Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-08-31
ROBERT EMORY PATTISON.

know in New York, what is he worth ?
in Philadelphia, who was his father,
The personal character and official worth
of our candidate alike invite inspection
by any one or all of these tests.
ROBERT EMORY PATTIsoN, the only
Democratic candidate for governor in
Pennsylvania, and the one who pro.
poses, when "chosen for the office by
the people, to perform its duties to
their satisfaction" was born on the Sth
day Of December, A. d., 1850, at Quantico,
Somerset county, Md. For the place OF
his birth there is no apology needed
further than that he chad to be born
somewhere" as Andrew jackson, OF
Tennessee, said of himself, in answer to
the taunt that Waxhaw, North Caro-
lima. was his own humble birthplace,
itself in name, like Pattison's, sugges
tive of aboriginal origin. Indian names
are numerous on the Eastern Shore ot
MARYLAND, which has also been called
by a recent writer in Harper'S Magazine.
"a Peninsula Canaan ;""a land OF rivers
of waters" One of these gives name
to the new county of Wicomico, set oft
from Somerset few years ago, in which
is located the little town of Quantico.
That was the first place to which the
late Rev. Robert II. Pattison, D. D., for
many years grand chaplain of the grand
lodge of Masons in Pennsylvania, was
appointed, after his marriage with Miss
Catharine Woolford, of Cambridge, by
the presiding bishop of the Philadel.
phia M. E. conference, which at that
time included the peninsula within its
bounds. A short time thereafter the
fathers appointment was to Odessa,
Delaware, and next to Philadelphia
when the first born son was but six years
old.
HIS EDUCATION.
Robert was at once started to school,
and entering the primary, passed during
the years following through the success
sive grades of the common schools, the
glory of our commonwealth, on up to
and through the Penn grammar and
central high school. Here young Patti
son made his first speech, being called
upon to deliver the valedictory address,
and graduating with the highest honors
of the fifty.ffth class. In this way he
became known to Lewis c. Cassidy, esq,
then a member of the board of educa.
ton, in whose office he registered as a
law student in December, 1862 with the
recommendation of Professor George
Inman Richie, the high school principal.
The elder Pattison had intended his
son should graduate also at Dickinson
college, where he himself had been
educated, having named him in honor
of one of the most honored presidents
of that institution. Robert Emory was
q native of Philadelphia, afterward a
law student of Reverdy johnson, in
Baltimore, and in the end a divine of
great learning and mastery in man.
hood. Such man, too, was the senior
Pattison, one whose knightly appear.
ance and chivalric bearing coexisted
with great kindness of manner, that
made him friends in all classes of So
ciety, and caused him to be mourned in
death-which came to him in 1875 -
wherever his personal and social worth
were known. His solicitude for the
future of his only son may be best ex
pressed in words written by James Mill
TO Jeremy Bentham, with reference TO
his son, John Stuart Mill: "However,
if | were to- die anytime before this
poor boy is a man, one of the things
which would pinch me most sorely
would be the being obliged to leave his
mind unmade to the degree of excel.
lence hope for"
A STUDENT OF LAW.
Fortunately DR.. Pattison did live TO
see his son Robert apply himself not
only to the mastery of law books in the
office, but also after office hours'at home,
to general literature, and especially to
the history Of the old Feudal days; so
familiarizing himself with the ground.
work of his chosen profession, and at
the same time keeping up with the
times in his general reading during half
holidays, and on his way to and fro.
The father lived to see him a good
student of human nature as well, using
the ample opportunity Mr.. Cassidy's
large criminal practice afforded for this
and in every way at his command thor.
oughly qualifying himself for admission
to the Philadelphia bar, where he en-
tered upon the practice of the law on
his own account in 1872. That year the
young lawyer was married to Anna,
daughter of Edwin A. Smith, of Phila.
delphia, and settled down in the small
two story house 3247 Sansom street,
where he has continued to reside ever
since, and where two children, a boy
and a girl, have been born to them in
their happy home.
From the age of seventeen, when he
was already developed beyond his years,
following in the footsteps of his grand.
father on his mothers side, Col Thomas
Woolford, who commanded in the Mary.
land line in the Revolutionary wars
Pattison had been popular member of
the Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania
Militia, known as the Fire Zouaves, and
he was subsequently identified with the
reorganization of the State Fencibles.
LAWYER, ORATOR AND MILITIAMAN.
There he formed the friendship of
that good old Democrat, ga man with.
out fear and without reproach," Col.
James Page, whom Rattison succeeded
as president of the organization. He
won his first laurels as lawyer in an
L =. Il ~rn IL L.