I have been able to find out very little about the background of my Grandfather Patterson, except that he was born Charles Eugene Patterson on November 30, 1860. He always went under the name of “Gene”. A 1910 census indicates that he was born in Wisconsin and his death certificate shows his birth place only as LaPorte. His father’s name was Walter and his mother was Desiah Burdsell.

During Granddad’s early years he worked in the logging camps of the Paul Bunion days of Lower Michigan. He later became a Tinsmith and plied his trade at the Griffith Hardware and at Fairbanks Morse and Company in Three Rivers, Michigan. I remember Granddad Patterson as an avid reader and, at one time between the two of us, we owned a copy of every Tarzan story that Edgar Rice Burroughs had ever written and they were all first printings. I would sure like to know what happened to them.

Granddad died June 19, 1931, in the Three Rivers Hospital.