Gilbert Patten
In 1866 a railroad company built a line from Newport to Dexter through Corinna. President Andrew Johnson declared the official end of the Civil War. The fighting had stopped the year before. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was completed. On October 25 William George Patten was born in Corinna. As a child he was called Willie or William, names he did not like. As an adult he preferred to use the name, Gilbert.
Shortly after Willie’s birth, his older sister Zelma past away at 10 years of age, essentially making him an only child. She was buried in the Village Cemetery in Corinna. Her grave stone is still there.
When he was born Willie’s parents were in their 40’s, much older than the parents of his peers. Devout Adventist, they tried to limit his interactions with others and constantly told him to avoid “scrapping” confrontations with other boys, even those who called him a sissy. He states that their restrictions were frustrating and contributed to his rebellious attitude. [7]
Willie’s father was William Clark Patten, known as Bill, born in 1824 in Stetson, Maine. He was a large man who early in life worked as a woodsman and Penobscot River driver. Later he spent some time farming and fishing. At one time he lived in Decatur, Illinois where he met Abraham Lincoln at a political rally.
Bill married Cordelia Simpson of Newburg, Maine in 1851. Cordelia, Willie’s mother, was the daughter of Captain Jason and Betty Simpson. Jason Simpson was a captain in the War of 1812. Upon his death Betty received a pension from the military. [7]
Betty Simpson, Willie’s grandmother, used her pension money to set the family up in a small two-story house in Corinna, a few places up from Main Street on what is now the Nokomis Road. The house still exists today. Betty moved in with the family. Bill Patten then began working as a carpenter. [7]
In the introduction to the autobiography, the editor, Harriet Hinsdale, describes Willie as a shy, retiring boy, too tall for his age, with an inferiority complex. She says that by age 10 his isolation led him to become more and more a secret reader of material his family considered to be sinful – story papers and dime novels. Once when she caught him reading a dime novel late in the night his mother said, “Such dreadful stuff. It’ll be the ruination of the boys of this country.” [7]
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