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Patterson Township

COURTESY OF BEAVER COUNTY BICENTENNIAL ATLAS

The area presently known as Patterson Township lay within the boundaries of South Beaver Township in 1800 when Beaver County was established. Several Indian trails traversed the area, one running from the present west end of the Bridgewater bridge to Kuskuskee (an Indian village on the Mahoning River) and the second leading up Brady's Run to Sandusky. In 1805, the territory fell into the newly established Ohio Township, and when Brighton Township was formed in 1816, the land became part of Brighton.

According to Bausman's History, several Quaker families settled early in the area. Later, the Pennsylvania legislature designated the tract the "Brighton District," establishing it first as an election district in connection with Fallston and afterwards as an independent "Election and School District." The legislature's action resulted in "some inconveniences and disadvantages," according to a petition by 44 citizens to the Beaver County Court in 1841. Mainly, the petition said: ". . . we are neither Township, Town or Borough," and consequently "are by the decision of the authorities at Harrisburg pronounced incapable of choosing and electing Our Justice of the Peace-a privilege secured by the Constitution to the people of Towns, Townships and Boroughs . . . which power we are desirous to enjoy with other of our fellow citizens." The petition asked the Court to "erect our District (within our present boundaries) into a Township." The request was granted on October 15, 1841, when Patterson Township was formed.

Coaches ran through the area during this period over a coach road running between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In 1868, the township lost territory along its eastern boundaries to Beaver Falls, and the following year, Fallston took part of Patterson Township lands to the south. In 1876, Weyand and Reed's Beaver County Centennial Directory listed 18 taxables (out of a population in 1870 of 74) with most of the taxables listed as farmers. By 1900, these figures had grown to a total of 200 taxable out of a population of 433, despite the loss of more land with the establishment of Patterson Heights Boroughs in 1899. It is said that, during the early 1900's, the citizens witnessed an occasional "cattle drive" from Ohio to Pittsburgh along the Darlington Road. Since that time, however, the township, presently comprising 1.41 square miles, has developed from a predominantly rural district into an urban residential community.