Ed Patchell
E. C. Patchell Residence,
Stonelick Twp.,
Clermont Co., OH |
EDWARD
PATCHELL was born on Oil Creek, Venango Co., Pa.,
Feb. 19, 1801. His paternal ancestors were French
Huguenots, who emigrated to the southern part of Ireland
in 1568, four years before the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. As early as 1515 the principles of
Luther and Zwinglius had gained an
entrance into France (especially that part bordering on
Switzerland), also the doctrines of Calvin, which were
embraced by the Patchells, a very numerous and
influential family living near Vassey. In the
struggle between the Bourbons and the five princes of
Guise they espoused the cause of the former. But
it was not until 1560 that there was anything like an
armed opposition to the tyranny of the latter. A
plan was agreed upon by the Huguenots to seize the
Guises on a certain day, when a number of them were to
present a petition to the king in person (who then lived
at Blois), asking him to grant them the right of the
free exercise of their worship. The plan was
betrayed, and twelve hundred Huguenots were executed.
Of that number seven were Patchells, where the
name first occurs in French history. Bloody scenes
were the result, and the massacre of Vassey in 1562 was
the immediate cause of a continued civil war between the
Catholics and protestants in that part of France for
over a century. In leaving France and settling in
Ireland in Patchells did not better their
condition, for the same bloody scenes were there
enacted, though of a local and not a national character.
His great-great-great-grandfather was one of the gallant
few who served under that famous Protestant clergyman,
George Walker, in the heroic defense of Derry
against King James. For bravery in the
battle of Boyne he was presented with a gold medal, now
in the possession of John Barr, of Monterey,
Ohio. His grandfather, Edward Patchell
(after whom he was named), was keeper of the forest
under Lord Fitzgerald. This nobleman was
killed by the Catholic tenantry in the insurrection of
1788 in Derry County. He also owned a large farm
five miles from Londonderry, and would have shared the
fate of his lordship had he not been secretly released
by a man by the name of Dunbar, whom he had
befriended in several ways.
In 1792 he emigrated to America, settling in
Pennsylvania. In 1800 he bought a farm on Oil
Creek, on which are some of the largest oil-wells in the
United States. He died in 1814, aged ninety-seven
years. His father, James Patchell, was next
to the youngest of a family of two sons and three
daughters, and was born in the county of Derry, Ireland,
in 1772, and married Elizabeth Cannon in 1800.
She was also a native of Ireland, and was born in the
county of Tyrone in 1783. By this union there were
eight children, - Edward, William, Mary A., Jane,
Eliza, Jemima, James, and Joseph, - all of
whom are now dead but James, who resides in
Butler Co., Ohio. In the war of 1812 he was a
major in the Pennsylvania militia, and during the winter
of 1814 was stationed at Erie. His brother
Edward was a brigadier-general in the Pennsylvania
line during the war of 1812, and was appointed by
President Jackson as issuing commissary-general
of the Army of the Southwest, with headquarters at New
Orleans, which position he held for three years, when he
resigned on account of ill health. At the time of
his death he was one of the wealthiest and most
prominent citizens of Pittsburgh.
In the spring of 1816, James Patchell, in
company with several other families, descended the
Alleghany and Ohio Rivers to Neville, Clermont Co.,
Ohio, in a keel boat. A short time after he
purchased a farm on Indian Creek, in Monroe township,
where he resided until 1832, when he removed to Butler
County, where he died in 1844, and his wife in 1846.
He was a man of great energy and strong will-power.
These, combined with a good judgment, made him a man of
more than ordinary ability. In the barrens of
Pennsylvania Edward almost arrived at manhood's
years, where the wildness of the scenery, the purity of
the water, and the salubrity of the climate gave him a
constitution well fitted to stand the hardships of
pioneer life. Imbued with the spirit of his
ancestors, he started out in life with the determination
of being honest, industrious, and to live within his
means, all of which he faithfully did during a long and
eventful life. Strong, active, energetic, and
willing, he soon acquired the reputation of being one of
the best men in the neighborhood in which he lived.
At that time there was a great demand for wood at
Cincinnati, and hence for choppers, of which he was one
of the best in his day and generation. He would
not unfrequently cut and cord five to six cords in a
day, and split from five to seven hundred rails in the
same length of time He not only chopped during the
winter but also the heated term. On the 2d of
November, 1826, he married Sarah Ann Brown, who
was born near Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 7, 1803. The
following children were given them: William W.,
born Nov. 7, 1827; Elizabeth J. born July 16,
1830; James M., born July 11, 1832; Sarah
Ellen, born Aug. 6, 1834; Angeline, born May
15, 1837; Mary E., born Mar. 22, 1844; and
Martha E., born Jan. 23, 1847; all of whom lived to
man and womanhood but Mary E., who died at the
age of four years. In 1832 he moved on the
farm now owned by P. F. Swing, and in 1836 he
purchased the farm now owned by the heirs of William
Patchell, deceased, and in 1855 he bought the farms
now owned by E. C. Patchell, T. C. Teal, and
Mrs. Elizabeth Carpenter, then one of the largest
and richest in the county. In December, 1864,
James M. who never married, died in Illinois of
typhoid fever. He was a pupil of Prof. Stevens,
of Milford, for several years, and graduated from
Nelson's Mercantile College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, in
1854. In 1857 he went to California, where he
remained two years. In 1863 he was unanimously
chosen captain of a company of home-guards, and in
September of that year was commissioned major by
Governor Tod. Dignified in his bearing, gentle
in his manners, conscientious in the discharge of his
duties, both public and private, he was one of the most
popular and efficient young men in the community in
which he lived. In December, 1865, W. J.
died. He was a man of warm and generous impulses,
of industrious and economical habits, and left to his
widow and children quite a competency. Of the
sons, Edward C. is the only one now living, who
resides on the homestead at Stonelick, and is one of the
largest farmers in Clermont County. Of the
daughters, Mr. S. E. Roudebush resides near
Boston, and Mrs. T. C. Teal, Mrs. Angeline Haworth,
and Mrs. Elizabeth Carpenter near Stonelick.
Sarah Ann Patchell, wife of Edward, died
Jan. 17, 1866. She was one of those wives and
mothers who made home what it should be, - what
it was intended to be,- the most attractive place
on earth. Zealous in the cause of truth, faithful
in the discharge of duty, upright in her conduct, an
affectionate wife and loving mother are but few of her
noble traits and elements of character. In 1866 he
married Mrs. Anna J. McDonald, who survived him,
and is the present wife of Roland Boyd.
On the 11th of February,
1876, he died suddenly of heart-disease, while visiting
a neighbor. Commencing life with nothing but his
hands to earn his livelihood, he soon rose to wealth and
distinction. Austere in his manners, with a
well-balanced mind; temperate in his habits, with an
acute observation; close in his dealings, with a
sympathetic heart for suffering humanity; a patron of
colleges, with little if any education; a quick temper,
but not malicious, are some of the characteristics of
him, in whom the fire of the French, the sympathy of the
Irish, and the exactness of the Scotch were all united
in perfect harmony.
Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ.
Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B.
Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Page
544 |
