Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,041

Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,041

This is the grave of James Willis Patterson. Born in 1823 in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Patterson grew up pretty well off, went to good schools, and was on to Dartmouth. He graduated from there in 1848 and became principal of an academy in New Hampshire. He then studied law in New Haven, Connecticut for a couple of years before returning to Dartmouth to teach math and astronomy. It was an era where one could still do this many different th…