Robert Crockett Patterson

ROBERT CROCKETT PATTERSON. One of the representative citizens of the old and conservative City of Wytheville, Virginia, is Robert Crockett Patterson, Circuit Court clerk of Wythe County, where he has, passed the greater part of his life. He is a member of an old Wythe County family, and by education and training is particularly well qualified for a position of public responsibility.

Mr. Patterson was born on his father’s farm east of Wytheville, Virginia, November 12, 1875, a son of James H. and Mary J. (Umberger) Patterson, the latter of whom survives and resides at Wytheville. James H. Patterson was born in Wythe County, and died on his farm situated two and one-half miles east of Wytheville in 1911, having resided there almost continuously after the close of the war between the states, during which he had been a soldier in the Confederate army. He was a, man of sterling character, a consistent democrat in his political views, and a member and strong supporter of the Lutheran Church, of which he was an official for many years. He married Mary J. Umberger, who was born in Wythe County, on September 2, 1846, and they became the parents of the following children: hula Brown, who is the wife of Selden W. Repass, a farmer in Wythe County; Cora Lee, who is the wife of J. Stanger Brown, a farmer in Wythe County; Albert C., who is a farmer in Wythe County; Robert Crockett; and Mamie Blanton, who is the wife of Winfree L. Arrington, who is with a coal company at Helen, West Virginia.

Robert Crockett Patterson in boyhood attended the public schools in Wythe County, and additionally had special advantages in a private school, where he came under the instruction of Prof. E. H. McDonald. In 1896 he entered Roanoke College at Salem, Virginia, where he remained a student for four years and was graduated in the class of 1900 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For one year afterward Mr. Patterson taught school in Wythe County, proving competent and acceptable, but did not continue in the educational field, as just about that time the Virginia, Iron, Coal & Coke Company, a very important business concern of this section, tendered him the position of store manager, :tit offer he accepted, and lie served as such for two years in Wythe County, and for seven years in the same capacity was at Buchanan in Botetourt County.

Mr. Patterson then returned to Wytheville, where he became bookkeeper for the First National Bank of Wytheville, and remained with the bank for the next two years, retiring then in favor of an out-door life. In the meanwhile he had not forgotten his early farm training, and for the next few years, until 1920, proved that a college man when he sets his mind to it can be transformed into a pretty good farmer. His many friends, however, were not satisfied with this retirement and called him back into more active participation in the business and public life, and in November, 1919, elected him Circuit Court clerk, an exceedingly important office in Wythe County. He assumed the duties of this office on January 1, 1920, his term expiring on December 31, 1927. His offices are in the courthouse at Wytheville.

Mr. Patterson is a republican in political sentiment. He is a Knights Templar Mason and a Shriner, a member of Wytheville Lodge No. 82, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; Wythe Chapter No. 51, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is a past high priest; Lynn Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar; and Kazim Temple, Mystic Shrine, Roanoke, Virginia. Mr. Patterson is not married and resides with his mother at Wytheville. He belongs to the Virginia Club of this city. He is a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, a member of the Church Council, and is interested in the work of the church along many lines, and unostentatiously identified also with civic organizations working for the general welfare.