Patterson, Stearns

Patterson, Stearns a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Dunstable, now Nashua, N. H., Jan. 2,1813. He was converted in 1826, and connected himself with the Congregationalist Church, to which his parents belonged. In 1829 he entered the academy at Hopkintown, and a few years later he entered Yale College; but his health failing, he was compelled to relinquish his studies and engage in other pursuits. From 1837 to 1840 he filled a clerkship in the city of New York. In November, 1840, he went to Maryland and engaged in teaching. In August, 1841, Rev. Enos R. Williams held a camp-meeting on Kent Island. Patterson attended, and was inclined towards Methodism. In 1842 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church on Kent Island. In August of the same year he removed to St. Michaels, Talbot County, Maryland, and took charge of a school. On Dec. 7, 1843, he was licensed to exhort, and on Feb. 15, 1844, he was licensed to preach, and recommended to the Philadelphia Conference. He was admitted in 1844, and appointed to Strasburgh. His subsequent appointments were as follows: Brandywine, Cecil, two years supernumerary, Grove, Mount Zioln, Manayunk, Phoenixville, Marietta, six years professor in Wesleyan Female College in Wilmington, Del., then to Merion Square, and afterwards to Radnor and Bethesda. In 1866 he was granted the relation of superannuate, and so continued until his death, May 19, 1871. He united in himself all the qualifications necessary for success in the ministry. He was devoted to God and the Church, scholarly in his habits of study, systematic in the performance of his duties, and kind towards all with whom he was brought into fellowship. See Minutes of Conferences, 1872, p. 24, 25.