Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM GARRISON PATRICK
WILLIAM GARRISON PATRICK.--The representative of fine pioneer ancestors whose advent into California dates back to the gold mining days of ’49, is William Garrison Patrick. In that year an uncle, Thomas S. Wright, came to the “land of promise” and established himself in Butte County upon the ranch where William Garrison was born, on August 9, 1870. His father was also named William Garrison Patrick, a native of Missouri, and his mother was the late Melissa V. Salmon, of whom mention is made on another page of this work.
The youngest of their family of children, William G., was educated in the common schools and grew to manhood on the ranch owned by his mother. He assisted his step-father with the work of the ranch and has known no other home than his birthplace. He and his sister, Mrs. Bee Compton, are now owners of the original Wright Ranch. Ever since taking charge of the ranch work he has raised grain, cattle and hogs and has worked his own way to a place of prominence in farming circles in Butte County, where he is counted among the successful men.
On November 9, 1898, Mr. Patrick was united in marriage with Miss Anna Farrell, born in Ireland, on October 4, 1878, a daughter of James and Nancy (Boyd) Farrell, both natives of the Emerald Isle who came to America with their two children (James Boyd and Anna) in 1880 and settled in Glenn County where lived an uncle, James Boyd, one of the pioneers and prominent ranchers of that county. In 1881 Mrs. Patrick’s mother died in Glenn County and she was reared in the family of her uncle and educated in the public schools of Glenn County. Her father was a Mason and was sixty-eight years of age at the time of his death in 1913.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Patrick settled down on the ranch that has since been their home and of which he is a half owner. Their union was blessed by the birth of four children: Melissa Bee, born April 26, 1901, is a student in the Chico high school; William Garrison, Jr., born March 26, 1904; Anna Marie, born January 21, 1907; and James Carleton, born May 27, 1910, and died August 23, 1913. Mr. Patrick is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood and in politics he supports the candidates of the Democratic party.
Mr. Patrick has in his possession the first clock ever brought to Bidwell’s Bar; a brass kettle brought by Mr. Patrick’s father across the plains is one of his treasures, as is also a cowbell worn by the bell-mare across the plains.
Transcribed
by David Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 832-833, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 David Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies