Robert Miller Patton, governor of Alabama, was born in Monroe county, Va., July 10, 1809; son of William and Martha (Hays) Patton. William Patton, a native of Ireland, immigrated to Virginia in early manhood, and in 1813 removed with his wife and children to Huntsville, Ala., becoming one of the founders of one of the first cotton mills in the state. Robert was educated in the public schools and at an early age entered commercial life, removing in 1829 to Florence, Ala., where he became a merchant. He was elected a representative in the state legislature in 1834, and in the special legislature, 1837, called for the relief of those affected by the financial panic of that year, and served almost continuously in the legislature until 1861, being president of the senate in that year. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Charleston, S.C., in 1860, and to the state convention that passed the ordinance of secession, where he opposed the movement, but afterward devoted himself wholly to the southern cause. He spent his own fortune in aiding it, and as a commissioner of the Confederate government, raised several million dollars to keep the armies in the field. He was a member of the Alabama constitutional convention of 1865, and was elected governor of the state, serving from December, 1865, to July, 1868, when he was displaced through the reconstruction measures of congress. He obtained the capital for building the railroad to connect Chattanooga, Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans, La., and was president of the road from Chattanooga to Meridian. He was a trustee of the Missouri State university; the State Normal college of Alabama, and the Synodical Female [p.228] college at Florence, Ala. He was married Jan. 23, 1832, to Jane, daughter of Gen. John and Mary (Brahan) Locke, of Huntsville, Ala. Three sons served in the Confederate army, two of whom were killed. Governor Patton died at Sweetwater, near Florence, Ala., Feb. 29, 1885.

The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans 1904

Copyright © Christine Walters All Rights Reserved