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Beautiful horses
I don’t know much about this–the year, the occasion, the church–but this lovely photo is of my great great grandmother, Grace Patterson Henry, her husband Harvey Henry, and her mother, Ellie Stoneroad Patterson.
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Grace
Over the past year, off and on, I’ve been positing artifacts I discovered after my grandfather’s death in December 2013. These are old family papers, and while I have a varied collection, most of the collection relates back to Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, a name I never tire of typing. Ellie was my great-great-great grandmother, and she seems to have, from an early age, put many thoughts and observations to paper. She saved materials relating to both her forebears and the forebears of her husband, John Lyon Patterson. The real credit for saving this collection belongs to Grace Patterson Henry, Ellie’s daughter and my great-great grandmother. I’ve seen explanatory notes written…
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The Pattersons of Pleasant View
This undated photo, found in a trunk of old photos along with its gilded frame (in quite good shape!) depicts the Pattersons in front of their farmhouse in Pleasant View (Spruce Hill Township), Pennsylvania. From the left, we have young John J. Patterson, his brother Thomas Patterson, Grace Patterson (my g-g-grandmother), John L. Patterson (my g-g-g-grandfather), and Ellie Stoneroad Patterson (my g-g-g-grandmother). John J. was born in 1879 and looks no older than ten years old, and Thomas died in 1890 at the age of 13, leading me to place this photo at around 1889. The house still stands today along Route 75.
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The eldest son
I’ve mentioned before that seemingly random scraps of paper are stuffed into books that have come into the possession of both me and my cousin. These books, mostly from my great great great grandmother, Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, seemed to be repositories of various clippings of value to the family–announcements, recipes, religious tracts, and other items of note. Case in point: this announcement, clipped from the Port Royal Times of January 23, 1890, noting the passing of 13-year-old Thomas Patterson, eldest son of Ellie and her husband, John Lyon Patterson. As though realizing her great great great grandson would stumble upon this 125 years later, Ellie–or maybe her daughter, Grace Patterson Henry, who…
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JL Patterson, farmer
My great great great grandfather, John Lyon Patterson, wife of Ellie Stoneroad, lived on a farm in Pleasant View, Pennsylvania. His stone farmhouse stands today, along present-day Route 75 in Spruce Hill Township, Juniata County, not far at all from where I grew up. My family, or at least many parts of it, hasn’t moved far in well over a century. Grace Patterson Henry, JL’s daughter and my great great grandmother, assembled and saved many items and papers from both her mother’s and father’s families, and she’s the reason I have this amazing collection today. Among the items saved are those pointing to JL’s farming background. I found one of these items…