Robert J. Patrick, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Robert J. Patrick
ROBERT J. PATRICK. One of the native sons of Porter county who has well upheld the prestige of a name that has long been honored in connection with civic and industrial activities in the city of Valparaiso is Robert J. Patrick, who is junior member of the firm of J. H. Patrick & Son, proprietors of the Tin & Iron Works, which represents one of the important and flourishing business enterprises of the metropolis of Porter county.
Mr. Patrick was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, on the 6th of December, 1876, and is now one of the substantial and representative business men of his native city, to which his loyalty is of the most insistent order, the while he has been a prominent and influential factor in political affairs in Porter county and is a progressive and public-spirited citizen. He is a son of J. Harvey and Samantha A. (Jones) Patrick, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter of whom is a native of Porter county, Indiana, where her father, the late Robert P. Jones, established his home in the early pioneer days. It may further be said that Mr. Jones was a man of prominence and influence in the county for many years and that he served with marked efficiency as its sheriff, as well as city marshal of Valparaiso, where he continued to reside until his death. J. Harvey Patrick came from the old Buckeye state to Porter county when a boy and is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of this section of the state. He has long been numbered among the leading business men of Valparaiso and is a citizen who maintains impregnable vantage ground in popular confidence and esteem. He was the founder of the substantial and important industrial enterprise conducted by the firm of J. H. Patrick & Son and is still executive head of the same. In earlier years he served as deputy sheriff of Porter county and he has also been a valued member of the city council of Valparaiso, besides having been called to other positions of local trust. He has contributed in generous measure to the civic and material development and upbuilding of his home city and is numbered among its best known and most highly esteemed pioneer citizens of the present day. He is a stanch Republican in politics and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist church. Their only child is he whose name initiates this review.
Robert J. Patrick is indebted to the public schools of Valparaiso for his early educational discipline, which was effectively supplemented by a course in that fine local institution now known as Valparaiso University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. He early gained practical experience in connection with his father's business and finally was admitted to partnership in the same, under the present title of J. H. Patrick & Son. While still retaining his interest in this enterprise Mr. Patrick passed two years in Colorado, where he was identified with the real estate business, in the city of Denver, and where he was also in the employ of the government for a time. Since his return to his native city he has given himself vigorously and effectively to the promotion of the business of the firm of which he is a member and he is a popular factor in hath the business and social activities of the community.
Mr. Patrick is admirably fortified in his political convictions and has given most effective service in the promotion of the cause of the Republican party, with which he has been actively identified from the time of attaining to his legal majority and consequent right of franchise. He is influential in the councils of the party in this section of the state and was secretary of the Porter county Republican committee during two national campaigns, in which he showed no little versatility and discrimination in manoeuvering the political forces at his command. He gives his support to measures and enterprises tending to advance the best interests of his home city and county and is essentially progressive in his attitude as a citizen and as a business man. Mr. Patrick is an appreciative member of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated with the allied organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is one of the popular members of Valparaiso Lodge, No. 500, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and he takes a lively interest in the affairs of this flourishing organization.
On the 18th of July, 1910, Mr. Patrick was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Lucille Kenny, of East Jordan, Charlevoix county, Michigan, and who is a daughter of John M. and Adelia Kenny, of East Jordan, Michigan. Mrs. Patrick, who is a young woman of rare accomplishments, stands high in the social and club life of the city of Valparaiso, Indiana.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 560-562
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook