Page 241 - 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.
Most Worshipful Brother Van Patten’s record of service extended beyond the Blue Lodge. Made a Royal
Arch Mason in 1894, he would be elected Grand Commander in 1917, and Grand High Priest in 1919. He

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