Patton, George Farrar, M.D.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Patton, George Farrar, M. D., New Orleans, was born at Lee Chase plantation, Rankin county, Miss., Feb. 27, 1853; son of William Lee and Sarah Holloway (Mayson) Patton, the former of whom was born at Danville, Va., April 5, 1822, and the latter at Richmond, Va., April 15, 1830. William Lee Patton was one of the citizens of Jackson, Miss., who formed the organization of the Burt Rifles, an infantry company which became part of the 18th Mississippi regiment. He accompanied the Mississippi troops to Virginia and took part in the first battle of Manassas, following which he returned to Jackson, Miss., and devoted his energies and means to the organization and equipment of an artillery battalion, afterward known as Withers' Battery, of which he was elected lieutenant-colonel and with which he served at Vicksburg during the siege of that place. While in the trenches at Vicksburg, Col. Patton contracted typhoid fever, subsequently complicated with pneumonia. He was invalided and again returned to Jackson, where he had only partially recovered when the retreat of the Confederate forces obliged him to move to avoid being captured. A faithful colored servant procured a vehicle and succeeded in conveying him to a place of comparative safety only a few hours before the Federal troops entered and partially burned the city of Jackson. Being still physically unfit for service in the field, Col. Patton was later selected by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to superintend a shoe manufacturing plant established by the Confederate government at Cahawba, Ala. When the Civil war ended Col. Patton was in charge of the Confederate supply department at Brandon, Miss. For a number of years after the war he edited the ''Conservative Time,'' a weekly paper published at Summit, Miss., where Col. Patton also served several terms as mayor of the town. On retirement from active life he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. C. T. Patterson in New Orleans. He attained the age of more than 90 years. George Farrar Patton received his earlier education on his father's plantation, following which he attended the public schools of Jackson, Miss., and later high school at Brandon, Miss. This was succeeded by a classical course at Collegiate institute, Gilmer, Tex., after completing which he began his medical studies at Ohio college, Cincinnati, and later continuing them, entered the medical department of Friedrich Wilhelm university, Bonn, Germany, from which institution he received the degree of M. D. Aug. 8, 1876. In the course of his professional experience, Dr. Patton filled the position of assistant resident physician at the Mississippi River Quarantine station, and was later inspector for the National board of health. He was a member of the Louisiana state board of health and served as secretary of the board for a term of 10 years. For many years he was a visiting physician at the New Orleans Charity hospital, and later became registrar for that institution. He also served as professor of Clinical Medicine in the Post-Graduate medical department of Tulane university. Dr. Patton was raised a Presbyterian, and politically affiliated with the democratic party. He was a member of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical association, which later was merged into the Orleans Parish Medical society; also a member of the Louisiana State and American Medical associations, and the Louisiana Anti-Tuberculosis league. At one time he was a member of the Knights of Honor and of the American Legion of Honor. Dr. Patton has shown no taste for club life, and after a few years of membership resigned from his only connection of that kind, the Chess, Checkers and Whist club. Throughout his life he has been an ardent patron of music. In his youth he was a leader of an amateur brass band in the town of Summit, Miss., and in order to supply his band with suitable music he made a study of musical composition and the art of arrangement. While residing in Germany he wrote and published, by way of adding to his income from literary work, by which he supported himself, a text-book on the arrangement of music for military bands. This work was unique among its kind, and as exploited by an enterprising New York firm, enjoyed a large sale. The greater part of Dr. Patton's writing at the time was in the form of popular news letters for American papers and magazine publications. While serving as secretary of the Louisiana State board of health, Dr. Patton wrote a great deal for publication, this including a history of the state board of health and of health legislation in Louisiana, with a synopsis of all state laws relating to sanitation and allied subjects. He was later identified with the organization and work of the Louisiana Anti-Tuberculosis league, of which he was president for 2 years. In the course of the campaign conducted by this organization for popular education in regard to preventive and curative measures, Dr. Patton delivered lectures in all parts of Louisiana. As registrar of the New Orleans Charity hospital he perfected a most useful system for keeping clinical records. Throughout his active and busy professional life, as a means of diversion and recreation he had access to photography, architecture and organ-building, and, in the later years, foreign travel. In his home there is a two-manual pipe organ of 13 speaking stops and more than 600 pipes which he built during the leisure hours of 4 years. Feb. 28, 1878, Dr. Patton was married to Miss Clara May Simmons, daughter of Thomas Mosby and Mary Virginia (Lindsay) Simmons of New Orleans. The following children have been born to them: Julia Simmons, Sept. 16, 1881, lived only 23 days; Ralph Clifton, Feb. 10, 1887, graduated as electrical engineer from Tulane university in 1907 and located at Providence, R. I., where he married Miss Carolyn Trillinghast Parker June 1, 1912. Dr. George Farrar Patton married, as his second wife, Miss Ruth Lindsay Simmons sister of his first wife, June 4, 1892. No children have been born to them.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 347-348. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.