BIOGRAPHY - David Patton
HON. DAVID PATTON, in whose honor the township of Patton was named, is
the oldest surviving member of the Ford County Bar and was in practice in
the territory which is now Ford County, which was then a part of Vermilion
County. Judge Patton located at what is known as Ten Mile Grove, situated
about three miles southwest of Paxton, in October, 1849. He was born in
Clark County, Ky., in 1806, and accompanied his family to Butler County,
that State, in 1810.
When eighteen years of age, Mr. Patton began the study of law in the office
of Oliver H. Smith, at Connersville, Ind., and while so engaged taught the
district school to earn money to defray his current expenses. He was
admitted to the Bar in 1828 and entered upon the practice of his profession
at La Fayette, Ind., where he secured a large and lucrative practice. Frank,
upright and generous in disposition, he was held in high esteem by the
people and regarded as a leading lawyer by his brethren at the Bar. His
unguarded liberality, however, proved a snare to him financially, and his
earnings for ten years were soon swept away in the payment of debts for his
friends, and he was compelled to start anew in life. With this object in
view, he came to Illinois and located four hundred acres of land at Ten Mile
Grove, then in Vermilion, now Ford County. The country was but sparsely
settled, affording little, if any, field for business in the line of his
profession, hence he turned his attention to farming and stock-raising,
occasionally practicing in justice courts, not a few of the leading lawyers
of Vermilion County expressing surprise at being outgeneraled and beaten by
the farm lawyer. To his efforts the passage of the act of the Legislature
creating Ford County was largely due. At a special election held in 1859, he
was elected Judge of the County Court by a large majority over his opponent,
Gideon Camp, and he was re-elected at the succeeding elections of
1860-64-68. Before the close of his fourth official term, the weight of
years and his extensive personal interests decided him to decline further
public service. The monetary panic of 1873 and 1875, in connection with his
losses as surety for some of his friends, again stripped him of nearly all
his worldly possessions, but notwithstanding his misfortune in this
particular, he has the higher and better consolation of having merited the
esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens by an active and useful life in
their midst for more than thirty years. He was a good lawyer, a quaint,
entertaining speaker, and at all times a kind and indulgent parent; a friend
to the poor and needy, and an enterprising and public-spirited citizen, and
above all, a steadfast lover of justice and humanity. Judge Patton still
makes his home in Paxton, where he settled in 1865, but is in feeble health,
and his advanced age of eighty-six years admonishes his friends that his end
is not far distant. The writer is under obligations to the publishers of the
late County Atlas for the facts above stated.
Extracted 28 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Record of Ford County, Illinois, published in 1892, page 266.
