PRIVATE COLLECTIONS WORK SHEET _
NUMBER: PC .1884.1-36 _ .
NAME OF COLLECTION: _ JOHN L. PATTERSON PAPERS _
_ Roanoke Rapids, Halifax Co.. N,C, _
DATES: ca. 190 0-19 19 _
ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Deposit leading to a gift by Dr. and Mrs. John Page
Williams, Charlottesville, Va. , August 26, 1998
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Approximately 12 cu . ft., including original manuscript
and typescript letters, bills and receipts, reports, printed matter, maps,
and photographs.
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION: John Legerwood Patterson (1874-1935), son of Rufus L.
and Mary (Fries) Patterson, was educated in the University of North Carolina,
taking his bachelor of science degree in 1895. Upon leaving the university,
Patterson followed the industrialist tradition of his family by going into
textile manufacturing. From 1895 to 1900 he was with the Southside Mills of
Winston-Salem, after which he went to Roanoke Rapids as secretary and general
manager (subsequently president) of the Rosemary Manufacturing Company which
had been organized by family members and business partners. His brother,
Samuel Finley Patterson, who had helped organize the Rosemary Manufacturing
Company, served as treasurer of the company until 1920 when he assumed the
presidency vacated by John L. Patterson at the end of 1919 when he resigned
the office and moved to Richmond, Virginia. While at Roanoke Rapids, John L.
Patterson was vice-president and director of First National Bank in the town,
director of the Roanoke Mills Company and of the Roanoke Rapids Bridge Company.
He was president of the North Carolina Good Roads Association, 1911-1912, and
of the Cotton Manufacturers Association of North Carolina, 1917-1918.
Mr. Patterson, an Episcopalian, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity, the Knights Templars, the Benevolent and Protective Order
of the Elk, and several professional organizations. At the time of his death
he was vice-president of the Stevens Textile Manufacturing Company of Fall
River, Mass., purchasers of the Patterson, Roanoke, and Rosemary mills at
Roanoke Rapids, N.C. Mr. Patterson's papers are divided into six series.
(1) .Correspondence, 1900-1919; 15 fibredex boxes of papers foldered by
year, but not arranged day by day or month by month within the folders. Con¬
tains personal and business correspondence, including some letters relating
to Patterson's involvement in organizations such as the Cotton Manufacturers
Association of America, the Southern Cotton Manufacturers Association, the.
Cotton Manufacturers Association of North Carolina, North Carolina Good Road
Association, and so forth. Included among the correspondence will be found
some ephemera that will need to be moved to their proper series when final
arrangement of the papers is undertaken. Presently (January, 1999) the
