My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM WALLACE PATTERSON was born at Warsaw, Wyoming county, N. Y., on the eleventh day of February, 1831. He is the son of the late William Patterson of Warsaw (who died in 1838 while member of congress from the old Genesee district) and Lucinda Greeg, both natives of New Hampshire. Mr. Patterson was seven years old when his father died — Mrs. Patterson surviving her husband but two weeks — thus leaving him an orphan in early life. He went to reside with his uncle, Judge Peter Patterson, in Perry, Wyoming county, where he remained for five years attending the common school. He then entered the Genesee Wesleyan seminary, at Lima, N. Y. Continuing there about two years, he was invited to become a member of the family of his guardian and uncle, ex-Gov. Geo. W. Patterson, of Westfield, N. Y. He there attended the academy until he was fifteen years old, when he entered the academy at Wyoming, N. Y., where he remained until prepared to enter college. Concluding not to enter college, he was employed by his cousin, Hon. Augustus Frank, of Warsaw, N. Y., in his dry goods store, where he remained for several years. While in the employ of Mr. Frank, the Sixty-first regiment, New York State troops, was organized. Mr. Patterson received the appointment of quarter-master, was afterward promoted to major, and by the resignation of the colonel and lieutenant-colonel became commander in 1855. Having a natural taste for military affairs, he made himself proficient in the different arms of the service, being for nearly five years under the instruction of Major Wright, afterward General Wright, who commanded the 6th corps during the war. He was thus prepared when the war of the rebellion commenced for effective service in the army.

Mr. Patterson moved to Minnesota in the spring of 1856, locating at Minneapolis, then a small village. Having been instructed in practical engineering by Major Wright, he at once saw the grand possibilities of the water-power at that point for manufacturing purposes. He so expressed himself to the people of that city, a large proportion of whom considered him wild and visionary. He engaged in the real estate business, but the financial crisis of 1857 so oppressed all manner of business that very little could be done in that line until after the war. When the war of the rebellion commenced Mr. Patterson assisted in raising the Second Minnesota regiment, but promises made to him not being fulfilled, he enlisted in the Twelfth U. S. infantry, under Capt. H. R. Putnam, although being offered a captaincy in the regular army by Hon. Wm. H. Seward, the old friend of his boyhood. He joined his regiment at Ft. Hamilton, New York harbor, when it was being organized. His knowledge of military matters was soon ascertained, when he was appointed the first and ranking sergeant of the regiment, and was soon promoted to second-lieutenant of Captain Putnam’s company.

The battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded by a piece of shell in the knee and by a saber through the arm, made him a first lieutenant. General R. B. Ayres who commanded the division placed him upon his staff with the rank of captain. Gen. Sykes soon after appointed him commander of all the pioneers of the Fifth corps, with brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. He held this command until Grant’s campaign in the Wilderness commenced, when on the first day’s fight he was so severely injured in the ankle, that he was incapacitated for further military service. He was sent in an ambulance to Brundy station and from there by rail to Washington, when, after a confinement for six weeks, he resigned his command in the regular army and returned to his home in Minneapolis, Minn. For nearly a year he was too unwell for active business, but the next spring he entered the real estate firm of McFarlam, Burd & Co., as a junior partner. He remained there two years, when, his health failing, he withdrew from the firm and retired to his farm in Wright county. The next fall he was nominated for member of the legislature by the republicans of the Fifth district, and the democratic candidate withdrawing from the canvass, and advising the democrats to vote for Mr. Patterson, he was elected. He attended the legislative session of 1868 and 1869, when he returned to Minneapolis and commenced the sale of real estate once more. He compiled and issued thirty-thousand circulars, which were sent all over the Union, advertising the great advantages of Minneapolis as a manufacturing city. These circulars made Minneapolis known. People began coming from the East, and in two years’ time Minneapolis began crowding St. Paul for supremacy. Then the rivalry between these two young giants commenced and the future of both was secured. The ensuing fall, Mr. Patterson’s health became so impaired by overwork, and the result of injuries received in the army, that his physician advised him to seek a milder climate. He moved to Corning, Iowa, and that winter, in the interest of the C. B. & Q. railway, he started the city of Creston, a division station upon that road, selling the lots, not only in Creston but in several other towns. The next year he came to Nebraska in the interest of the same company, laid out Lowell a few miles east of Fort Kearney, and also selecting the site for the present city of Kearney. Observing the vast amount of water running in the Platte river, he ran the levels up the river and determined the fact that here could be built up another Minneapolis. This was the beginning of the great canal and water-power that has since made Kearney so famous as a manufacturing point.

Mr. Patterson married, August 29, 1872, Miss Pattie M. Giddings, of Lincoln, Nebr. They have seven children, four girls and three sons. The girls are Wenona, Lois L., Houri and Mary A. The sons are Wm. A. and Alfred W. twins, and McClellan Custer, the last being named for the Colonel’s two favorite generals. One son, Burd, died in infancy. Mr. Patterson has recently purchased, in connection with Mr. Britton of the Kearney Enterprise, six thousand acres of land in the famous Vermaho Park, in the Maxwell land grant in northern New Mexico, where he proposes to lay out and build up another city, provided his life and health are spared for a few years. He expects to make the city of Vermaho the future home of himself and family.