Existing comment:
Colonel Patterson's death proved ruinous for his family. In 1865, the Orphan's Court of Allegheny County directed the sale of the Patterson's home to support the family. Almira -- with three fatherless children, without job skills, and amidst a society that frowned on women working -- received a widow's pension of about $360 a year. She never remarried.
Almira had lost her parents by age 12 and her husband when she was 28. In 1869, the tide of tragedy continued when her youngest daughter, six-year-old Mary, died of scarlet fever. After raising her two remaining children, Almira lived out her life with her oldest daughter, Agnes. Almira died in 1908 at the age of 73. Her obituary identified her simply as "the widow of Colonel John W. Patterson."
In the wake of John's death at the Wilderness, Almira had to sell her house to support her family. She had this posted printed in 1865.
"I think that should I live, or the expiration of 3 months I can pay off the last installment on our house and make you comfortable."
-- John to Almira, June 6, 1861 |