WHERE WE LIVE: PATTON, MISSOURI

Wayne Sharrock, right, operates the Patton Junction Livestock Auction where farmers buy and sell beef on the hoof each Monday afternoon.

Patton resident Ora Friese is a frequent pedestrian along Highway 51 where he picks up cans between Patton Junction and his house. He sells them in Perryville in the fall.

Bobby Trentham stood on the front porch of his house along Highway 51 in Patton. He believes that the house was built about 1856. "Under this house is a tree stump at least three-foot across," he said, "which is just as solid as the day they cut it down. I put in a floor furnace and had to chop part of it out."

A tortoise took the pace of Patton in stride as it crossed a nearby county road.

Billy Lema, left, and Travis LIndsey welded a septic tank at Mouser Steel Supply in Patton. Owner Dennis Mouser said the company employs 12 to 14 workers and builds about 2,200 septic tanks a year, accounting for about one-third of its business, with the rest being pipes and trailers.

Patton Junction is the crossroads of Highways 51 and 72 a mile north of Patton.

Little Whitewater Creek at the south edge of Patton is reportedly the place where outlaw Jesse James and his gang were seen crossing by residents in 1873.

According to legend, the Bollinger County community of Patton got its name from a sizable resident named Pat, whom someone remarked "weighed a ton."

Whether or not that's true, Patton is a small, quiet town with a colorful past.

Motorists traveling west toward Fredericktown on Highway 72 pass through Patton Junction. A mile south of the junction on Highway 51 lies Patton. Most of the houses are situated along either side of the highway. Less than 100 people live in the area which also includes a few houses north of the junction known as North Patton.

One of the area's long-time residents, Bobby Trentham, is a wealth of Patton history.

"When I moved into this house in 1973, they told me it was 117 years old," Trentham said.

"My property was probably one of the first places that was deeded off, because all of the property through here goes to the center of the highway except mine."

Trentham said his property line goes across Highway 51 to the banks of the Patton Presbyterian Church property on the other side.

"I own the entire highway and have threatened to put up toll gates both ways," he joked.

Trentham's great-great-grandfather came to the Patton area from Kentucky before the Civil War.

"He had a son, John Douglas, who was sitting on the store porch here in Patton when Jesse and Frank James, the James Gang, and their mother crossed the creek," Trentham said, relating the story which his grandfather had told him. A bridge now spans the Little Whitewater Creek at the south edge of town.

"He sat there and watched them. Jesse was in the lead, right behind him was his mother in a buckboard or hack buggy, after her was Frank, and the rest of the gang was behind them."

Other area residents have related similar stories about sightings of the James Gang in the Patton area.

Trentham's story supposedly occurred the day after the robbery of the Ste. Genevieve Savings Bank on May 27, 1873. It was believed that the James Gang committed the robbery.

Another Patton resident was later linked to Jesse James and is recorded in history.

Ed O'Kelley, who lived in Patton as a teenager, shot and killed Robert Ford, the murderer of Jesse James, on June 8, 1892, in a silver mining camp in Creede, Colo.

An historical marker was placed in Patton Cemetery, which is next to the Patton United Methodist Church, in 1994 by O'Kelley's great-great-niece, Judi Ries, in memory of O'Kelley. He was buried in an unmarked grave near Oklahoma City on Jan. 13, 1904 after "a gunfight with the law."

Although a highway runs through it, Patton maintains a pace that is somewhat "off the beaten path."

Joe Boothe has worked a garden for many years which slopes from the highway behind his house.

He married a girl from the nearby Mayfield district and the couple moved to St.Louis, but it didn't take.

"We decided to move to the country, first to Lutesville and then here," Boothe said. "There's good people in Patton. You know everybody and they know you. We get along just like a big family. We had a big family with eight kids, but now I'm retired and it's mostly fishing and gardening for me."

Sandy Brown enjoyed the area enough that she moved back to it.

"My family is here and I like the close-knit community," Brown said. "I went to the old elementary school in Patton in second grade. The high school was deserted at that time, but my mom had gone there.

"Then they bused us to Sedge (nearby Sedgewickville) from third to sixth grade. From there I went to junior high and high school at Meadow Heights."

Mary Jane Fulton, who lives a couple of miles northwest of town, graduated from Patton High School in 1953.

"They didn't have enough buses," Fulton said. "With two bus routes, we would walk down the hill from the school to Statler's Cafe, where the old hotel had been, and wait for the bus to come back and start the second route to take us home," Fulton said.

At the time, Patton had three grocery stores, a barber shop, telephone switchboard office, a doctor's office and a bank, she said. Now they are just a memory.

The only business left in Patton is Mouser Steel Supply. It's across the highway from the post office that used to be the bank.

Patton Junction is now the center of the business community.

Perhaps the most visible activity takes place at Patton Junction Livestock Auction.

Each Monday afternoon, and often into the evening, the auctioneer addresses the gallery of buyers, sellers and spectators as livestock are presented for sale.

North of the junction is the Patton Saddle Club grounds.

In addition to horse shows, the club's buildings are used by area groups including the Patton Lions Club, SEMO Foxtrotters, Castor River Coon Hunters and the senior citizens of Patton and Sedgewickville.

While its origin is not well-known, Patton has its own place in history.