J. TERREL PATTERSON
Terrell Patterson was born
in Coryell County on August 9, 1889 at his father, John
Wesley Patterson’s farm
home at the foot of Hard Bargain Mountain on the old
Pidcoke Road. His mother
was Lucy Minerva Wallace; Lucy married John
September 12, 1888 after
his first wife, Savannah Cox, died leaving two young
sons, Ola and Andy. Lucy
lived with her parents, Nancy Cogburn(Cockburn) and
Miles Wallace on an adjacent
farm, and sparks flew when John and Lucy were
the main characters in a
play put on by Union Church. Terrell’s childhood and early
manhood were spent on the
family farm. He attended Union Public School in the
Union Valley community.
One of his teachers was Abbie Williamson. On the School
Board were his father, J.
M. Calhoun, and John Rose. In addition to Ola who married
Bertha Rainey and Andy who
married Lovie Berry, his younger
siblings were Nora,
who married John W. Hagan;
Boone, who married Etta Baize; Floyd, who
married Georgia Jones, Dollie,
who married Richard Sexton, and Sam, who married
Dora Schaub. In his twenties,
Terrell’s country called him to serve in World War I
(which was called "The Great
War") on September 19, 1917 at Gatesville. He
served in the 36th Division
which was organized during August and September of
1917 from National Guard
organizations of Texas and Oklahoma and 8,500 drafted
men. He and his brother,
Boone, went to Camp Bowie in San Antonio on a
special train with Otis
Whitt, Henry Smith, Herman Lockhart, Pete Padgett and
Vester Ballard, and other
inductees from Coryell County. Terrell, Vester, Pete,
and Herman were in the same
squad in Company M, 143rd Infantry, 36th Division.
The Coryell boys served
in the American Expeditionary Force in France (Meuse and
Argonne). They were on the
front at the Rhine River for thirty-six days, had gone
back to get food and clothes
when the Armistice was signed. On returning with his
Honorable Discharge on June
14, 1919, he traveled to Ranger, Texas where he
worked in the new oil field.
He had been reintroduced to Ethel Douglas when she
came to Coryell County to
teach at Union(1916) and King(1917) Schools, and
boarded in the Patterson
home. During Terrell's war duty, he and Ethel corresponded
regularly. Terrell and she
had both attended Union School in 1905; however, Ethel’s
parents, Betty Brandon and
Richard Douglass, moved to Inez where Dick was
ranch foreman and Betty
cooked for the Brown & Dodd Ranch. On May 7, 1920
Terrell married his sweetheart,
Ethel. They farmed in Coryell County until 1927 when
Terrell accepted a carpenter’s
job with Imperial Sugar Company in Sugar Land
where several of Ethel’s
family lived. There, they had two daughters; Betty Virgini
a was born and died in 1928,
and Neva Lou was born in 1930. Terrell died on
March 5, 1937 and Ethel
passed away December 11, 1952. They and Betty are
buried in Union Valley Cemetery
in Coryell County. Ethel and Neva Lou
moved to Houston after Terrell’s
death. After graduating from Milby High School,
Neva worked in an insurance
office where she met Clayton McClain, marrying him
December 17, 1948. Their
three children are: Kathie, married to Floyd Wayne
Mayberry; Bruce, married
to Vickie Ann McCoy; Mark, married to Lori Angela
DiPanni. Terrell would have
enjoyed his great-grandchildren, Stacy, Kate, Joshua,
Jenna, and Sarah!
By Daughter, Neva Lou Patterson McClain 9/24/2000