Page 250 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Edwin H. Van Patten

1904-1905

Most Worshipful Brother Edwin Hugh Van Patten was born
March 8, 1855, near Springfield, Illinois He acquired his
early education there as a public school student and
afterward attended Lincoln University, which conferred
upon him the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1879 and
that of Master of Philosophy in the spring of 1883, the latter
coming to him from his alma mater as a well-earned honor.

In 1880, then a young man of twenty-five years, he
accompanied his parents on their move westward to Oregon
and took up his abode upon a claim in Sherman County. It
was his desire, however, to enter upon a professional career.
He had previously engaged in teaching school in Illinois'
but regarded this merely as an initial step to other professional labor, and in 1881 he returned to
his native state to become a student in Rush Medical College in Chicago, from which he was
graduated in February 1883, with valedictorian honors as a member of a class of two hundred. He
then returned to the northwest and located for practice in Dayton, where he remained for thirty-
four years, occupying one office through practically the entire period.

Possessing a most- progressive spirit, he kept abreast with the latest thought, research, and
discoveries of the science of medicine, has one of the best equipped offices in the northwest and
one of the most complete medical libraries. In 1888 he went to New York, where he pursued an
"extended post- graduate course, specializing in the study of diseases of the eye and ear. It was Dr.
Van Patten who performed the first successful laparotomy operation and the first successful
hysterectomy operation in Columbia County.

Dr. Van Patten gave his political allegiance to the Democratic Party, and in 1889 was a candidate
on its ticket for the office of State Senator and again in 1905. On both occasions he was defeated
by a small majority in a strongly Republican district, although he ran far ahead of the regular party
vote. He served for six years as a member of the school board of Dayton and soon after his arrival
in Columbia County was elected county coroner, which position he occupied for many years.

Edwin Van Patten was made a Mason in Chatham Lodge No. 523 in Chatham IL in 1877. He was
a charter member of Dayton Lodge (then numbered) No. 53, and served as its Master in 1891 –
the same year he would be appointed Grand Orator. He would be reappointed to that office the
following year. It is said that the addresses that he gave demonstrated his belief in the philosophy
of our institution and his keen loyalty to its principles. Van Patten would be elevated to the rank
& station of Grand Master in 1904.