county, prominent mention should be made of George W. Patterson, whose death, September 12, 1895, removed from the community a much esteemed citizen and one whose best interests had always lain parallel with those of his adopted state. Born in East Berlin, Adams county, Pa., July 26, 1822, he was a son of Henry and Lydia (Kimmel) Patterson. In early childhood Mr. Patterson accompanied his parents to Greene county, Ohio, where they resided on a farm until the fall of 1832, when they located in Tippecanoe county, Ind. Early in the year 1849, a stock company was organized in Lafayette, Ind., for the purpose of trading in California. This company consisted of about twenty members, of whom Mr. Patterson was one, and each put in $500 toward a common fund. They left Lafayette March 13, 1849, traveling by steamer via New Orleans to Port Lavaca, Tex., and from there with teams and pack-horses overland via San Antonio, Santa Rosa and Durango to Mazatlan. The journey was made under the most trying circumstances, through the midst of cholera, one of their members dying of the disease in the vicinity of Durango. Upon their arrival on the coast they were compelled to wait a week for a vessel on which to complete their journey, sailing on July 13 on the brig Louisa, which touched at their port on its way from Sydney. They were out forty-seven days with scarcely enough water to enable them to live, but on August 29 they reached San Francisco, where they found the supplies which they had ordered from New York City six months earlier. The company then dissolved partnership and divided their goods, and Mr. Patterson, with four others, went to the American river, where he engaged in mining with considerable success. The following summer he went to the Trinity mines, but through bad investments and heavy expenses found himself financially and physically broken down at the end of fifteen months. On January 1, 1851, he came to Alameda county and in the effort to regain his health secured employment on a ranch near Mission San Jose. He afterward engaged in farming on his own responsibility, and eventually began to purchase land in the county until he owned over three thousand acres, the greater part of which is very valuable, being devoted to the cultivation of grain and vegetables. Here in the Santa Clara valley, near the town of Newark, he established his home, setting out groves of trees and devoting twenty acres to a fine deer park which adds greatly to the beauty of the place. The name, Ardenwood, calls up to those acquainted in Alameda county one of the most beautiful homes and ranches in this section of the country. In addition to his general farming interests Mr. Patterson also owned a large stock ranch in the hills near Livermore, where he raised cattle for the market.
July 11, 1877, Mr. Patterson was united in marriage with Clara Hawley, a daughter of James Hawley, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Their two sons, Henry H. and William D., are now conducting the business left by their father. Mr. Patterson was a member of the Society of California Pioneers and also the Society of Pioneers of Washington Township. Politically he was a stanch Republican and active in his efforts to promote the principles he endorsed. He was a self-made man in the best sense implied by the term, and in the winning of the competence which he left to his widow and sons he also won that higher tribute to his manhood—the sincere and earnest regard of all who came to know him. He is numbered among the honored pioneers of the state.
Transcribed
Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 982. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Joyce Rugeroni.
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