Paterson is a settlement in

Sarah Baartman District Municipality Sarah Baartman District Municipality (formerly Cacadu District Municipality) is situated in the western part of the Eastern Cape province, covering an area of 58 242 square kilometres. The area of the district municipality includes seven local m ...

in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The town is located some north-west of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

and north of Nanaga on the N10 National Route.

Paterson village

The village was laid out in 1879 at Sand Flats railway station, which had been reached by the Midland System of the

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...

on 1 April 1876.''Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway'', Statement No. 19, p. 181, ref. no. 200954-13Soul of A Railway - System 3 – Part 9: The Midland Main Line - Part 1: Port Elizabeth to Paterson - Caption 10
(Accessed on 5 February 2017)Soul of A Railway - System 3 – Part 10: The Midland Main Line - Part 2: Paterson to Alicedale - Caption 2
(Accessed on 15 February 2017) The new town was named after John Paterson (1822–1880), member of Parliament and founder of the

Eastern Province Herald The ''Eastern Province Herald'' is a newspaper, founded in 1845 and based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. John Paterson, founder of the ''Eastern Province Herald'' (1822-1880) John Paterson was born in March 1822 in Aberdeen, Scotland, the s ...

and of th
Grey Institute for Boys
who established the town.

Railway station

The first Paterson to become a railwayman was James, who joined the Cape Government Railways as a clerk at Port Elizabeth in 1882. After rising to many senior posts in the Operating department, South African Railways General Manager Sir William Hoy appointed him in June 1913 as Divisional Superintendent at Kimberley, where he retired in 1920. Four generations and 180 cumulative years of Paterson railway service later, the fourth generation (and sixth member) of the Paterson family joined what was by then SA Transport Services in Johannesburg. During 1962, Sandflats railway station was eventually also named "Paterson".

References

{{Sarah Baartman District Municipality Populated places in the Sunday's River Valley Local Municipality Populated places established in 1879