Minnie Ward Patterson () was a poet and author, born in the city of Niles in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Her most famous work is ''Pebbles from Old Pathways''.

Life

Minnie Ward was born in about 1844 in

Niles, Michigan Niles is a city in Berrien County, Michigan, Berrien and Cass County, Michigan, Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near the Indiana state line city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. The population was 11,988 according to the 2020 Unit ...

. Before she reached adulthood, both her parents died, and she was left to the care of strangers. From an early age, she taught music and painting, filling every spare moment with writing. She graduated with honours from

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private, Conservatism in the United States, conservative, Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Will Baptists. Women were admi ...

at the age of twenty, and afterwards a degree of A.M. Soon after leaving school, she opened a studio in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and was a frequent contributor to the "Sunday Times" usually over the signature of "Zinober Green". While on a sketching tour along the Upper Mississippi, during the summer of 1867, she became the wife of John C. Patterson, a former class-mate in Hillsdale, and a graduate of the law school in Albany, who became a prominent member of the Michigan bar and then was twice elected to the Senate of that State. The couple then resided in

Marshall, Michigan Marshall is a city and the county seat of Calhoun County, Michigan. The population was 6,822 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Marshall is best known for its cross-section of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and as the futu ...

. She had some communication with

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the '' New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poe ...

who advised her against making poetry her primary occupation.

Career

Patterson's poems appeared in the

Boston Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. History Founding ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James We ...

Youth's Companion ''The Youth's Companion'' (1827–1929), known in later years as simply ''The Companion—For All the Family'', was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with '' The American Boy'' in 19 ...

Wide Awake Wide Awake or Wideawake may refer to: Places *Wide Awake, South Carolina, US *Prestonville, Kentucky, US, formerly Wideawake * Wideawake Airfield or RAF Ascension Island, a British military base Books and publications *Wide Awake (magazine), ''Wid ...

Peterson's Magazine ''Peterson's Magazine'' (1842–1898) was an American magazine focused on women. It was published monthly and based in Philadelphia. In 1842, Charles Jacobs Peterson and George Rex Graham, partners in the ''Saturday Evening Post'', agreed ...

, the Free Press,

Detroit Tribune The ''Detroit Tribune'' was a newspaper in Detroit. It started as the ''Daily Tribune'' in 1849 and used the name until 1862, the same year the ''Tribune'' joined with the (Detroit) ''Daily Advertiser'' which then absorbed other papers, becomin ...

Detroit Times Six different newspapers called the ''Detroit Times'' have been published in the city of Detroit; the most recent existed for six decades, from 1900 to 1960. Overview *The first iteration of the ''Detroit Times'' was an antislavery bulletin onl ...

, the Journal of Chicago, and various other periodicals. In 1875 published a book entitled ''Pebbles from Old Pathways'', a 200 page collection of her poetry. Not long after the appearance of that ''Pebbles'' she became greatly interested in the Norse languages and literature, and her next work of importance was the translation of three volumes of the Swedish book ''The Surgeon's Stories'', entitled respectively ''Times of Frederick I'', ''Times of Linnæus'', and ''Times of Alchemy''. She also translated many folklore tales from Norwegian, which appeared in various newspapers. Patterson eventually moved to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

, where her son George Leo Patterson was paster of the Congregational Church. When he moved to New York in 1912, she "preached such a forceful sermon that the church unanimously elected her as pastor". In February 1916, it was reported that she had died in a hospital in New York.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Minnie Ward 1840s births 19th-century American poets American women poets 19th-century American translators Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century 1916 deaths