Samuel L. Patterson

Who was Samuel L. Patterson?

Samuel Legerwood Patterson was a North Carolina politician and farmer.

The son of Samuel F. Patterson and his wife, Phoebe Caroline, Patterson was born at Palmyra, the family plantation in Caldwell County, North Carolina.

He served in the state House of Representatives in 1891 and 1899 and in the North Carolina Senate in 1893. In the legislature, he was chair of the committee on agriculture. He was also a trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Patterson was appointed commissioner of agriculture from 1895 to 1897, when he was removed by the Fusion of Republicans and Populists that came to power that year. He was reappointed in 1899 and then became the first popularly elected commissioner in 1900. He served until his death in 1908. Patterson Hall at North Carolina State University is named in his honor. He and his wife bequeathed Palmyra to the Episcopal Church as a school, which operated as The Patterson School from 1909 through 2009.