Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Obituaries: P
Lucelia Wing Patterson, 1915
Wife of President Emeritus of State University is Dead
Mrs. Lucelia W. Patterson Passes Away at Age Of Eighty After Illness Since January
Funeral To Be Held Sunday at 3 O'Clock
Dr. Edwin Muller and Dr. Charles Lee Reynolds to Conduct Services
Mrs. Lucelia Wing Patterson, wife of Dr. James K. Patterson, president emeritus of the State University of Kentucky, died at her residence on the university campus yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Bronchitis contracted three weeks ago, was the direct cause of Mrs. Patterson's death. She was 80 years of age. Besides her husband she is survived by a sister, Mrs. Lucy R. Yost, of Greenville, Ky.
Funeral services will be conducted at the residence Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Rev. Edwin Muller, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and Rev. Dr. Charles Lee Reynolds, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, will conduct the services. The body will be laid to its final rest in the Patterson mausoleum in the Lexington cemetery. The pallbearers will be announced this afternoon.
Mrs. Patterson was stricken ill last January and during the months of February and March her life was despaired of. She improved in April and May and began to mend rapidly in June. On June 29, however, she fell and broke her hip joint, but was getting along well until three weeks ago, when bronchitis set up.
Born in Greenville.
Mrs. Patterson was born in Greenville, Muhlenberg County, about 80 years ago, the daughter of Captain Charles F. Wing, who was born in New Bedford, Mass., the son of Barnabas Wing, a Quaker. Barnabas Wing was engaged in the seafaring transactions and lost heavily during the American Revolution. He came to Kentucky about 1790 and settled in the Blue Grass country. His son, Charles F. Wing, Mrs. Patterson's father, was brought up in Harrodsburg. Later he was an assistant clerk in the Kentucky Legislature.
Captain Wing went to Muhlenberg County about the beginning of the last century and served continuously as clerk of the Circuit Court for fifty years. That was before the office became an elective one.
Mrs. Patterson's mother was Ann Campbell, and she was born in Fayette County on the farm that subsequently became known as Dixiania, made famous by Major Barak C. Thomas. Her grandfather was Colonel William Campbell, who was at King's Mountain, and was a first cousin of the famous William Campbell, whom history brackets with Isaac Shelby as one of the heroes of that battle.
Sister, Wife of Congressman.
Mrs. Patterson's girlhood days were spent in Greenville, in which place she was educated. She also attended school in Owensboro for a short time. Her eldest sister became the wife of Edward Rumsey, who was a member of Congress from Western Kentucky during President Van Buren's administration. He obtained the first appropriation ever granted the Eastern Kentucky Hospital for the Insane, in this city. The appropriation was not large, $10,000, but it permitted the institution to open its doors.
Mrs. Patterson's nephew, Edward Rumsey Wing, served on General Jackson's staff during the Civil War, and was subsequently appointed by President Grant as Minister of Ecuador. He died at Quito in 1874. A luminous portrait of Minister Wing hangs in Dr. Patterson's library.
Miss Wing met the young James K. Patterson, a native of Scotland, when he was principal of the Presbyterian Academy in Greenville, but at the time of their marriage, 1859, he was professor of Latin and Greek in Stuart College (now Southwestern University), at Clarksville, Tenn.
At Clarksville Till War.
Prof. Patterson and his wife remained at Clarksville until the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, and then accepted the principalship of Transylvania University, in this city. Professor Patterson remained as head of Transylvania until the consolidation of it with the old Kentucky University of Harrodsburg, which was accomplished in 1865. Professor Patterson was an instructor in the new institution after the agricultural college was engrafted upon it. He became president of the Agricultural College in 1869 and upon the dissolution of the old A.&M. and Kentucky University he became president of the A.&M., which later became the State College and later still the State University of Kentucky.
Two children were born to Mrs. Patterson. A son, William Andrew Patterson, was born in 1868 and graduated from the State College in 1890. He became assistant in the English Department of the college and died as the result of an operation for appendicitis in 1895. A daughter was born in 1870, but died in infancy.
Mrs. Patterson was a well educated woman, wrote excellent English, was a good French scholar and in youth showed decided talent for painting and music. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church for more than sixty years.
Mrs. Patterson was diffident in her nature, avoided publicity, was of positive convictions on religion and life and duty and held to them with great tenacity.
- Source: Lexington Herald [Lexington, KY], 11 Sept 1915.
Updated April 5, 2024.