It is my hope that the descendants of George W. and Ellen (Herbert) Patten will enjoy reading about their family history, and add to it. This is a compilation of information on the genealogy of the George W. and Ellen (Herbert) Patten family of South Dakota. Some of the information can be considered clues as to the history of this family, other information are confirmed facts.
The name Patten is derived from the root Pat, according to the Media Research Bureau of Washington, DC of 1936. Pat is considered a nickname for the given name Patrick, and is combined with a diminutive ending as in on or en. Therefore Patten means "young or little Patrick". Many early records exist of individuals named Patten or Patton or Pattan, to name just a few of the variable spellings. As early as 1119 one Richard Patten was living at the "Patten House" in Chelmsford, Essex County, England. Perhaps our ancient ancestors come from this family, but to date nothing is available to confirm this possibility.
The Scottish name Patten is associated with the McLean Clan in Scotland and America. The tartan is the McLean tartan, as Patten is a sept of this clan.
We do know our Patten emigrant arrived from Ireland, into North America, about 1847 and lived in Canada, his name George W. Patten. He came with his father, and was a boy of only 10 or 11 years old, he was the third of eight children born to his parents, William Patton and Esther Robb Patton. George changed the spelling of his name to Patten when he entered the United States. One of George’s children anonymously wrote a history of the family years ago containing this and other information. I will include the old anonymous history in the attachments.
Here are the reported names of his parents, grandparents and his siblings:
George W.’s grandfather is reportedly William Patton, he was born about 1770 and in living in Scotland when his son William is born, and George’s grandmother is Sarah MacKenzie she was born about 1780. MacKenzie is a very important clan name in Scotland. MacKenzie becomes one of our clans by virtue of Sarah.
George W. Patten’s father is definetly William Patton, he is born about 1800 in Scotland, he goes with his parents to Ireland and in 1847 emigrates to work and farm in Bluevale or London, Ontario. This William had lived for a time in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, the old genealogy says that he and his family moved to Ireland in 1837, this date needs to be confirmed. If it is true that means that George W. was born in Scotland, moved to Ireland when he was 1, moved to Canada when he was 10 and moved to the United States before his marriage in 1870.
Perhaps the family left Scotland due to religious persecution since they were Presbyterians, and this was very much of a problem at this time. William Patton, the father of our George W. died in Ontario, Canada. His wife, Esther Robb she was born in 1808. There is a large Robb family buried in Glasgow, Scotland and she died on October 30, 1901 in Clarke, Durham Co., Ontario Canada. Esther Patton is buried at the Orono Cemetery, in Clarke, Ontario, Canada.
Here is a list of William and Esther (Robb) Patten’s children.
Our George W. is their third child:
John Patton b: October 02, 1832
Robert Patton b: May 11, 1834
George W. Patten b: September 20, 1836
William Patton b: September 15, 1839
Samuel Patton b: December 02, 1841
David Patton b: July 07, 1844
Sarah June Patton b: October 31, 1846
Thomas Patton b: Aft 1847
It is said that Louise Patten of Richmond Hill, Ontario is a
cousin. The following pages and descendant chart include a list of
descendants of George W. and Ellen (Herbert) Patten. We know a little
about the life of George and Ellen.
George must of come to the United States to start a new life, sometime
before his marriage in 1870, he farmed his entire life. In December
1877 they are living in Danville, Illinois when their son George C. is
born.
In June of 1880, according to the Federal Census the family is living
in Champaign, Illinois and he tells the census taker he is a farmer and
his wife is a housekeeper. In the household are Ellen and their first
children including: William, age 7, John, age 5, George, age 3, and
Daisey, who was born one month before being enumerated on this census.
Sometime between this census, in June of 1880 and April of
1881 the
Patten’s migrate to Iowa for a few years, and again farm, perhaps they
lived in a sod house, as was possible at that time in Iowa. In 1881
they are living in Templeton, Iowa. Their little baby Daisey dies ~ not
making it to her first birthday and she is buried in Carol, Iowa in
April of 1881. We can certainly understand what must of been heartsick
feelings of their young grieving family, because altho frontier deaths
were commonplace, each was dear to that individual family. Next George
and Ellen pack up their family once again and move into the Dakota
Territory about 1884, probably at least partially by buggy or horse
wagon, as the locomotive was serving limited locations only, this
migration information was obtained from Ellen’s obituary.
According to the history book entitled, "100 Years if Mansfield, South
Dakota" we find this information about George W. Patten, "George Patten
was born in Ireland of Scottish parents. He came from there to Canada
with his parents and six other children. George later came to America
and was naturalized. He was married to Ellen Herbert and they came in
1888 to Northville Township to farm.
The Patten name is listed on an old map on the NE ¼ of 18-120-64. There apparently also was a Patten home on the SW ¼ of 7-120-64, perhaps an earlier home. (Found on an old map dated 1888.) The Patten Children were George C. (Clint), Will, Bertha (Holmes), Frank, Albert, Clark, Rose (Smeby), Edward, Harry and John. George and his sons, Frank and Clint, were all on the Mansfield mail route at one time. George’s son Will, ran a mercantile store in Mansfield about 1905 to 1910."
We can assume with a properous farm, a large family and a son who is a merchant that times were good for the Patten’s in South Dakota. I also have some pictures of a farm marked, "Patten’s in Mansfield." I have a photo of Will’s mercantile taken in 1909 with my grandmother Edith Patten sitting on the counter, she was a little girl. Will and his wife are also in this wide angle type photograph. By 1910, George’s eldest son William T. moves onto LaGrande, Oregon, with his wife Minnie Wentworth and their two children Edith and Glenn Patten. By 1929 Will Patten takes his family to Sacramento, California and begins a carpentry and painting contracting business, with son Glenn. His brother John Patten also moves to Sacramento, Minnie keeps in touch with Will’s faraway family through cards and letters, through the years. I knew Will Patten as a child, he was my great, great grandfather and lived in Sacramento where I lived as a child. Will was kind and gentle and he could build anything. He made lovely hardwood furniture for my childhood play times including child sized cabinets, a stove, and sink. They were painted baby blue and I played house with them for years.
Will Patten’s wife Minnie was a doll restorer, and when I was little she would let me into her elaborate glass case filled ‘doll room’ where I could pick out any doll I wanted ! I have her photo album which chronicles their life, its a wonderful keepsake. When I visited my cousin Gary Patten in Shingle Springs, California he gave me one of the dolls from his collection, which Minnie had restored in the 1950’s. I treasure my doll that Minnie restored. Gary’s kind wife, Candy helped me with finding photos and family history and shared them with me for this rememberance.
Edith Patten, Will’s daughter, had married Charley O’Neall
in
LaGrande, Oregon on July 3, 1922 and had 4 children, including my
father William O’Neall. This marriage fails and eventually she marries
Frank Baker, and they live in Sacramento. For years Will and Minnie
raise Edith’s four children as she works in various offices, when
Edith’s young son Charley dies, the whole family is shaken. When Frank
becomes a Judge in the 1960’s, Edith is proud and gains the prominence
she and her Mother had always enthusiatically sought.
Regarding
the ancestry of Ellen Herbert Patten, we learn from an Illinois census
from 1870 that Ellen L. at age 18 is with parents Hannah, age 43, and
Richard Herbert, age 44, who is a farmer. Her siblings include Amelia,
age 16, John, age 10, George, age 8 and 3 year old Alice. One 13 year
old is listed and no name is given. Ellen marries George in Vermillion
County, Illinois when she is 19, in a town called Danville, it is
November 16, 1870. For about 10 years George and Ellen stay in
Illinois, their first children are born there, and then they move out
west to the frontier to farm and live out their lives as they watch
their children and grandchildren grow, first to Iowa and then into the
Dakota’s.
On the farm in South Dakota, in 1903 the Patten children go off to school in the Gair School Dist. No. 4, School Number 5, their teacher is Matie Stephens and the pupils in the class are: Bertha Patten, Francis Patten, Harry Patten, Eddie Patten, Albert Patten, and Clark Patten. I picture them tredging thru the fresh snow on cold winter mornings. Also at the school are children with surnames: Perry, Berndt, Clarke, and Larson.
In 1912 George C. Patten, son of George and Ellen Patten, marries his sweetheart May Yates. Their farm was located in northern Spink County, May died just 20 years after their marriage and in 1948 George C. retired from the farming life and moved to Aberdeen, according to his obituary. He was a member of the Catholic Church. May and George had several children, who are listed on the descendants chart, which follows in the attachments. When he died in 1956, he was survived by one sister and seven brothers.
In the 1920’s Bertha Ester Patten married William Wallace Williams and they enjoyed dressing is Scottish Highland kilts and regalia, both being of Scottish descent. Their son Norman was very helpful to me in compiling this family history and I am very grateful to him. The descendant charts which follow include all the other pertinent information about the children of George and Ellen.
On March 13, 1927 from Mansfield, South Dakota, Ellen Louise Herbert Patten wrote a letter to her grandaughters, Margaret and Ruthie, who were the daughters of her son David Francis Patten. This uneditied letter says:
"My dear little granddaughters Marget and Ruthie I promised to write to you but have neglected to do it I am a lone in the house this lovely after noon the folks is gone to Mansfield to the ______ ______ your school will you make your first grade this year do you like to go to school what is your teacher name do you like your teacher be a good girl and learn to wright grandma a nice letter.
Norman Williams wrote grandma a nice big fat letter and he didn’t get a anser as soon as he thought he ought he would go to the mail box every day for a letter from grandma he get discoraged and cried so hard like his lettle harte was broke to his mother (Bertha Ester Holmes Williams) (h) ad quite a time telling him grandma would have to have a little time to wright the _____ he got a letter from grandma then he was happy and the other day I got a nother big letter from him so I will apto ancer it wright a way. I like to get letters from my dear lettle grand children Harly wright to me Dortha wright to me Hareld wright to me Norman and Virginia wright to me. how is your little chickens are they growing it wont be long till you will have lots more little chicks. Are you getting lots of eggs _____ are you getting ducks eggs and geese eggs. Do you like to look for the nice big geese eggs they are a big hand full aint thay.
My little bird is siting on a chair beside me singing like a meadowlark dont you wish you had a prety bird you better come up this somer and see if you can catch a cuple of those prety cnarie birds that is heare in the trees in the sumer they _____ are prety I would like to get them my self if I could find there nest they are so prety and yelow. How is sister opel and mother and father and grandfran? I think I ad better quit for you will get tired reading grandma letter would like to read a nice letter from my dear graddaughters Marget & Ruthie, from grandma P by by XXXX."
This charming letter written by Ellen Patten when she was 75 years old, full of love for her family and her farm life, I can just hear the yellow canaries in her trees around her farmhouse. She wrote in the style of the day, phonetically, some portions of the copy I have are unreadable hence the ? or _____. Anything in ( ) are my notes, I have attempted to transcribe this letter exactly and include a copy of the original letter in the attachments. Letters and journals are some of the most important family history we can find, if any other letters exist from Ellen I would certainly appreciate a copy to add to the collection.
On November 25, 1931 the newspaper serving Mansfield, South Dakota read, "Grandma Patten Dies Friday at Mansfield". She died at her daughter Alice Smeby’s home after having poor health for years. Her obituary is included here along with her favorite poem which the newspaper published alongside her obituary. She had 25 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren at the time of her death in 1931. As a girl she selected the Methodist church and remained an active member, she was also a member of the United Church of America Fellowship. It was written, "she was so patient and so careful of the needs of others, so anxious to avoid unnecessary trouble to any one. She lived a life of love and service to others and her children will greatly miss her."
I have been in contact with several of my Patten cousins over the course of compiling this genealogy. Clarence Patten of Webster City, Iowa has been especially helpful in this project. Norman Williams of Arizona passed away while he and I were corresponding, I have a number of letters from him, and I was very saddened by the loss of my cousin Norman, who I had just ‘found’. He sent me a video of Mansfield, South Dakota and lots of Patten family members, for which I am grateful. He was planning to send me more photographs, but then he died.
Eileen Patten, Harley’s wife helped me with her husband’s line of the family and wrote me several kind and useful family history letters with snapshots, I wish I would of been able to talk with Harley but he also has passed on to the great beyond. Shirley Knie helped me with family names and information too. Thanks to all who generously gave me their time and information. I attempted to reach Irene Russell and Margaret Snyder both without luck, leaving a number of messages for Margaret. It is the sharing of family history that is so important and it is my wish to continue gathering the information on the Patten family, so that it may be savoured and recorded for the generations to come. If anyone is not recorded on the descendants chart it is because I did not have their information. It is my goal to record all the descendants of George W. and Ellen Patten.
Feel free to copy this family history, keeping it intact, with the descendants chart and attachments, for any interested family members, make corrections in your copy and then send me separately the additions, corrections. Please don’t send me back your copy. Most importantly send any additional descendants names and dates, facts, stories, memories, migrations, photos, maps, certificates of birth, death or marriage or ANY type of material, that places our family members in a place and time, this is in essence what genealogy means, a collection of our family’s history. It has been a privlege to locate and correspond with my Patten cousins, and my hope is that they enjoy this read.
JC