Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 87

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MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

Miss., and the daughter of James Richey and Eliza Nichol, natives of Ireland. To Dr. and Mrs. Passmore have been born in Mississippi two children: Ellis L. Passmore, who married on January 15, 1890, Miss Ella Russell; and Leila G. Passmore, who was married January 4, 1884, to W. B. Cordts and has two sons: Leroy Passmore Cordts and Walter Richey Cordts.

P. W. Patterson was born in Franklin county, Ala., November 2, 1845. He was the third child in a family of ten children of W. C. and Sarah (Scoggins) Patterson, both of whom were natives of Ohio, and removed with their parents when small children to Alabama. Mr. Patterson's paternal grandfather was one of the pioneers of Alabama, and his parents grew up and were married in Franklin county of that state, and removed to Tishomingo county in 1867, locating near Bay Springs, where his father bought land and engaged in planting, which, although he is a minister of the Missionary Baptist church, and does con- siderable evangelical work in Tishomingo and adjoining counties, he has made his principal occupation through life. Mr. Patterson's mother died in 1881 at her home near Bay Springs, having been long a member of the Baptist church, and lived an exemplary Christian life. Rev. Mr. Patterson has never aspired to any official position, but has always been content to live the simple life of a tiller of the soil, and devote his talents and energies to the salva- tion of souls. Of the ten children of Mr. and Mrs. Patterson, seven are now living, and three of them are residents of Iuka. The Patterson family is well known throughout the county, and its representatives are regarded as good citizens, and are held in high respect by the public at large. Our subject began planting on his own account near Bay Springs at the age of twenty-one. In 1863 he enlisted in company E, of the Fifth Alabama cavalry, under Colonel Warren, and in General Forrest's command. He was in the engagement at Sulphur Trestle, Athens, Decatur, Selma, Dixie and Harrisburg, and in numerous others of more or less importance, serving until the close of the war, without being wounded or taken prisoner. He was paroled at Danville, Ala., May 19, 1865, and he returned to Marion county of that state. In 1867 he removed to Mississippi, where he has since made his home. In 1869 he married Miss Mary Ann Shackelford, daughter of Capt. W. A. H. Shackelford, of Tishomingo county. Down to the year 1888 Mr. Patterson planted with considerable suc- cess, in the meantime holding the office of magistrate for two years. In that year he was elected chancery clerk of Tishomingo county, and he is the present incumbent of that office. He has devoted himself closely to its duties, and is regarded as one of the most obliging and efficient officials in the county. He is the owner of half a block and consider- able residence property in Iuka, and of four acres of land in the suburbs of that town. He takes a great interest in the progress of Iuka, and has always contributed his full share toward the advancement of its general interests. He and his wife are honored members of the best social circles, and Mrs. Patterson is a communicant of the Primitive Baptist church.

James V. Patton is one of the prominent and successful business men of Senatobia and may well feel proud of his career as a self-made man. Born April 2, 1850, in that part of Tate county which was then De Soto county, he was well educated in Mississippi and Ten- nessee and in 1874 began life as a teacher. Preferring the more active career to be found in a mercantile life, he became salesman and bookkeeper for Echols & Echols, with whom he remained five years, beginning with a small salary, which was gradually increased according to the value of his services. At the end of that time he was offered a better position with Gabbert & Co., and with this firm he remained until 1886, when he entered upon an independent business for himself under the firm name of J. V. Patton & Co. At the close of the first year J. F. Carlock became partner and the firm has since been Carlock &

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Patton. They do an extensive business amounting to $35,000 annually, carrying a complete line of general merchandise. Mr. Patton has a pleasant home in Senatobia, which is enliv- ened by the presence of his wife and six bright children. In 1877 he married Miss Mary L. McFadden, who was also a native of Mississippi. Her parents, William D. and Eliza A. (Neely) McFadden were South Carolinians. The six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Patton are, Anna L., William L., Agnes E., James V., Mary W. and a little son who is yet unnamed. The parents of Mr. Patton, William E. and Agnes A. (Carr) Patton, born Novem- ber 27, 1817, and May 30, 1821, respectively, were both natives of South Carolina, James V. being the sixth of their ten children. William E. Patton removed to Tennessee at an early age and was educated in that state, being there married in 1840 to Miss Carr, a daughter of William and Esther (Boyd) Carr, who were from the Palmetto state. In 1848 Mississippi became his home, since which time he has led the quiet life of a planter on his fine estate of four hundred acres in Tate county. All but one of his children lived to bless his old age. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church, in which both he and his son, James V., are elders. The latter is a wideawake and enterprising man, and has always taken great interest in public affairs, being complimented by his fellow-citizens by election to office, having been secretary and treasurer of Senatobia four years and a member of its city council. Secret societies claim some of his attention, he being a member of the Knights of Honor and Knights and Ladies of Honor. He enjoys the confidence of his neighbors as a safe business man who has won his present high position by honorable methods as a Christian gentleman.

J. W. Patton is one of the prominent planters of Itawamba county, Miss. He was born in this state July 15, 1843. He is the son of G. W. and Catherine (Reed) Patton. He was reared to farm life, and received a practical education in the common schools of his neighbor- hood. In 1872 he married Miss Susan C. Martin, a native of Alabama, and a daughter of R. Martin and Teressa (Robinson) Martin, both natives of that state, and members of two of its most prominent families. To Mr. and Mrs. Patton have been born nine children, of whom the six here named are living: Charles M., Ellac, James L., John L., Levona and Edgar. In 1861 Mr. Patton enlisted in Capt. B. Tucker's company H, of the Twenty-eighth Missis- sippi cavalry, formed at Aberdeen. The principal engagements in which he participated were those at the siege of Vicksburg, the affairs at Carson's Landing and at Thompson's sta- tion. At Carter's Mills, Tenn., he was captured by the Federals and carried to City Point, Va., as a prisoner. After his exchange he was sent to the hospital at Chattanooga, where he remained for four months. At the expiration of that time he again entered active service and was sent to Clinton, Miss., and took part in the battle of Harrisburg. He was paroled in 1865, and, returning home to his native county, engaged in farming. The war left him in an impoverished condition, and he may be said to have practically began life at its close. He is now the owner of about eleven hundred acres of land, which he has acquired by his own unaided efforts, and ranks among the leading planters of this county. Politically he is a democrat, and his interest in the state and national affairs of importance is exceeded only by his interest in his county and town affairs. He is a Master Mason and a good citi- zen, stands high in the public estimation, being liberal in his contribution to churches, schools and all other objects having a view to the general advancement and development of his county and state.

William Hinkle Patton is a prominent merchant of Shubuta, Clarke county, Miss. He was born September 7, 1847, near Jacinto, in old Tishomingo county, the eldest son of a family of five children born to James J. and Sarah A. (Hinkle) Patton, three of whom are yet living. His father was born in Tennessee August 23, 1822, and gave his life for the Con-

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federate cause in 1862, dying at his home in Clarke county of typhoid pneumonia contracted in camp at Columbus, Miss. He was a member of company E, of the Thirty-seventh Missis- sippi regiment, ranking as orderly sergeant. Mr. and Mrs. Patton were married in Chicka- saw county. Their children were: William H .; Mary J. G., now Mrs. Martin, and living at Rome, Ga .; James L., of Micanopy, Fla .; Margaret D., who died at Mobile, Ala., when sixteen years of age; Luellah R., who died at the age of six in Shubuta, Clarke county. The mother of our subject was born in the northern part of the state in 1826. She was a daughter of Jacob Hinkle, and died at Shubuta in 1870. The family settled in Clarke county in 1859, and Mr. Patton engaged in planting. He was an enterprising man who exhibited much public spirit. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, but there being no Presbyterian church near them after their settlement here, they connected themselves with the Methodist church. Previous to the war he had been an old- line whig, was opposed to secession, but after the die was cast he joined his fortunes with his fellow-citizens for better or for worse. At the death of our subject's father the burden of the family's support, and the education of his brother and sisters fell principally on his shoulders, which interfered materially with his obtaining an education. Such schooling as he had, however, he received in the country schools of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, except one session at Mansfield, La., near where his family were living at the time. From 1850 to 1856 they lived in Texas, moving thence to De Soto parish, La., where they lived until 1859, when they returned to this state. Mr. Patton's early life was spent on a farm, and when he was but fourteen years old he was orphaned by the loss of his father. Not being very strong he came to Shubuta and found employment suited to his strength, as a clerk in the postoffice and drug store for Dr. D. M. Dunlap. There he remained for two years. Mrs. Dunlap was exceedingly kind to him, and her advice and counsel were heeded by him. Mr. M. P. Collins, who was station agent at Shubuta at that time, was very ready to render him any assistance in his power or to advise him on perplexing questions. In 1863 he learned telegraphy, and for a year before the close of the war he had charge of the office at Shubuta, where he could be with the family. He remained there while the line was in the hands of the Federal government and some three months afterward, when he resigned. His name appears in the history of the military telegraph during the Civil war in the United States, by William R. Plum, LL. B. At the close of the war the Adams Express company established its lines in the South, and, through the influence of his friends, he was made agent at Shubuta while only seventeen years of age without bond, which position he held six years, when, owing to the ill health of his wife, he resigned. At the close of the war he took what was left after supporting his mother's family from his salary as telegraph operator and express agent and engaged in asmall mercantile business, but in about a year his store was destroyed by fire with no insurance, entailing upon him an almost total loss. Later, in con- nection with his office as express agent, he kept hooks and clerked in a store. In 1870 he married Miss Drucilla, daughter of Rev. T. B. and A. C. Heslep, of Shubuta, and formed a copartnership with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Heslep & Patton. Two years later Mr. Heslep died and Mr. Patton continued the business in his own name, in which he has engaged successfully till the present time. Mrs. Patton was an artist of exquisite finish, a favorite pupil of the celebrated Miss Julia A. Spear, of Judson institute, Marion, . Ala., where she graduated. She was also a devoted Christian, and died in March, 1872, leaving one child, Thomas H., who is now living at Shubuta. In 1873 Mr. Patton married Miss Kate Heslep, a sister of his first wife, who died in February, 1883, at Micanopy, Fla., where she had gone in the hope of regaining her health, leaving three children: Early N., Annie

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L. and Willie J. She was a fine musician, having taken a special course in music at the Judson institute, after her literary graduation. She was an earnest devotee to all church work and zealous in dispensing deserved charity.

Mr. Patton was married the third time, December 26, 1883, to Mrs. Regina C. Joiner, formerly Miss Spann. She was educated at Columbus, Miss .; was the mother of three sons by her first marriage: Charles S., a merchant of Pheba, Miss .; Samuel W., of Shubuta, and Robert E., who died in 1889, at Shubuta. She is a very active worker in all church work, and a leader in all the missionary and aid societies connected with the church. Since the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Mississippi, she has been president of the local union, and state superintendent of temperance literature. Mr. Patton has been successful as a business man, and now does a trade of about $60,000 annually, carry- ing a very large stock, and he is very popular with the planters around about. He owns an orange grove in Marion county, Fla., and several hundred acres of land in this county, besides a fine water-power sawmill, cottongin and gristmill. He is interested in all things that pertain to the advancement of the community, and has been a member of the city council of Shubuta since 1876, except during one term of two years, and then he was not a candidate. He has also served as treasurer of the corporation. About 1875 he joined a temperance organization, known as the Murphy's, and since that time he has been an active worker in the temperance cause. Whenever a petition was before the city council for license, he took an active part in circulating remonstrances, and if the license was granted, he saw to it that the law was complied with. In 1884 he was a leader in circulating a petition to the legislature that secured statutory prohibition for Clarke county, and since the passage of the local option law for the entire state he has canvassed the county twice in the interest of prohibition, and the county has gone for prohibition with overwhelming majorities at both local option elections. He has also assisted in this work in adjoining counties; has attended all the state prohibition conventions, both nonpartisan and third party; has been a member of the state prohibition executive committee ever since the organization, and secretary of the party prohibitionists; and he is one of the vice presidents of the National Temperance society and Publication House of New York city. In 1883 three saloon keepers waylaid and attempted to assassinate him for no other reason than that he had circulated a counter petition against one of them, and contested his petition before the city council when he failed to secure his license. He has long taken an interest in education, and has served for years as a trustee of the Shubuta Male and Female academy, and of the free school, and is now serving the county as school commissioner. He and his family are members of the Baptist church. Soon after he joined the church, in 1872, he was chosen assistant superintendent of the Sunday-school, and he was later made superintendent, which position he still holds. Some ten years ago he was ordained deacon, and is now clerk and treasurer of the church. He is nearly always chosen delegate to the Mississippi Baptist State convention, in their annual meetings, having served as one of the vice presidents of the convention. He has served several terms of three years each as trustee of Mississippi college at Clinton, Miss., and as trustee in several other institutions of learning. He is also a zealous Sunday-school worker, and is one of the vice presidents of the state Sunday-school convention and district organizer, and has been selected as delegate to the National Sunday-school convention. Mr. Patton has never offered himself for any office except alderman, although he has been solicited to represent the county in the legislature. He sometimes attends the county mass meetings and state democratic conventions. In state issues he votes the democratic ticket; but he always scratches every nominee he knows to be openly immoral, or who drinks intoxicating liquors, or treats others to obtain their votes, or

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any one who is not in favor of the suppression of the liquor traffic. For the last eight years he has voted the national prohibition ticket, and was one of ten who met in Jackson, Miss., to put out an electoral ticket for Fisk and Brooks for president and vice president of the United States on the prohibition party ticket. He has also been a leader in introducing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union into the state of Mississippi, and has been one of their "standbys" since its organization in the state, having attended all of its conventions except one. He was secretary of Wayne lodge No. 102, A. F. & A. M., when it surrendered its charter, and he is also a Royal Arch Mason. He is dictator of the Knights of Honor at Shubuta, and has held the office of state treasurer of the I. O. G. T., and has been a dele- gate to the grand lodge of that order. Mr. Patton is a graduate of Clarke's school of embalm- ing, and is a funeral director and embalmer in Shubuta, and is serving his second term as president of the Mississippi Funeral Directors' association. Mr. Patton has one of the nicest homes in east Mississippi, and is very happy in the society of his family. His store building is one of the neatest and best arranged on the line of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, and it was built after his own design. He has owned two turpentine distilleries, but at the writing of this sketch is not engaged in this enterprise.

Hon. Robert C. Patty was born in Winston county, Miss., July 9, 1846, and died December 31, 1890. He was the second son in a family of eleven children, born to John W. and Adaline (Hickman) Patty, who settled in Winston county early in the forties. Joshua Hickman, the maternal grandfather, was a son of William and Lettice (Cole) Hickman, the first mentioned of whom was born in 1732, the latter in 1740. He married Susannah, daugh- ter of William and Mary (Goff) Ellis, all of whom were from Virginia. The Patty family was of English origin. John W. Patty was a merchant at Louisville, Winston county. While there Robert C. Patty obtained the rudiments of an education. He was a studious youth, with the faculty of rapid acquisition of knowledge, and with a memory so retentive that he was said to have never forgotten anything he read. He entered on his business career at Durant, Miss., and removed from there to Grand Junction, Tenn., where he filled for a brief time a position in the employ of a railway company, which he left to undertake the duties of a similar position at Jackson. At the beginning of the war he enlisted in Colonel Muldrow's regiment of Mississippi troops, and was made orderly sergeant of his company. In one of the battles in Georgia he received a slight wound. In 1868 he engaged in merchandising at Macon, Miss., but closing out his interests there, he soon went to New Orleans, where he was employed for one year in a railway office. November 18, 1869, he married .Miss Ella, daughter of Dr. W. G. and Anna (Brotherton) Campbell, of Memphis, Tenn. Returning to Macon he was soon elected chancery clerk, an office which he held with credit for sixteen years. He was a member of the last constitutional convention of Missis- sippi, and was made chairman of the most important committee in that body, that on elec- tions and franchise, and it was the arduous work of this position that precipitated his death. He was generous to a fault, giving freely of his means to all worthy objects and all helpful public enterprises. The Presbyterian church building in Macon, an elegant structure, was built almost entirely at his expense. He was a ruling elder in the church, and superintend- ent of its Sunday-school. Not long before his death he erected an elegant residence, one of the finest in the state. After his death the New Mississippian contained the following eulo- gium: "The honored chairman of the state democratic executive committee, the beloved president of the Mississippi Farmers' Alliance, the late worthy grand master of the Masons, the late president. of the Sunday-school convention, the efficient chancery clerk of Noxubee county, the vigilant state commissioner, the gallant Knight of Pythias, the loyal citizen and

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model, exemplary gentleman is dead, and Mississippi mourns. Although life's sun with him had not reached its zenith, and its shadows were still falling to the west, he had been gen- erously crowned with public honors, and had obtained a position in popular confidence and esteem of enviable character, almost impossible of replacement. Of almost every organiza- tion that sought the material advancement of the state, the purification of public service, the elevation of individual morals, or the judicious distribution of charity, he was a member, and membership with him was not a mere nominal connection, but in every instance it meant the assumption and discharge of the major part of the work. To business sagacity and quick perception he added untiring industry; to industry a peculiarly analytical mind and rare executive ability; while humility, patience, decision of character and affability of manner were blended in him in specially happy proportions. With no chart save that of justice, with no compass save that of charity, life's course with him was always toward the harbor of duty. If honorable preferment and high official trust and station were his, they came, not as the result of self seeking, but in recognition of his wondrous capabilities, and as the reward of virtuous merit. That his death was precipitated by his three weeks' incessant labors as chairman of the franchise committee of the constitutional convention there can be no question. Peace hath its sacrifices as well as its victories, no less renowned than war. As his life had been spent in the public service for the advancement of the public good, so was it closed in death upon the bier of public duty. His nature was sweet as summer to his fellow-men, and in his death a personal loss has been sustained by every citizen of Missis- sippi. Over the new-made grave of Macon the flowers, planted by tender hands, will bloom in perpetual fragrance, fit emblems of the bowers of beauty that will blow for his bliss as the Master welcomes to the sunlit shores of Paradise the brave, bright soul of Robert C. Patty." As a husband and father, he was kind and indulgent; as a neighbor, courteous and obliging; as a friend, constant and true; as a citizen, upright and patriotic; as a public officer, scrupulously honest and conscientious, and as a Christian gentleman, his daily walk and con- versation were such as to commend him to good men and women everywhere as worthy of their confidence and esteem.

Among the younger members of the Mississippi bar who are admirably adapted to honor- ably prosecute this most exalted of professions is Alexander G. Paxton, attorney at law of Indianola, Miss., who may truly be said to be one of nature's noblemen, for he possesses that ease and grace of manner which can only be acquired by those of broad intellect who are sufficiently learned and sufficiently familiar with the world's ways to discern man's own lit- tleness, and to recognize that all are equal before man's as before God's tribunal. . He was born in Washington county, Miss., January 16, 1858, and was given a thorough and prac- tical education in the Washington and Lee university of Virginia. After finishing the literary course he entered the law department, from which he graduated in 1880, soon after which he returned to his home in Arcola, where he opened an office and began practicing, also follow- ing the occupation of a planter. He has made a study and a specialty of land litigation from the first, and has given the principal part of his time and attention to this department of his practice, and has carried some very important and extensive cases to a successful termina- tion. He is at the head of this practice in this part of the state and ranks second to none in his knowledge and management of delta tax titles. He has also been quite an extensive dealer in land and is now the owner of about eight hundred acres in Sunflower county, besides a good plantation in Washington county. He is an admirable type of the cultured and keen Southerner, and his logical and financial ability, his high sense of propriety and justice and his profound knowledge of the law have made his name a familiar one in legal

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 87

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314