Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/709

This protest began the struggle against that institution in this country, and is the subject of John G. Whittier's poem, “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim.” For many years he taught in Germantown and Philadelphia, and many of the deeds and letters required by the German settlers were written by him. He published a pamphlet, consisting in part of letters to his father, and containing a description of the commonwealth and its government, and advice to emigrants, entitled “Umständige geographische Beschreibung der allerletzt erfundenen Provintz Pennsylvaniæ” (Frankfort-on-Main, 1700). Several volumes were left by him in manuscript, containing philosophical reflections, poems, and notes on theological, medical, and legal subjects. His Latin prologue to the Germantown book of records has been translated by Whittier in the ode beginning “Hail to Posterity.”

PATCH, Samuel, athlete, b. in Rhode Island about 1807 ; d. in Rochester, N. Y., 13 Nov., 1839. He followed the sea early in life, and afterward went to Paterson, N. J., where he became a cotton- spinner. In 1827 he was seized with the mania for jumping that was then prevalent. A bridge had been built at Paterson over Passaic river, and Patch declared so frequently that he would jump from it that he was placed under arrest, but made his first leap from the rocks at the foot of the bridge on the southwestern side of the chasm that it spanned. Subsequently he jumped from the bridge itself, a distance of eighty or ninety feet, and in consequence became the hero of the hour. He then travelled about the country, leaping from the yard-arms and bowsprits of vessels, and diving from top-masts, until he was attracted to Niagara Falls with the crowd that gathered there to see the condemned brig " Michigan " go over the cataract with its freight of living animals. Here he jumped from a shelving rock midway between the highest point on Goat island and the water, more than half the height of the falls. Previous to his performance at Niagara he had given an exhibition at Roches- ter, N. Y.. but, not being satisfied with the results, he advertised a second leap on his return from the former place, asserting that on 13 Nov. he would jump from the bank of the Genesee river at Gene- see Falls " into the abyss below, a distance of 125 feet." The country people came in great numbers to see the daring athlete. After a few words of showman's bombast, in which he compared himself to Napoleon and Wellington, Sam made the spring ; but, instead of shooting like an arrow from a bow, as he had done on the previous occasion, he fell so awkwardly that the spectators were unanimously of the opinion that he had jumped to his death. Nothing was heard of him until the following St. Patrick's day, when his body was found near the mouth of tlie river. It was supposed that, after striking the water, he had attempted to swim back under the cataract, and had become entangled in the roots of a large tree that grew near. His re- mains were interred in the village of Charlotte, at the mouth of the Genesee. It was Sam's ambition to jump from London bridge, and he had signed an agreement with the captain of a fast-sailing packet to Liverpool to make the voj^age the fol- lowing spring, and jump from the yard-arm every fair day. Speculations and comments on Sam's fate filled the newspapers for months.

PATERSON, John, soldier, b. in Farmington, Conn., in 1744; d. in Lisle, now Whitney's Point, N. Y., 19 July, 1808. He was graduated at Yale in 1762, taught, practised law, and was a justice of the peace at New Britain, Conn. He settled in 1774 at Lenox, Mass.. and was a member of the first Provincial congress, which met at Salem in October, 1774, and of the next congress at Cam- bridge in February, 1775. He enrolled in Berk- shire county a regiment of minute-men, which marched for Boston, armed and mostly in uniform, eighteen hours after the ar- rival of the intelli- gence of the battle of Lexington, and, when they reached that place, construct- ed the first redoubt on the American line at Charlestown. This they defended on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill from a British attack in the rear of the Ameri- can position. After the British troops evacuated Boston, in

March, 1776, Col.

Paterson's Berkshire regiment was ordered to New York, and thence to Canada for the purpose of re- enforcing Gen. Benedict Arnold. Some of them were engaged in the disastrous battle of the Cedars, and seventy-nine were there taken prisoners. Re- treating from Canada, they passed through Crown Point, fortified Mount Independence, and remained there till November, 1776, marched thence to Al- bany, and joined Washington's forces at Newtown, Pa., with only 220 men remaining of the 600 that left New York. Paterson was recommended to congress by Gen. Horatio Gates on 30 Sept., 1776. His regiment participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He was made a brigadier-general on 21 Feb., 1777, and was attached to the northern department. He performed efficient service at the battle of Stillwater and in the defeat of Gen. John Burgoyne. He also took part in the battle of Monmouth, and was not mustered out till after the end of the war. In September. 1783, he became major-general. During Daniel Shays's rebellion in 1786 he commanded a detachment of Berkshire militia that was ordered out to suppress the rising. Afterward he removed to Lisle, and was first pre- siding judge of Broome county. He was a mem- ber of the New York assembly in 1792, and of the Constitutional convention of 1801, and a member of congress from 17 Oct., 1803, till 3 March, 1805. His last years were spent on his farm.

PATERSON, John, mathematician, b. in Paterson, N. J., 11 Jan., 1801 ; d. in Albany, N. Y., 31 July, 1883. His father removed to Hamilton, Ont., and' died while the son was a boy. He received only two terms of schooling, was employed during his youth by a druggist, found a place in a printing-office at Niagara Falls, and went thence to New York city, and in 1825 to Albany, where he worked as a compositor for more than forty years. Meanwhile he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics, and learned French and German in order to read mathematical and philosophical treatises in those languages. From 1851 till his death he held the office of superintendent of weights and measures, and from 1862 till he was incapacitated by a stroke of paralysis in 1874 he was employed by the state insurance department in calculating life annuities. He published a work on the " Calculus of Operations" (Albany, 1850), to which was added a supplemental volume ; papers on "Weiglits and Measures " (1864) ; and " Re-