Los Angeles County
Biographies
GEORGE
S. PATTON (II)
George S. Patton (II) is a prominent
representative of the legal profession in Los Angeles, where he has been
successfully engaged in law practice for more than a half century. He was born
in Charleston, Virginia, September 30, 1856, a son of George Smith and Susan
Thornton (Glassell) Patton. His ancestry includes
many distinguished names in American annals. He is directly descended from
Mildred Washington and another ancestor was General Hugh Mercer, who commanded
the Virginia troops under Washington and was killed at the battle of Princeton.
There are numerous towns and counties named after this distinguished
Revolutionary leader. In all generations the Pattons
have displayed an unequivocal patriotism and many of them have shown strong
inclination for military service. That George S. Patton has no military record
is due to his fate in having been born too late for the Civil war and too early
for the World war, in which his son, Colonel G. S. Patton (III), achieved real
distinction. Mr. Patton’s father was a colonel in the Twenty-second Virginia
Infantry during the Civil war and was killed at the battle of Winchester on
September 19, 1864.
George S. Patton (II) was educated
in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia, and afterward
studied law in that city. He came to Los Angeles in 1878, was admitted to the
California bar two years later, and was soon prominent in his profession. He
served as district attorney of Los Angeles county in
1884. Mr. Patton has always been a democrat, a leader in his party, and has
never neglected an opportunity to perform a part of usefulness in his city,
state and nation. He was democratic candidate for congress in 1894, in the
sixth district, and 1916 was democratic candidate for United States senator for
California. He has been a vestryman in the Church of Our Savior, Protestant
Episcopal, at San Gabriel for more than thirty-five years, and his name is also
on the membership roll of the California Club of Los Angeles.
On the 10th of December,
1884, at San Gabriel, Mr. Patton married Miss Ruth Wilson, daughter of Benjamin
D. and Margaret (Hereford) Wilson. Her father was one of the first Americans to
settle in Los Angeles, and for many years exercised great influence in this
city. He became an extensive land owner, and his properties were widely
distributed between the mountains and the sea. He served as the first mayor of
Los Angeles and he built the original trail to Mt. Wilson, which bears his name.
Mr. and Mrs. Patton have a son and a daughter, Colonel George Smith Patton
(III) and Anne Wilson Patton. The son, Colonel Patton, was born at San Gabriel,
California, November 11, 1885, and was graduated from the United States
Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1909. With the rank of second
lieutenant he was appointed to the Eighth Cavalry at Fort Bliss, El Paso, and
in 1916 went as a member of General Pershing’s staff on the Mexican campaign.
He was engaged in a thrilling skirmish at Rubio Ranch, where in command of ten
troopers he ran to earth and killed Colonel Julio Cardenas, one of Villa’s
bodyguard captains who was in command of a body of
bandits. Returning from the Mexican expedition in March, 1917, he was spending
his leave with his wife and family in Boston when the United States entered the
World war. Ordered to Washington, he was placed in command of the Headquarters
Detachment of sixty troopers, organized to accompany General Pershing on (sic)
his staff to Europe, and thus had the good fortune to be with the first United
States troops under arms to land in England. He reached France with the rank of
captain and continued to command the Headquarters Detachment for six months.
When the United States determined to organize a permanent tank corps he was
made major and then lieutenant colonel and put in command of the first training
camp and brigade of tanks at Bourg, near Langres,
France. He spent a short time in England with the British Tank School, and with
the British tanks on the front line near Cambrai, and
also at the French Training School. He trained and commanded the first brigade
of American tanks which engaged in action at the battle of St. Mihiel on September 12, 1918. After that he was appointed
full colonel and commanded the same brigade, consisting of one hundred and
seventy tanks, one hundred manned by Americans and twenty-eight by French, on
the opening of the great battle of the Argonne. He was wounded in the first
day’s fighting, on September 26th. On December 17th,
having recovered from his wound, he was decorated with the Distinguished
Service Cross. The citation for the decoration contains the following reference
to him individually: “Colonel George S. Patton, Jr., Tank Corps, No. 1391, for
extraordinary heroism in action near Cheppy, France,
26 September, 1918. Colonel Patton displayed conspicuous courage, coolness,
energy and intelligence in directing the advance of his brigade down the Valley
of the Aire. Later he rallied a force of discouraged
infantry and led it forward behind the tanks under heavy machine gun and
artillery fire until he was wounded. Unable to advance further Colonel Patton
continued to direct the operations of his unit until all arrangements for
turning over the command were completed.” On June 16, 1919, he was awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal in addition to the Cross. In 1910 he married
Beatrice Banning Ayer, of Boston, daughter of Frederick and Ellen (Banning)
Ayer. Mr. Ayer was president of the American Woolen Company. Mrs. Ayer was a
first cousin of the California pioneer, General Phineas
Banning. They have three children: Beatrice Ayer, Ruth Ellen, and George Patton
IV.
Anne Wilson Patton, daughter of
George S. Patton (II), is prominent in the church and club life of Pasadena and
San Gabriel, exerting a beneficial influence in moral and cultural advancement.
Her name is enrolled with the Colonial Dames.
Transcribed By:
Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 146-148,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.
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BIOGRAPHIES