PROLOGUE

to the 1991 reprinting

of the

Memoirs of David Hunter Patterson

- * -

In January of 1991, I decided that in order to facilitate the preservation and distribution of the memoirs of my great grandfather, David Hunter Patterson, I would retype them using my personal computer. This makes it easy for me to send copies on diskette to interested people who have computers and to send printed copies to those who do not.

The memoirs were originally typed by his daughter, Elizabeth Patterson Neeson, as per the dictation of her father. I received a copy from my aunt, Marjorie Hunter Patterson, and thereupon made a photocopy for myself. Over the next month I typed the memoirs into the computer, a Xerox 6064 (a roughly XT-class machine compatible with the IBM style of PC) using the Word Perfect 4.2 word processor. It will be necessary for the memoirs to be recopied every few years in order for the magnetic media to retain all of the data until technology for archives evolves to the point that that is not necessary.

In retyping, I have tried to be true to the original style. In the case of quotations that changed speaker, the original document did not begin new paragraphs, so I have not. In the case of obvious misspellings or typographical errors, I have corrected them. If I did not detect them (or any new ones that I inadvertently introduced) only the Word Perfect spell checker and kind relatives who could advise me of them stood between me and you, the reader. If the words that my great grandfather used offend some, I apologize and assure the reader that he meant offense to no one, and as are we all, he was shaped by the times in which he lived.

There is a question of the spelling of Colonel Penz' name. On one page it is spelled "Penz" and on one that was retyped (no doubt some years following the typing of the original) it was spelled "Pentz". I have retained the spelling on the original page. In an article on spellings of old last names, an author by the name of Richard A. Pence states: "Remember that in the early years of our country, many people could not read or write, so watch for variant spellings of the name you are searching. Often names were recorded as they sounded to clerks. This is how the name Bentz became Pence in most parts of the U.S. (The German "B" is often pronounced as "P.") Most often the spellings we use today were the result of an accident, not a deliberate effort." [Copyright 1982 by the Register and Tribune Syndicate, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa.]

I have used the memoirs to make updates to the family tree maintained currently using Brother's Keeper software. The bulk of the updates concern the Fell family ancestry of David Hunter Patterson's wife, Kate Campbell.

These memoirs should be useful well beyond names, however, as they peek into life in the late 19th century in the heartland of Pennsylvania. For me they are a connection with someone very dear to me whom I never knew during his life.

--William Remington Patterson, Jr.

January 24, 1991