Patterson, Daniel

Passed: 1935-12-26

Age: 20

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1936-01-03

Information: PATTERSON BOY FREEZES TO DEATH - Mute evidence of the extreme cold which held this section in its grip the latter part of last week was found at the Hall barn in Green Hollow on the outskirts of Ripley last Thursday morning when the dead body of Daniel Patterson, twenty year old son of Mrs. Audell Patterson of Ripley, was found.  The discovery was made by Glenn Hall about eight-thirty o'clock Thursday morning when he went to the barn to feed the livestock.      Hall notified the County Coroner, Dr. C. Royal Kessel, who with the state police and a number of citizens, went to the scene to make an investigation into the cause of the death.  After investigating the surrounding , it was deemed that an inquest would be unnecessary and that the youth had frozen to death there the previous night.  The body was brought to the Vail undertaking establishment and prepared for burial.      The tracks of the youth were plainly visible in the snow and the zig-zag course he had taken led officers from the beginning to feel that he had been intoxicated and was attempting to get to the barn to seek shelter from the raging storm.  When some little distance from the barn he had fallen to the ground and from there he had crawled on his hands and knees under a wagon standing nearby.      The last person known to have seen him alive was J. B. Vail of Ripley.  He said that about four o'clock the previous afternoon he had found the youth trying to find his way out of town and when he found him he was apparently lost in the rear of the lot on which the Vail Funeral Home is located.  He got him out to the street and saw him go as far out the street as the Allen Shinn home where he was lost from view.  He said that the youth was intoxicated and several others who had seen him in Ripley that afternoon said likewise.      Soon after he was started out the road by Mr. Vail, the terrific blizzard, which swept the section that evening, broke and it is presumed that Patterson attempted to get to the barn for shelter and while waiting for the storm to abate, either went to sleep or became so numb from the cold that he could not rise to continue the journey further.  Patterson had been enrolled in a CCC Camp for some time but officers said he had not been in the camp for several weeks.  Funeral services for Patterson were held at the Vail Funeral Home Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock with Dr. Fred Slaughter in charge.  Surviving are the mother, Mrs. Audell Patterson; and four brothers, James Edward, Otho Howard, Guy Wesley, and Arthur Willard Patterson, all of Ripley.  The father died ten years ago.