Oldest old timer
An Older Old Timer
Bias Magazine, June 27, 1951, page eleven
"Dan L. Patterson , 224 West Sunshine, who was 87 Sunday June 10, disputes ex-mayor Harry Durst's claim to being the oldest native Springfieldian still living here.
"He was born in 1864 on the site where the Gospel Publishing House printing plant now stands. He dimly remembers when 'Harry Durst's pappy and mammy were married.'
"Mr. Patterson's father, John A. Patterson, who had been a deputy United States marshal during the Civil War, was the first Greene County sheriff and held the office from 1864 through 1884. 'He had an awful voice on him,' Mr. Patterson recalls, 'and J. W. D. L. F. (Alphabet) Mack, who used to live out by the National Cemetery, used to say that he heard my dad's court-cryin' clear out there.'
"The court-house where Mr. Patterson's father did his crying was on the square, and besides that there were only three store buildings, all frame. One of them was 'Old Man Worrel's' candy store.
"In the square were a cistern where water was collected for fire-fighting and a public well.
"Mr. Patterson used to take the family cow to pasture on the site of the present courthouse (which was then known as Bailey Pasture)[Central and Boonville] while he played marbles with Walter Robinson in the Robinson home which was located where the senior high school now stands. [Central and Benton] He went to school the first day that Springfield's first school opened on the lot where the Frisco Building was late built. [Jefferson and Olive]
"'Everybody in Springfield knew everybody else and every horse, cow and dog and who it belonged to,' Mr. Patterson recalls.
"Mr. Patterson was a grocer, a trade which he started at the age of 13, working for Peter Emler on Boonville for 15 cents for a Saturday's work. He was later a wholesale grocery salesman.
"Mr. Patterson has a son, Dwight, who is in an awning business in Springfield; and a daughter, Louise, (Mrs. E. G. Sperry) with whom he lives.
"Editor's note: Former Mayor Durst good-naturedly resigns his claim to being Springfield's oldest native-born citizen. Tom Weaver, of 722 Holland, is older than Mr. Durst and even than Mr. Patterson. Mr. Weaver was born 91 years ago June 8 in the old Smith hotel that stood on the Square at Boonville and Olive, and he probably holds the record."
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