Jehu Patten was a farmer in the Rays Mill District of Berrien County, GA and a confederate veteran. During the Civil War he served first with Company K, 5th Georgia Regiment and later as 4th Sergeant of Company E, 54th Regiment Ga. Inf. along with John Lee, George Washington Knight, James Madison Baskin, William Varnell Nix, Stephen Willis Avera, William J. Lamb, Samuel Guthrie, Matthew H. Albritton, Benjamin Sirmans and other men of Berrien County who served in the same unit. In late 1864 he was furloughed home on sick leave and remained there through the end of the war.
Afterward he became a quite accomplished farmer of Berrien County. The Jehu Patten farm consisted of a home and 260 acres in section 454 of the 10th district, located just southwest of Ray City, near the farms of Francis Marion Shaw, Lacy Shaw, and Jesse Shelby Shaw. (In 1902, Jehu Patten sold this farm to John Levi Allen – see http://www.audubon4tet.com/FMS/21_John_Levi_Allen.pdf)
As a farmer, Jehu had an interest in and respect for the natural world.
Jehu Patten captures serpent, November 15, 1895.
Tifton Gazette
November 15, 1895 Pg 3
Mr. Jehu Patten, from up in the Ray’s Mill neighborhood, was in town this week and had a snake about four inches long and as large around as a straw. He found the little snake in the road and caught it and put it in an envelope. The snake was the smallest we ever saw. – Times.
Two months later, the Gazette noted:
Tifton Gazette
January 24, 1896 Pg 4The writer had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Jehu Patten’s a few days since, who lives near Rays Mill. The weather was very cold, but after I had been there some time, he took me around to show me the results of his last year’s work. The corn crib was the first place. To my surprise I found he had gathered between seven and eight hundred bushels of corn, and one hundred of rice, next was the sugar house, and as I entered the door I found on my right three hundred gallons of syrup jugged and sealed, and on my left, up on shelves, five dozen fruit jars, containing apples, pear and peaches, and under the shelves was ten fifty-pound cans of lard, all full. Next came the meat-house, and there I found he had 5,000 lbs. of meat, and about 75, or 100, lbs, of sausage, and has hogs enough yet to kill to last his family two years. His meat was fattened on pinders, and it is ascertained that he has now in the field 80, or 100 bushels. To go with his meat he has about an acre of turnips. I did not visit his potato house but judge them by his other crop, and by those on his table. This Mr. Patten made with two mules and two negro boys. He has enough stored away to supply his family three years. Shurely, he ought to be happy. He has raised and reared his children to a high degree of civilization, and has only three children, Miss Emma, J. M. and J. L. Patten, and all three are well educated, especially in vocal and instrumental music. All are working to the highest aspiration.
Oh that we had more such men as him! Yours for more, AJAX.
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