Bios: WILLIAM PATTERSON 20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens
  
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    SOME REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
  
  
      WILLIAM PATTERSON.
  
  William Patterson[p. 375] Few men of Lawrence County have deserved the
  continued esteem and admiration of their surviving fellow citizens in
  higher degree than the late William Patterson, who might justly be
  called the father of many of her largest industries and the promoter of
  much of her notable prosperity. Mr. Patterson was born in what was then
  named Beaver County, but which is now Lawrence County, Pennsylvania,
  October 20, 1824, and died August 31, 1905. His parents were Samuel and
  Esther (Dickson) Patterson.
  
  The late William Patterson was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a combination
  of sturdy stock of which he was ever proud. His maternal grandfather,
  William Dickson, settled in Lawrence County in 1806, as one of the
  earliest settlers, becoming a leading man of his day. The paternal
  grandfather was equally prominent in Beaver County, where he combined
  farming with manufacturing interests.
  
  Samuel Patterson, father of William, was born in Beaver County, now a
  part of Lawrence County, in 1802, and died during the childhood of his
  son. He married Esther Dickson, who, after the death of her husband,
  returned to her father's home, where William was reared to the age of
  fourteen years. During his boyhood he attended the district school in
  the winters and worked in a tannery during the summer. He later enjoyed
  two years of academic training at New Castle. In 1840 he became clerk in
  the store of John B. Pearson at New Castle, and in 1845 he was promoted
  by Daniel Euwer, a large merchant of Pittsburg, to the position of
  assistant. This gave him an opportunity to accumulate some capital,
  which he used three years later in starting a wholesale and retail drug
  store at New Carlisle. About this time the great coal resources of Ohio
  were being discovered, and in 1852 Mr. Patterson, alive to promising
  business developments, investigated the coal fields along the Mahoning
  River, and he finally decided to sell his New Castle interests and
  devote all his time and capital to developing the coal lands he had
  secured. He continued to be largely and personally interested in coal
  developing until 1855, when he returned to New Castle, leaving his coal
  business in charge of James McKinley, a brother of the late President
  William McKinley. In the previous year he had disposed of a part of his
  mining property, which he owned both in Illinois and Ohio, to John M.
  Maris, of Philadelphia. He then opened a banking and exchange business
  with Mr. Watson at New Castle, and through all the panics and hard times
  from various causes which convulsed the country at intervals the
  Patterson bank never failed to make good its financial promises, and Mr.
  Patterson continued with the enterprise until 1880, although in 1873 he
  had bought a large portion of the stock of the National Bank of Lawrence
  County.
  
  In 1864 Mr. Patterson, with A. L. Crawford and others, became interested
  in opening a block coal field in Mercer County, building a railroad,
  sinking shafts, and attending to all the details of developing a large
  mining industry. This enterprise was successfully carried on for a
  period of eleven years. Another enterprise in which Mr. Patterson was
  the leading spirit was the organization of the Aetna Iron Company, in
  1868, which had a paid up capital of $160,000, and which continued to do
  business until 1873. He was largely interested also in a number of other
  coal and iron enterprises and was part owner of furnaces at various
  points, having capital invested in several States, and through wise
  supervision and excellent business ability realizing his expectations of
  profit from each.
  
  In 1863, in connection with A. R. Lee, he became part owner of large
  tracts of coal land in Lawrence County, which were first worked under
  the name of Lee & Patterson, and later under the name of the Beaver Coal
  & Coke Company. He was one of the organizers of the Penn Coal Company.
  In 1883, again associated with Mr. Crawford and other capitalists, he
  purchased the Neshannock furnace property at New Castle, which was later
  operated under the corporate name of the Crawford Iron & Steel Company,
  and which had a capacity of 70,000 tons of Bessemer pig iron yearly.
  Again, as one of a party of capitalists, in 1885-6, he built the plant
  of the New Castle Wire Nail Company, and organized the company which
  later enlarged the business and constructed one of the largest wire rod
  mills in the United States, known as the New Castle Steel Company.
  Following this development was the organization of the Shenango Valley
  Steel Company, which erected a Bessemer steel plant having a capacity of
  1,000 tons per day having taken over the furnace of the Crawford Iron &
  Steel Company and also the blast furnace of Raney & Berger. Then came
  the erection of a tin plate bar mill, and in turn a tin plate plant of
  thirty mills, which to this time is the largest single tin plate plant
  in the world.
  
  The wire nail mill and wire rod mill we're also taken over by the
  Shenango Valley Steel Company, thus giving a continuous chain from the
  iron ore to the finished product of tin plate, wire and wire nails. This
  series of conversions created for Mr. Patterson a strong position in the
  trade?second to none?and gave to New Castle much prominence in the iron
  and steel circles of the United States. Finally all the properties were
  merged into what is now the United States Steel Corporation.
  
  This rapid growth in manufacturing plants of large tonnage created an
  urgent necessity for a hospital, and in 1894 Mr. Patterson was
  instrumental in founding the Shenango Valley Hospital, a 100-bed
  institution, having every modern facility for attending the injured and
  sick; and be continued'to give this institution his daily personal
  attention as its president until his death.
  
  Mr. Patterson continued the operation of the two banks in which he was
  interested until 1880, after which he gave his attention to building up
  the Lawrence County Bank, and with such success that he made it the
  third institution of its kind as to recognized stability and assets in
  the United States. This was a remarkable achievement, accomplished in a
  comparatively short period of time, and it placed him among the leading
  financiers of the country.
  
  Mr. Patterson was one of the organizers of the Beaver Valley Railroad,
  which was the first railroad to enter New Castle. The founder and
  promoter of many of the greatest industries of this section of the
  State, Mr. Patterson was essentially a business man of high
  capabilities, and his faculties remained unimpaired until his death at
  the advanced age of eight-one years. But while keen and progressive in
  the pursuit of business, Mr. Patterson possessed the foresight and
  saving caution which prevented any chance of disaster, carrying on his
  large operation in the conservative manner that preserved the stability
  of the institutions over which he had control in the face of panics
  which swept competitors from the field. Personally he was a man of high
  aims and unblemished character.
  
  On January 6, 1852, William Patterson was married, first, to Anna M.
  Mills, who died in March, 1863, leaving two daughters and son: Mary L.,
  Anna M., and Rufus C. The elder daughter, Mary L., married Edward King,
  who is president of the National Bank of Lawrence County and also
  president and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Engineering Works.
  
  On January 17, 1866, Mr. Patterson married for his second wife Harriet
  E. Woodward, whose father, Solomon Woodward, was a leading citizen of
  Taunton, Mass. They had three children: Julia H., William Lee, and
  George Lewis. Both Rufus C. and George L. Patterson are officially
  connected with the National Bank of Lawrence County. Mrs. Patterson
  survives her husband and resides at Kingston, N. Y.
  
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and
  Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing
  Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
  
  Updated: 12 Oct 2001