My Genealogy Hound

HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON PATTERSON, speaker of the House, lieutenant-governor and congressman, was born at Londonderry, New Hampshire, November 11, 1799, and died at his home in Westfield, October 15, 1879. He was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Wallace) Patterson, and the grandson of Peter and Grisel (Wilson) Patterson, of Londonderry, N. H. Peter Patterson, in 1737, emigrated from Bush Mills, county Antrim, Ireland, to Londonderry, N. H., and was the great-grandson of John Patterson, who came from Argyleshire, Scotland, in about 1612, with a colony of Scotch emigrants. He and his family were at the siege of Derry where one of his sons died from starvation. The homestead, at Bush Mills, of John Patterson, passed from father to son for six generations. Many of his descendants of the third and fourth generations came to America with the Scotch-Irish emigrations. Gov. Patterson’s paternal ancestors were farmers, linen-weavers and dealers, holding prominent local positions. They were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, strong in body and mind and able to defend themselves in their opinions. Gov. Patterson was a ready speaker and writer, with a wonderful memory of facts and dates, full of anecdotes, ever cheerful, hoping and looking for the right to succeed. He was of commanding presence, a fine parliamentarian, a particularly good presiding officer, which position he held two years as speaker of the Assembly and two years as president of the Senate of New York. As a speaker at political campaign meetings, his services were always in demand. Among the legislative measures originated by him was the free banking law of New York, the original bill of which he drew, and which afterward became a law. The main provisions of the free banking laws of the United States, giving the people a secured currency under governmental supervision, were taken from the New York law. He closed his congressional term in his eightieth year, the year of his death. In politics he was a whig and a republican. In business he was successful. Thurlow Weed, his political and personal friend for over half a century, the eminent journalist and politician of New York, in an article in the New York Tribune, writes: “All the elements and qualities, which elevate and adorn human life were harmoniously blended in the character of George W. Patterson. His life was not only entirely blameless, but eminently useful. To those who knew him as I did no form of eulogium will be deemed inappropriate. As a citizen, as the head of a family, and as a public servant, he was a model man. In the discharge of legislative duties, he was conscientious and patriotic. He was always in his seat, and no bad, defective, equivocal, or suspicious bill ever evaded or escaped his vigilant and watchful eye. He had troops of friends, and, so far as I know or believe, was without an enemy. In private life he was exceptionally faultless. Without making a proclamation of temperance, he was always a cold water drinker.”

He married Hannah W., a daughter of John Dickey, merchant of West Parish, Londonderry. The last of his school education was received at the Pinkerton academy, Derry, N. H., and the first printed catalogue of this institution, shows his own and (then) future wife’s name. He was a school teacher at Pelham, New Hampshire, in 1817, but in the following year, he engaged in the manufacture of fanning mills. In this business he was largely interested for twenty-six years, in the town of Leicester, Livingston county, N. Y. Here he resided until 1841, when he removed to Westfield, to accept the agency of the Chautauqua Land Office, as successor of Gov. Seward. When the lands became reduced by sales, Mr. Patterson bought the residue of lands and securities of the Holland Company, and continued the sales at the Westfield office until his death, when the title to the unsold lands passed to his only son, George W. Patterson. Gov. Patterson commenced holding public office soon after his residence began at Leicester, in 1824, and from that time until his death, it was the exception that he was not in public service. At no time did he ever ask for an appointment, or nomination, but they came unsolicited. When justices of the peace became elective, he was chosen to that office, which he retained by successive elections until he removed to Westfield. He was commissioner of highways, school commissioner, justice of the peace, brigade paymaster and supervisor of Leicester; a member of the Assembly of New York for eight years, the last 1839 and 1840, he was twice speaker of the House. After his removal, in 1841, to Westfield, he was appointed basin commissioner at Albany, by Gov. Seward, harbor commissioner at New York, by Gov. Clark, and quarantine commissioner for the port of New York by Gov. Morgan; was a delegate to the National convention that nominated John C. Fremont for president, and to the National Republican convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln; was supervisor of Westfield for three years, president of Westfield academy and president of the board of education of Westfield for many years; represented the county of Chautauqua in the State Constitutional convention of 1846; was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of New York in 1848, and in 1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Republican. He was a director in the Buffalo and State Line Railroad from its organization, in June, 1849, till its consolidation in May, 1867, and was from that date until June, 1868, a director in the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, now a part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern.