Paterson is a settlement in

Sarah Baartman District Municipality The Sarah Baartman District Municipality (; ), formerly the Cacadu District Municipality, is situated in the western part of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, covering an area of 58,242 square kilometres. The area of the district municip ...

in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The town is located some north-west of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

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 ow ...

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 and of the 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