General John Patton was born in Sligo, Ireland, in the year 1745, and emigrated to this country, at Philadelphia, in the year 1761 [15 years old]. He engaged actively in the stuggle for national independence, as colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania troops. For a time, he had charge of the defenses of Philadelphia; moreover, he was one of that noble band of merchants of that city, composed of Robert Morris* and other patriotic men, who raised, on their own personal responsibility, some two hundred and sixty thousand pounds to relieve Washington in the greatest crisis of the Revolution. He also was a member of the famous Cincinnati Society.†

In 1791, he moved to Centre county, where he passed the rest of his life. He died in the year 1804. He built, in the latter named county, the old Centre Furnace, one of the first erected west of Harrisburg.450

Note: this John Patton is most often referred to as “Colonel” Patton, but he was also a General in the Pennsylvania State Militia. Hence his title in this Pennsylvania history book and other records.3
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John Patton, was born in Sligo, County of Sligo, Ireland, in 1745, He came to Philadelphia in 1761. Under the old colonial government he was an auctioneer. This was a government office, and there were only four in the city for many years. He was married to Jane Davis, daughter of an old settler of Chester county. They were well known as a celebrated Revolutionary family. Her brother, Lt. Joseph Davis, fell at the massacre of Wyoming. His remains are interred under the monument erected to the memory of the martyrs who fell victims of that terrible conflict.

After his marriage he was a merchant in the city, and at the time of the Revolution (1777) was a contributor of £2,000 for the support of the colonial army.

He and the noted Robert Morris* were extremely liberal friends of the Whigs. He was colonel of the 16th Penn'a Infantry, and played a prominent part in the noted struggle for liberty.

Col. Patton removed to Centre county in 1789. He built, in 1791, Centre Furnace. Col. Miles, the proprietor of Milesburg, was connected in business matters with him. He died in 1804. At his death he was major general of this division of the state militia. His wife, Mrs. Jane Patton, died in 1831, aged seventy-nine years.451
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Colonel John Patton was a Major in the Philadelphia Light Horse‡ in 1776 and is said to have been a member of Washington’s Body Guard. He was the Colonel of the 16th Regiment and had charge of the defenses of Philadelphia. In 1778 he gave bonds to relieve the financial distress in the Army and was a member of the Cincinnati.237
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Colonel John Patton, who was also actively engaged in the struggle for National Independence, as Colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment of Pennsylvania Troops,
and for a time had charge of the defenses of Philadelphia. Colonel Patton was one of that noble band of patriots in Philadelphia, who raised, on their own personal responsibility, two hundred and sixty thousand pounds to aid the Revolutionary army in the greatest crisis of that memorable struggle. He was also a member of the “Society of the Cincinnati.”452
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Colonel John Patton was born in Sligo, Ireland, 1745. He came to Pennsylvania just before the revolution. He was a member of the Philadelphia Committee of Inspection and Observation,§ August 16, 1775; member of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, 1775; Major of the Second battalion Pennsylvania Rifle regiment March 13, 1776, under Colonel Miles; transferred as Major to the Ninth Pennsylvania Continental line October 25, 1776; promoted by General Washington January n, [sic] 1777, to be Colonel of one of the Additional regiments; became member of the Philadelphia City Troop July 4, 1779, and was placed on the honour roll of the troop September 10, 1787; was appointed one of the signers of Pennsylvania paper money 1781. He was also elected a member of the famous Schuylkill Fishing Company of the State of Schuylkill, July 23, 1782, and was a councillor from 1783. He was appointed on the Committee on the defense of the bay and Delaware river June 26, 1782. He subsequently became a General of the State militia. He was also appointed auctioneer for Philadelphia, November, 1787. In 1790 he sold to the State, for the modest sum of, 664 specie^ ($3300), five acres of land on Front street, Philadelphia, between Walnut and George, for the erection of a powder magazine.

Colonel Patton, after his resignation, November, 1777, was employed as superintendent to purchase flour for the army. When the war ended he engaged in the iron business with Colonel Miles, and built Centre Furnace in Harris township, Centre county, where he died 1804, aged 59, and was buried in the church yard at Boalsburg.

He was six feet in height, of noble appearance and carriage, and had red hair and hazel eyes. He had a fine address and polished manners.

The history of the City Troop says, "died October 25, 1812." (page 179.) The Davis family were doubtless Welsh Baptists, as the marriage of Colonel Patton is recorded in the list of marriages of the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia. He was married by the Rev. William Rogers, D. D., who records the event thus: "Col. John Patton and Jane Davis, both of Philadelphia, March 7, 1777." Dr. Rogers was then chaplain of Colonel Miles regiment, as well as pastor of the First Baptist Church.

Colonel Patton and Jane Davis had eleven children. He was a man held in high esteem by his co-patriots.453
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The 16th Regiment of Pennsylvania was under the command of Samuel Miles.

Patton moved to Centre County, PA in 1791 where he with his partner Samuel Miles built the areas first iron furnace, Centre Furnace, in 1792 at the base of Mount Nittany. Miles, who Patton served under during the Revolutionary War, lived outside Philadelphia and traveled to Centre county, but never lived there. 

Centre Furnace was the first of more than a dozen furnace operations that would develop in the area over the next fifty years. The ironmaking enterprise gave Centre County it’s name in 1800 and ironmaking would become central Pennsylvania’s most significant nineteenth-century industry. Patton sold his interest in Centre Furnace in 1798 and moved to his farm near present-day Shingletown where he lived until his death. In 1855 Centre Furnace became the location for Pennsylvania State University.

Present day Centre Furnace Village is a National Register site and includes the Centre Furnace Mansion, furnace stack, and surrounding eight acres representing a small portion of the late 18th-century ironmaking village that was located there. The mansion now serves as the headquarters of the Centre County Historical Society.454
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Milesburg, PA as well as nearby Miles Township were named after Colonel Samuel Miles, who co-owned the Centre Furnace, along with Colonel John Patton and John Dunlop.455
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Blessed with iron ore deposits, vast forests that provided charcoal, abundant coal beds for fuel, limestone for use as flux and streams for water power, Pennsylvania was the ironmaking center of America for more than a century. From tools for blacksmiths and wheel rims for carriages, to steam locomotives and iron rails, iron products from Pennsylvania played a leading role in the development of the English colonies and the United States well into the nineteenth century.

Iron plantations based on charcoal-fueled furnaces were the centers of iron manufacturing. Rural iron plantations were large complexes of production facilities including housing for workers, an ironmaster’s mansion, a village store, forests and often encompassed land containing iron ore deposits. This system of charcoal furnace plantations peaked during the 1830s.456
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In 1791-2 Col. Samuel Miles and Col. John Patton, two officers of the Revolutionary war, erected Centre furnace, in what is now Boggs township, Centre county, which, with a store at that point, was in operation under the name of Miles, Patton & Miles as early as May 2, 1792 — the first blast furnace erected in the county. Col. Patton died in 1802 [?], and Col. Miles, who was a resident of Montgomery county, and whose interests were represented by his sons, Joseph and John, residents of Centre county, died in 1805.

The furnace was blown out in 1809, and laid idle until about 1825. when Joseph Green, Sr., and Joseph Miles started it again. Col. Miles had, in 1792, purchased large tracts of land on Spring and Bald Eagle creeks, and he, with his sons, laid out Milesburg and established the Milesburg Iron Works in 1797, which, for a time, were carried on in connection with the Centre furnace.

In the Revolutionary war Gen. Miles was colonel of one of the rifle battalions, and was taken prisoner at Long Island in 1776. He was subsequently judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and mayor of Philadelphia.457
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Centre Furnace ironmasters James Irvin and Moses Thompson's longest-lasting contribution to the economic well-being of Centre County was not iron, but support of agriculture and education. In 1855 their offer of land and money beat out six other counties vying for the attention of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. The Society built their Farmers' High School on 200 acres of Centre Furnace land donated by Irvin and Thompson, and financially supported by them and several Bellefonte men. That Farmers' High School is now The Pennsylvania State University, all located on what were once Centre Furnace lands. The original offer letter from James Irvin is in the Penn State archives.458
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Mr. Patton was among the first jurors in the first grand jury of Centre county assembled in April 1801.52
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John (Col. PA) and his wife Jane are listed in the DAR Patriot Index and confirms his birth and death dates as indicated.459
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This John Patton was said to be related to George Washington’s mother Mary Ball.49
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Per a newspaper account John Patton's body in the 1930's was relocated in a controversial move from it’s original nondescript farm grave to a more dignified resting place because of his stature as a Revolutionary War soldier.237
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Susquehanna Chapter D.A.R. [Daughters of the American Revolution], organized April 1, 1897, at Clearfield with eleven of its charter members descended from Col. John Patton of the 16th Colonial Regiment of Pennsylvania.

Col. Patton never lived in Clearfield County. But his son Lieut. John Patton, came to Curwensville in 1828, where he lived until his death in 1848.
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Headstone Inscription:

John Patton
Born in Sligo, Ireland, 1745
Died in Centre County, PA., 1804
Member 1st Troop Phila City Cavalry
A Colonel in the Revolutionary War

Jane Patton
Wife of Colonel Patton
1752 - 1832

Wife Husband175
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John Patton and his wife Jane were married in the same church as Greenbury (1752) and Elizabeth Dorsey. The Dorseys were married nine years later. The Patton’s daughter Ellen married the Dorsey’s son Henry.3
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An English traveler, Charles Latrobe, expressed his mixed views of the Irish in 1832:

Here comes a ship load of Irish. They land upon the wharfs of New York in rags and open-knee’d breeches, with their raw looks and bare necks, they flourish their cudgels, throw up their torn hats and cry,__”Hurrah for Gineral [sic] Jackson!” They get drunk and kick up a row;--lend their forces to any passing disturbance, and make early acquaintance with the interior of the lock-ups. From New York they go in swarms to the canals, railroads, and public works, where they perform the labour which the Americans are not inclined to do; now and then they get up a fight among themselves in the style of old Ireland, and perhaps kill one another, expressing great indignation and surprise when they find that they must answer for it, though they are in a free country. By degrees, the more thrifty get and keep money, and diving deeper into the continent, purchase lands; while the intemperate and irreclaimable vanish from the surface.... Though the fathers may be irreclaimable, the children become good citizens,--and there is no finer race in the world both for powers of mind and body than the Irish, when favoured by education and under proper control.460

[Charles Joseph Latrobe (1801-1875) is found in the family history of Richard Lee Gleason, and is his second cousin, five generations removed.]
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*Robert Morris was an American merchant and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was a major financier of the American Revolution. Morris is given credit for the critical role he played in America’s triumph in arms and in the founding of the national government.461,462
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†The Society of the Cincinnati is the nation’s oldest patriotic organization, founded in 1783 by the officers of Continental army to perpetuate friendships forged in war and to preserve the memory of the American Revolution. The modern Society, with headquarters in Washington D.C. maintains that historic fellowship and promotes scholarship on the Revolutionary War as well as popular appreciation of the contributions made by American and French officers in the achievement of American Independence [More follows].463
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The General Society of the Cincinnati was founded in May, 1783 a Mount Gulian, the Verplanck family estate at Fishkill, New York, by Continental Army officers who fought in the American Revolution. This was before the Treaty of Peace was signed and before the British evacuated New York. The Honorable Major General Baron von Steuben, being the senior officer, presided at the organizational meetings. Within 12 months, Constituent Societies were established in the 13 original states and in France under the auspices of the General Society of the Cincinnati. Of the 5,500 officers who were eligible to join, about 2,150 did so. George Washington was elected the first President General of theSociety in December 1783 until his death in 1799. He was succeeded by Alexander Hamilton.

The Society is named for Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, a Roman farmer of the Fifth Century B.C, who, like Washington, was called from his fields to lead his country's army in battle. Cincinnatus, as did Washington, returned from war a triumphant leader, declined honors, and went back to his farm. Washington, as did Cincinnatus, lived up to the Society's Motto: "He gave up everything to serve the republic."

The Cincinnati Society is unique because:

- It is the oldest military hereditary society in this country.

- It is also our first military beneficial society. Each Original Member was obliged to pledge to his State Society one month's officer's pay, the interest therefrom going to those members and their families "unfortunately" in need. At a time when military pensions were not yet a reality due to the virtual unwillingness of Congress to tax, this had an immediate and continuing importance. Pennsylvania alone, up to about 1860, gave over $60,000 to support needy memebrs, their widows, and children. The Society worked to influence Congress for pensions for surviving Revolutionary veterans, an end achieved in 1832. Subsequent American military pensions stem from the Society's early initiative.

Membership is open to descendants of Continental Army and Navy officers who were original members, who died in service, or who joined in their lifetime. Membership passes by right through the eldest son of the eldest surviving son successively from the Original Member. If the eldest surviving son line fails, then, in many State Societies, including ours, membership goes by election to the "most worthy" direct or collateral male descendant.

Many leaders who helped create this nation were Original Members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Among them are: General Henry Knox, considered the Society's originator; General Friedrich William von Steuben, a volunteer from Prussia and the Society's first presiding officer; Alexander Hamilton; General Nathanael Greene; Commodore John Barry; and Captain John Paul Jones. Foreign officers who fought for the American cause and became members included Generals Lafayette and Rochambeau and Admiral de Grasse from France, Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko from Poland, and Major John Rose (actually Baron Gustavus Heinrich von Wetter-Rosendahl), an exile from the Czar's Court. Major Rose, Commodore Barry, and Captain Jones were members of the Pennsylvania Society.464
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To Quote from our Institution: [Society of the Cincinnati]

The following Principles shall be immutable, and form the Basis of THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI

- An Incessant Attention to preserve inviolate those exalted Rights and Liberties of Human Nature for which they have fought and bled, and without which the high Rank of a Rational Being is a Curse Instead of a Blessing.

- An unalterable Determination to promote and cherish between the respective States that Union and national Honour so essentially necessary to their happiness, and the future Dignity of the American Empire.

- To render permanent the cordial Affection subsisting among the officers; this Spirit will dictate Brotherly Kindness in all things, and particularly extend to the most substantial Acts of Beneficence, according to the Ability of the Society, towards those Officers and their Families who unfortunately may be under the Necessity of receiving it.

- The purpose of this site is to help increase public awareness of the importance of the Revolutionary War era and its men to the history of our nation.465
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Colonel Patton was originally buried on a farm in Boalsburg, Harris Township, Centre, PA. On Armistice Day 11 November 1938, his remains were reinterred at Riverview Cemetery in Huntingdon, PA.466

‡The Philadelphia Light Horse is a unit of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and the oldest continuously serving unit in the United States military. Also known as the First City Troop, this purely volunteer calvary troop was one of the first patriotic military organizations established in the American Revolution organized in 1774 as the Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia. The gentlemen of the Philadelphia Light Horse were professional men, shipowners, importers, or traders, generally of conspicuous prominence in the affairs of the day. The times that called it into being, and the character of the original members who fought through the seven years of the American Revolution, together forged concepts of service and a body of tradition that have given it a continuity of purpose for more than 230 years.467
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§The Philadelphia Committee of Inspection and Observation was comprised initially of 43 members but soon expanded to an even 100. It was one of a network created througout the colonies to implement the resolutions of the First Continental Congress. From the committees inception it was controlled by the so-called gentlemen of the city--the largely Quaker aristocacy who for half a century had controlled Philadelphia’s, and thus Pennsyvania’s politics. As it increaased in size so did it’s influence.468
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^Specie has varying definitions with similar meaning. In this case it was probably meant that payment was received in the form of precious metal used to back money, usually gold and silver.469
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56005 Continental Army Request for Provisions. LS, ”JW Chanloner”, one, 8.25”x13.5”, front and verso, “Camp Whissahichon”, Nov. 6, 1777. Letter of request for provisions from the Continental Army encampment at Whitemarish, Pennsylvania where Washington and 15,000 troops encamped Nov. 2 to Dec 11, 1777, just prior to Valley Forge. In part: “Our necessity for flour and Whiskey is such that I have dispatched the bearer in hopes that he will meet with them on their way to camp... I expect momentarily to be called upon by his Excellency [George Washington] to answer for the wants of flour and Whisky...” Addressed on integral cover to Col. John Patton at Reading with an intact red wax seal. Good ccontent illustrative of the already strained resources of the Continental Army. Estimate $600-$1000470
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A John Patton is found in the following source immigrating sometime during the period 1749-1776. [Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2009.]136
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Almost NO Patton is related to General George S. Patton's [famous World War Two general] line.

Gen. Patton's grandson, Robert H. Patton, wrote a book, titled, The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family (The Warriors). In it he says the general's great grandfather (or maybe great-great) was on a ship immigrating from Europe (probably Ireland or Scotland) going to one of the islands in the West Indies.

There was another man on board the ship named Patton. The Patton man died and Gen. Patton's gg-grandfather took his name (probably because he was running from the law). He eventually ended up in Virginia.

On the gg grandfather's death bed, his wife tried to get him to tell her what his real name was. He replied that, "I have lived my life as a Patton and I will die a Patton."

Therefore no one is related to him unless you are from his direct line or married into it somehow.236

The Rev. Dr. Rogers was at the time of the marriage chaplain of Colonel Miles regiment, as well as pastor of the First Baptist Church.453
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A “John” born abt 1778 is listed by this source as a child of Jane and John Patton.237

A John Patton b. 1778 is listed among the children of Jane Bartholomew Davis and Col. John Patton at this source.472

[Not sure this second “John” ever existed. This source lists 11 children.]453