The Patten Family members highlighted in this collection are: Francis England Wall (F.E.W.) Patten (1823-1898); his son George Yager Patten (1876-1951); George's first wife, Eleanor Ferris Patten (d. 1943); their daughter, Margaret Patten (1903- ? ); George's second wife, Sarah Frances Smith Patten (1899-1986).
Born in Missouri, F.E.W. Patten settled in Virginia City, Montana as a merchant in 1863, served in the fourth Montana Territorial Legislature, and until his death in 1898, sold real estate and insurance in Butte. F.E.W. married Mary Amelia Armstrong. Their son, George Y. Patten, was born at Virginia City in 1876 and attended public schools in Butte. After 1893, he worked as a court stenographer and studied law. In 1900, rather than going to law school, George took the bar exam and passed with highest honors. He built up a private practice dealing primarily with corporate law, working closely with the law firm of Cotter and Mc Hatton, and became widely recognized as an expert in mining, water rights and public policy laws. In 1901, he married Eleanor Ferris (? - 1943), daughter of Colonel Edward and Margaret Eastman Ferris. George and Eleanor had three children, Margaret (1903 - ?), Mary (1905 - ?), and Eleanor Jr. (1913 - ?). George married Sarah Frances Smith in 1945. Frances was born in 1899 in Durham, Kansas. She completed her B.A. in home economics at Kansas State University in 1922, and her M.A. in adult education at Columbia University in 1938. She worked for Kansas State College for the Extension Division from 1925 to 1927. She continued her Extension Service work in Flathead County, Montana until 1929. Frances Patten taught for the Department of Home Economics at Montana State College, Bozeman between 1946 and 1964. She spent the last 7 years of her teaching career doing extension work in the Middle East. George Y. Patten died in Bozeman in 1951. Frances Patten died in Bozeman in 1986.
From the guide to the Patten Family Papers, 1895-1986, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
