My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES F. PATTERSON was born at Mt. Sterling, Brown county, Ill., March 17, 1837, and was the son of Kentucky parents, named John D. and Mary Ann (Smith) Patterson. Charles F. Patterson went to Arkansas when seventeen years old and engaged in the manufacture of staves, which he found a ready market for in New Orleans. After a few years’ experience in the great forests of Arkansas, he went to Bonaparte, Iowa, where he was engaged by Isaiah Meek, a leading stockman of Van Buren county, as foreman of his large stock farm. In 1861 he went to California in search of gold, and was there about eighteen months, during which time he was employed in a quartz mill. He then returned to Iowa and accepted his former position as foreman of the Meek stock farm. In 1878 he came to Nebraska and took a homestead in Dawson county, just over the line from Buffalo county, and there built a sod house and prepared to make such improvements as were necessary to render his farm profitable under cultivation. He brought with him from Iowa about 400 head of cattle, which he kept on shares for a few years. The settlement then was sparse, there being no houses between his home and Elm creek, about fifteen miles south.

In 1885 he began selling cattle for O. W. Mead, of Boston, who was a large owner of live-stock ranches in the West. The cattle were shipped to Mr. Patterson, who disposed of them to feeders in Nebraska, he acting as Mead’s agent for eighteen months, during which time he sold many thousand dollars’ worth of cattle. He was the agent, also, of Philip Dater & Co., of Cheyenne, for two years, and was also engaged with Tabor & Skinner, the former being ex-Gov. Tabor, of Colorado. He traveled all over the West, visiting their ranches and gathering up cattle, which he sold to Nebraska feeders. Charles F. Patterson died of heart difficulty, November 12, 1888, after a brief illness of only a few weeks. He was an Odd Fellow, and a gentleman who enjoyed the respect and confidence of his neighbors and fellow-citizens in general. He was married, November 1, 1860, to Miss Lydia C., daughter of Peter and Mary Ann (Lichty) Miller, and born in Westmoreland county, Pa., September 29, 1836. Her parents were born in Somerset, Pa., her father being the first white male child born in that town. They emigrated to Van Buren county, Iowa, in 1854, with a family of twelve children, and there most of them now reside, but Peter Miller died in 1875, having been a life-long member of the German Baptist church. The children of Charles F. and Lydia Patterson are named as follows: John Wesley, Mary Ann, Maggie J., William Richard and Charles M. They have all had splendid opportunities for securing an education, and some are now engaged in teaching. The Patterson homestead consists of 320 acres, well improved, and on which has recently been erected a handsome and substantial brick residence.