"Illustrated History of Lane County, Oregon." Portland, Oregon: A. G. Walling,
publisher, 1884.  pg. 481.
 
HON. A. W. PATTERSON, M.D.
     The subject of this sketch, an excellent view of whose charming town
residence will be found in this volume, was born in Armstrong county,
Pennsylvania, October 4, 1814.  Having received his early scholastic training in
the village of Freeport in his native county, he afterwards entered the Western
University at Pittsburg; subsequently studied medicine in the office of Dr. J.
P. Gazzam, and old and prominent physician of that city; and in 1841 graduated
in the Pennsylvania College of Medicine at Philadelphia.  Returning westward, he
located for a time in the practice of his profession at Greenfield, Indiana.  In
1852 the doctor crossed the plains to Oregon, and coming directly to Lane
county, settled on a donation claim near the present site of Eugene City, when,
abandoning the practice of his profession for a time, as no emoluments awaited
in a new and thinly settled country, the business of surveyor was engaged in and
numerous government contracts in Oregon and Washington Territory were
successfully executed.  It was our subject,who, in compliance with an order from
the county commissioners, laid off the town of Eugene City, attention to which
has been called elsewhere.  In 1854 he was elected to represent Lane county in
the territorial legislature.  He served in the Indian war of 1855 and 1856, as
first lieutenant and afterwards as surgeon in the medical department.  In 1859
he was married to Miss A. C. Olinger, whose father, Abram Olinger, with his
family, in 1843, had crossed the plains with the first wagon train that as yet
had reached the Columbia river.   In 1861 Dr. Patterson was appointed to the
chief clerkship in the surveyor-general's office under Col. W. W. Chapman, which
was then located at Eugene City.  In 1863 he resumed the practice of medicine,
in which he is still engaged.  In 1870 he was elected to the State senate to
serve four years; where, in 1872, owing to the very active interest taken, it
was mainly due to him that the Oregon State University was located at Eugene
City.  About this time he entered into a contract with A. L. Bancroft & Co., of
San Francisco, to prepare the manuscript for a set of school readers; but,
afterwards, being pressed for time to complete the work by a given date, the
contract was limited to a speller and the first three readers, and, at his
suggestion, Samuel L. Simpson employed to prepare the remaining fourth and fifth
readers.  The new school law, requiring the selection of a uniform series to be
used throughout the state, going into effect was much opposed, still, these
Pacific Coast readers and spellers were adopted and used until recently
displaced.  In 1882, and again in 1884 he was elected to the position of county
superintendent of schools, an office for which he is eminently qualified.
Versatility of occupation, which so often settlers on this coast, has also been
here displayed.  Dr. Patterson is a pioneer hop grower of this county, in the
cultivation of which he has engaged for a number of years.  He was the first to
import new varieties and experimented in their adaptability to the climate, and
is at present, probably, the most extensive grower of that vine in the State of
Oregon.

 
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in May 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.