Convention Member William Patterson

Convention Member
Democrat
A native of Wythe County, Virginia, and was born March 9 1802. His parents were Joseph and Jane Walker Patterson natives of Virginia. William was brought up and received the advantages of a common school education. In 1822, he was united in marriage with Miss Eleanor Johnson, a native of Maryland. From that date until 1829, he took charge of his father’s farm in Kentucky which he conducted with more than ordinary success. It was during the year 1829 that he in company with his wife and four children moved to Marion County, Missouri. After a residence there of three years he settled on a farm which he had purchased in Sangamon County. There he continued to reside until 1837 when he came to Iowa and located at West Point. There he and two brothers in law purchased the town site of West Point all three locating on farms adjoining the town site. They sold lots and improved the site and he remained a resident there until 1846, when he disposed of the major portion of his interests in that locality and moved to Keokuk. On taking up his residence in Keokuk, Colonel Patterson engaged in pork cutting and packing and also in merchandising. The latter business he continued for a number of years when he withdrew from it but kept on the pork packing enterprise until 1882. He was elected three times Mayor of Keokuk, first in 1860, then in 1865, and again in 1866. He was also Alderman for three years in that city. He served as a Representative from Lee County in the House of Representatives in the First, Second, Fourth, and Eighth Legislative Assemblies (1838-1840; 1841-1843; 1845-1846) and a Councilor in the Fifth and Sixth Legislative Assemblies of the Iowa Territory (1842-1845). He was a member of the Constitutional Convention which convened in Iowa City in 1857, and was Postmaster of Keokuk seven years holding that office under Pierce and Buchanan’s administrations. In the church of his adoption Colonel Patterson was a leading member for fifty eight years. He was the first Elder of the Old School Presbyterian Church which was the first in Iowa having been organized in 1837. He was one of the chief movers and most liberal donors to the erection of Westminster Church in this city which was one of the most beautiful church edifices in the State. Beginning in 1872, he served as President of the Keokuk National Bank. Mr. Patterson died in Keokuk on October 3, 1889. Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Lee County, Iowa, 1887, and IAGenWeb.org, Ancestry.com