James Martin Patterson

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. James Martin Patterson. Kentucky native.

Arrived in Dallas in 1846, when Dallas was barely a notion on the map. Now, he didn't come empty-handed, exactly, but he didn't come with a fortune either. What he had was a partner, a man named John W.

Smith, and between the two of them they scraped together seven hundred dollars. Seven hundred dollars, pooled resources, and they opened one of the first stores in Dallas. Think about that.

One of the first. The town was so new the ink was still wet on the idea of it, and Patterson and Smith were already open for business. Then came 1851, and here's where the story gets that particular Texas flavor of ambition meeting hard reality.

They built a flatboat. Themselves. And they attempted to ship cotton down the Trinity River all the way to the Gulf Coast.

The marker says attempted. It says attempted, and I think you know what that word is doin' there. It's doin' a lot of heavy lifting.

Whether the Trinity cooperated is a question the marker leaves hanging in the air, right where it belongs. But a man who builds a flatboat and points it toward the Gulf is not a man who thinks small. Patterson kept right on provin' that.

From 1854 to 1866 he served as chief justice, which is to say county judge, one of the most consequential roles a man could hold in a growing Texas county. Twelve years of that. Then in 1875 he retired, and even retirement wasn't exactly idle for him.

He managed his extensive property holdings right up until his death in 1906. He'd come into this world in 1812 and he watched Dallas grow from a place with one of its first stores to something considerably larger than that. Seven hundred dollars and a flatboat.

Not a bad foundation for a life.

What the marker says

(1812-1906) Kentucky native James Martin Patterson arrived in Dallas in 1846. Patterson and John W. Smith opened one of the first stores in Dallas using their pooled resources of $700. They built a flatboat and attempted to ship cotton down the Trinity River to the Gulf Coast in 1851. Patterson served as chief justice (county judge) from 1854-66. He retired in 1875 and managed his extensive property holdings until his death. (1996)