The Arrival of the Pattersons

•August 12, 2026•

by Janey Roney

James Patterson, one of three Revolutionary War veterans buried in Moultrie County, joined his local Carolina Patriot militia when he was 16 years old. His very detailed 1836 pension application showed that he kept re-enlisting until the end of the war. He was a man who took action to rectify wrongs. Even after the war was officially over, James was involved in some continued fighting between the Tories and Patriots near his home in the Carolinas. But when local Tories burned down Patterson’s father’s house in the early 1790s, Patterson, his new wife, Mary Nelson, and his extended family decided to move west to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.  

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