MINNIE WARD PATTERSON A woman of the century (page 569 crop)

Minnie Ward Patterson () was a poet and author, born in the city of Niles in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Her most famous work is ''Pebbles from Old Pathways''.

Life

Minnie Ward was born in 1844 in

Niles, Michigan Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near the Indiana border city of South Bend. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities ...

. Before she reached adulthood, both her parents died, and she was left to the care of strangers. From an early age, she taught music and painting, filling every spare moment with writing. She graduated with honours from

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private Conservatism in the United States, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by Abolitionism, abolitionists known as Free Will Baptists. Its missio ...

at the age of twenty, and afterwards a degree of A.M. Soon after leaving school, she opened a studio in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and was a frequent contributor to the "Sunday Times" usually over the signature of "Zinober Green". While on a sketching tour along the

Upper Mississippi The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, at the confluence of its main tributary, the Missouri River. History In terms of geologic and hydrographic history, the Upper ...

, during the summer of 1867, she became the wife of John C. Patterson, a former class-mate in Hillsdale, and a graduate of the law school in Albany, who became a prominent member of the Michigan bar and then was twice elected to the Senate of that State. The couple then resided in

Marshall, Michigan Marshall is a U.S. city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Calhoun County. The population was 7,088 at the 2010 census. Marshall is best known for its cross-section of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture. It has been referred to by t ...

. She had some communication with

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the ''New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poetry ...

who advised her against making poetry her primary occupation.

Career

Patterson's poems appeared in the

Boston Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. Beginnings ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...

Youth's Companion ''The Youth's Companion'' (1827–1929), known in later years as simply ''The Companion—For All the Family'', was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with ''The American Boy'' in 1929. ...

, Wide Awake,

Peterson's Magazine ''Peterson's Magazine'' (1842–1898) was an American magazine focused on women. It was published monthly and based in Philadelphia. In 1842, Charles Jacobs Peterson and George Rex Graham, partners in the '' Saturday Evening Post'', agreed ...

, the Free Press,

Detroit Tribune The ''Detroit Tribune'' a newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States, was started as the ''Daily Tribune'' in 1849 and used the name until 1862. In 1862 the ''Tribune'' joined with the (Detroit) ''Daily Advertiser'' which then absorbed other ...

Detroit Times Six different newspapers called the ''Detroit Times'' have been published in the city of Detroit; the most recent existed for six decades, from 1900-60. Overview *The first iteration of the ''Detroit Times'' was an antislavery bulletin only print ...

, the Journal of Chicago, and various other periodicals. In 1875 published a book entitled ''Pebbles from Old Pathways'', a 200 page collection of her poetry. Not long after the appearance of that ''Pebbles'' she became greatly interested in the Norse languages and literature, and her next work of importance was the translation of three volumes of the Swedish book ''The Surgeon's Stories'', entitled respectively ''Times of Frederick I'', ''Times of Linnæus'', and ''Times of Alchemy''. She also translated many folklore tales from Norwegian, which appeared in various newspapers. Patterson eventually moved to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, where her son George Leo Patterson was paster of the Congregational Church. When he moved to New York in 1912, she "preached such a forceful sermon that the church unanimously elected her as pastor". In February 1916, it was reported that she had died in a hospital in New York.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Minnie Ward 1844 births 19th-century American poets American women poets 19th-century American translators Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century Year of death missing 1916 deaths