Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

William N. Patterson

William N. Patterson was a physician and farmer on New Hope Creek, in the part of Orange County that later became western Durham County. He represented Orange in the House of Commons during the Civil War and served as a county commissioner in the early 1870s. In March 1870 he entered a written protest when the other commissioners offered a reward for the disguised men who had whipped residents of the county poorhouse.

Source: Open Durham: William N. Patterson House

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to William N. Patterson. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about William N. Patterson’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. J. T. Hogan serves as an Orange County commissioner J. T. Hogan signed the county records as one of Orange County's commissioners from 1870 to 1872. In 1872 he sat with W. N. Patterson and Jones Watson on the county Board of Education, which in March elected Samuel W. Hughes county examiner of teachers. People: Jones Watson, Samuel Wellwood Hughes, William N. PattersonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 358
  2. Disguised men whip residents of the county poorhouse Men in disguise entered the poorhouse at night and whipped several of the men and women living there. On March 10 the commissioners offered a $200 reward for the attackers, over the written protest of commissioner W. N. Patterson, who defended the raiders' motives. People: William N. PattersonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 195
  3. Orange County names a three-man Board of Education and a panel of teacher examiners Under the Reconstruction school law the county had a Board of Education of W. N. Patterson, J. T. Hogan and Jones Watson in 1872. Samuel W. Hughes and Charles Curtis were among the county examiners who licensed teachers that year. People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes, Jones Watson, John T. Hogan, William N. PattersonSearch the index · DigitalNC: Irene Oliver Pender, A History of Orange County Schools, 1752-1983 (1983), p. 91

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as William N. Patterson, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for William N. Patterson Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

Search further

Ready-made searches in other catalogs and collections. Results are not checked against this person.

Books about William N. Patterson

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched by name. The catalogs give no dates for this person, so results may include other people with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026