07/09/2025
JAMES L. PATTERSON (1824-1905), banker, Burgettstown, is one of the most prominent citizens and successful financiers in the northern part of Washington county. James L. Patterson was born November 12, 1824, on the farm in Smith township where he is yet living (FIRST PICTURE of Smith Township from Caldwellâs Atlas of Washington County, Pa. â 1876). (SECOND PICTURE of farm near Burgettstown). After attending the common schools, he entered the academy at Florence, then took a course at Washington College, graduating therefrom in 1842. He always excelled as a pupil, having read Latin at the age of nine years, and graduated when but seventeen. After leaving college he read medicine at home a short time, and about the age of nineteen years he taught school in Burgettstown one winter. In 1849 he began business in a general store, remaining there three years, thence returning to rural life. On April 20, 1854, he was united in marriage with SARAH A. LINN (1830-1901), daughter of William Linn, of Cumberland Valley, Penn., and she has borne him the following children: Robert and William (both deceased in infancy), Mary (at home), Addie J. (instructor of instrumental music in Richmond College, Jefferson county, Ohio) and Elizabeth K. (of whom special mention is made further on ), J. Fred. (clerking in the Burgettstown National Bank) and Anna (living at home). Miss Elizabeth K. Patterson was in August, 1890, taken by her father to Paris, France, in order to be placed under the far-famed instructor of vocal music, Madame Marchesi, and here she has since remained. Miss Patterson possesses a fine soprano voice, and bids fair to become prominent in her profession. She was three years at Forest Park University, St. Louis, building up the music department, of which she was instructor; and so efficient was she in her duties that the managers of the university, after she had gone to Paris, wanted her back even to the extent of cabling her to return. Mr. Patterson was elected an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Burgettstown in 1862, and still holds that office. The membership of that church is 430 at the present time.
In 1865 Mr. Patterson was appointed the first agent of the P.C. & St. L. R.R. Co. in Burgettstown (THIRD PICTURE), also of the Express company, and opened a store at "the station" as it was then called. In 1867 he left the railroad company, and again began farming. In 1872 he organized the Burgettstown Savings Bank, of which he was secretary and treasurer, and in 1879 (the bank having become the Burgettstown National Bank) (FOURTH PICTURE), was made cashier, which position he has since held. He has been the sole manager of the bank business in Burgettstown, and has been a prime mover in the success of the institution. The bank is in a remarkable state of prosperity, having materially thriven under Mr. Patterson's management. It has a deposit of $300,000, and surplus and undivided profits of $65,000, the capital stock being $80,000.
Our subject inherited a tendency to consumption, and at the age of twenty years was examined by Dr. Lane, of Washington, who decided that he had symptoms of tuberculosis, and that, to preserve his life, he would have to go South. Agreeable to the advice of his physician, he set out in search of health, journeying to Louisiana in 1844. He arrived there in November, and engaged in teaching school in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, returning to his home the following spring. In June, 1845, he fell from a cherry tree, on his father's farm, spraining his left hip joint, from which he has never recovered. Soon thereafter he started with crutch and cane on a Southern trip. He proceeded to the eastern sea-board, and at Wilmington N.C., embarked on a vessel for Charleston; thence sailed to Savannah, and after spending some time on the trip returned to his home, supposing he had not long to live. On June 18, 1892, he fell from a street car in Washington, and again injured his hip, besides having his shoulder injured, from which he suffered for a considerable time. Mr. Patterson has been a victim of dyspepsia all his life, and has not been a day quite free from pain. He is a man five feet nine inches in height, weighing 144 pounds. Has sandy hair, now tinged with gray, and is possessed of a pleasant Roman cast of countenance. He still lives on the farm where he was born, and which he now owns. (They are buried in Fairview Cemetery, Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. - FIFTH AND SIXTH PICTURES.) (His obit is SEVENTH PICTURE.)
