Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 318] one of the leading and most progressive citizens of Union township, and a carpenter who is much in demand throughout the surrounding country, was born in a house which was situated within a few rods of his present elegant residence, Dec. 10, 1834. He is a son of David and Jane (Stewart) Pattison.
David Pattison was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and there learned the trade of a cotton-spinner. While still a resident of bonny Scotland he became engaged to be married to Jane Stewart, who was born in Paisley, Scotland, but with a wise determination to be sure of the future, he immigrated to America to provide a home for his intended wife. He bought fifty acres of land, which was then new and uncultivated, and located where his son, William S., now resides; he was much taken with the country and pleased with the prospect of a successful career which seemed to stretch out before him, and went to work with a will to clear the land for the intended crops and to erect a log-cabin for temporary shelter till his own resources and the accommodations of the new country warranted him in building a more pretentious structure. All the arrangements completed, it only needed the arrival of his future bride to complete his home, and crown him with happiness; she came when he announced that all was in readiness for her reception, and they were married and settled down to become industrious citizens of their adopted country. He finished clearing the land and worked some in building the canal. Later in life, when New Castle began to grow, he engaged in gardening, and followed it the greater part of his after life. He and his wife won the highest esteem of the citizens of the township, for they were exemplars of the best type of Scotch honesty and Scotch ruggedness of character. He lived to be eighty-four years old, and his wife attained the age of eighty-six years. Their children were: David C.; Mary, who married Robert Boggs; William S., the subject of this biography; Jeanette, who married Smith Fulkerson; Robert D., whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Alexander S.; and two, who died in infancy.
William S. was reared and educated in Union township, and at the age of twenty-one learned the carpenter's trade. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. A, 55th Reg. Pa. Vol. Inf., and after serving three months as corporal re-enlisted in the spring of 1864 in the 5th Pa. Art., and served then until the close of the war. On his return home, he resumed his carpenter work, and has followed contracting and building some thirty years. In 1870 he built on three acres of the old homestead a house, which is the best house, inside and out, on the Youngstown road, or, for that matter in the township; it stands as a monument of his successful life, and of the excellent work that he has done in all parts of Union township and beyond its borders.
His first wife, who was a Miss Margaret Stevens, died in 1892, aged fifty-eight years, leaving two children—David Clarkson, a carpenter of New Castle, who married Maggie Winters; and James R. A., a conductor on the street railway. He was a second time joined in the bonds of matrimony to Mary Hawkins, daughter of Martin L. Hawkins, and this union resulted in the birth of twin boys: Ralph A. Stewart, and Russell J. Hancock, both of whom are exactly like in features and in build. Mr. Pattison is a Republican in politics, the principles of which party he earnestly advocates and supports. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and active and liberal in its support. He is a member of the G. A. R.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
Previous Biography | Table of Contents | Next Biography
Explanation/Caution | Lawrence Co. Maps | Lawrence Co. Histories
Updated: 24 May 2001