Local history
Patton, est. 1893
Patton grew almost overnight in the 1890s, laid out on farmland along Chest Creek and named for John Patton and his son, A. E. Patton. Within a few years its clayworks was on its way to becoming one of the largest brick and clay plants in the world.
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Before the town
Before Patton existed, a small settlement grew up around saw and grist mills on Chest Creek. It went by several names over the years, including Polish Corners, McGuire's Mill, and Marks Mills, and was home to a handful of trappers, farmers, and lumbermen from at least the 1840s.1,2
A town built from scratch
Coal had been found across western Pennsylvania decades earlier, but it was worth little without a railroad. John Patton bought 1,000 acres around the mill settlement in 1883, his son added another 6,000 in 1889, and the family secured a rail link. A group of investors, the Chest Creek Land and Improvement Company, hired engineer E. C. Brown to lay out streets and began selling lots. Unlike most coal patch towns, the founders pictured a diversified town rather than one built around a single mine. By the time Patton was incorporated in 1893, seven coal mines were already operating nearby, and a year later the town had 200 homes. Many streets, like Magee, Palmer, and Good, are named for its founders.1,2,3
The Clay Works
Local clay, coal to fire the kilns, good rail connections, and plenty of workers made Patton a natural home for the Patton Clay Manufacturing Company, founded in the 1890s by George S. Good, James Kerr, and A. E. Patton. It made sewer pipe, terra cotta, building brick, and paving bricks known as "Patton Pavers," and in the first half of the 1900s it was one of the largest clay and brick makers in the world. Local lore holds that Patton brick went into the Panama Canal and that Patton pavers were laid around the Eiffel Tower. Closer to home, many of the town's own buildings are made of it.1,4,5,6
The Clay Works closed in 1968, and the town's economy and population shrank. The old grounds are now home to Patton Plaza and two housing developments, The Meadows and Brickwood Estates, where a memorial kiln marks the site. The heart of town was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Patton Historic District in 1996.1,4,7
Sources
- History of Patton Borough, Patton Borough
- Patton Borough, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Living Places
- Patton Historic District, Living Places (from the National Register nomination)
- Patton Clay Manufacturing Company, Wikipedia
- Alexander Enis Patton, member biography, Pennsylvania State Senate Library
- Clay mural honors Patton's history, The Tribune-Democrat
- Patton, Pennsylvania, Wikipedia