LEONARD H. PATTERSON. There is probably not within the limits of Wild Cat Township, Riley County, a man more widely known than Mr. Patterson, who finds friends wherever he goes. Generous, open-hearted, well informed, and with a very retentive memory, from which he draws many an interesting anecdote, he is usually to be found the center of an admiring circle, to whom he can relate many a tale of life in the Wild West.

The subject of this sketch was born April 5, 1836, in Erie County. Pa., and was the eldest in a family of nine children, the offspring of William J. and Eunice (Hardy) Patterson, both natives of New York State, and the former born in Jefferson County. The parents were married in 1835 and removed to Western Pennsylvania that same year. There the mother died in 1857. The father survived his wife for a period of twenty-one years, spending his last days in Erie County, Pa., and passing away in 1878. Only three of the family are living, Leonard, Mary and Frelingh.

Mr. Patterson spent his early years amid the quiet pursuits of farm life, obtaining his education in the common school, and when twenty-one years old struck out for himself. He worked on a farm in New York State one year and followed agriculture from that time on until 1860. That year he came to Kansas Territory, and for five years thereafter was a citizen of Leavenworth, although serving as a soldier in the Union army. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 6th Kansas Cavalry, which regiment was employed chiefly in hunting bushwhackers along the Kansas and Missouri frontier. In 1863 the regiment of which Mr. Patterson was a member went into Indian Territory and rescued the Northern sympathizers of the Cherokee Nation from their enemies, escorting them to Ft. Scott. Then they chased Gen. Price on what was known as "the Lone Jack Scout." Later they took part in the Gen. Blount campaign in Missouri and Arkansas, which closed with the battle at Prairie Grove, Ark. In the spring of 1863 the regiment was divided and Mr. Patterson was again in Missouri and Arkansas. In July the boys were re-united and the whole regiment sent to Ft. Gibson. Thence in the fall they were ordered to Ft. Smith, around which they foraged until spring.

In 1864 the regiment went South to reinforce Gen. Banks. Mr. Patterson was then under Gen. Steele; and after Banks' retreat Steele went to Little Rock, Ark. Later the troops returned to Ft. Smith, where Mr. Patterson remained until the expiration of his term of service. He received his honorable discharge at Leavenworth, in November,1864. After leaving the regular service he became wagon-master for a Government train from Leavenworth to Ft. Gibson, and was thus occupied six months. Afterward he took two droves of ponies to Ft. Lamed and Mound City. Next he was engaged in freighting from Leavenworth to Ft. Laramie.

Returning now to his native State, Mr. Patterson arrived amid the scenes of his childhood Dec. 23,1865. On the 1st of March following he was united in marriage with Miss Delia, daughter of Arold Freeman, a farmer and an early settler in that region, having located there in 1816. Mrs. Patterson was one of a family of nine children, and was born Dec. 18, 1834, in Crawford County, Pa. Both she and her husband are members of the Universalist Church. Mr. Patterson votes the straight Republican ticket, and for the past nine years has been a member of the School Board of District No. 6. He has also officiated as Road Overseer. Socially he belongs to Lew Gove Post, No. 100, G. A. R. His landed possessions comprise 700 broad acres, thoroughly improved and largely devoted to stock-raising, Mr. Patterson shipping from five to ten carloads annually.