Andrew Leslie Patterson (1889 - 1954)

Born 30 May 1889 in Rapid City, Manitoba, Canada

Husband of Mary Ella Day — married 21 Aug 1916 in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Husband of Alice Leone (Morrison) Patterson — married about 1939 in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Descendants

Died 8 Mar 1954 at age 64 in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bill Denham [send private message]

Biography

This life sketch of Andrew Leslie Patterson is from a description left by Marion Patterson (his daughter and my mother). I'm not sure about when she did it. All I have is a piece of paper – probably a printout from a computer done a few years before she died in 2006.

ANDREW LESLIE PATTERSON

Born at Rapid City, Manitoba in 1891, the third in a family of five. Bill was the eldest, then Ella, Dad, Lily and Ewart. The family moved to Kelowna early in the 1900’s and built the house on the farm at Benvoulin in 1904. Dad was always proud of the fact that he had had a great deal to do with the building of that house.

He had very little schooling (only three or four grades) and never attended school in Kelowna. I think most of his early years were spent working on the farm (which he didn’t like) and doing carpentry work in the area.

He married Mary Ella Day in 1916.

We lived on the farm until about 1935. Dad had a partner “Bill Black” and together they did a lot of building in and around Kelowna and throughout the Okanagan. Private homes, the old school at Benvoulin, Packing House at Woods Lake etc. etc. He had a great deal to do with the building of flumes throughout the Okanagan for irrigation.

When things became very bad in the early thirties he put his new car up on blocks and rode a horse to work. I don’t think he really liked horses very much – certainly not that one!! It threw him one day on the way home and he had some broken ribs was he mad!! When all building came to a halt Dad was able to get a job with the Vegetable Marketing Board – it paid $50.00 a month – a good salary in those days. He travelled through the valley to estimate crops. He was very good at looking at a field of potatoes and being able to tell how many tons of potatoes would be harvested from it.

Our mother had not been very well for some years and about 1935 they sold the farm to Uncle George Day and moved into “the city.” Mom, Dad, Ruth & I spent part of one year in Victoria while our mother took treatments at Rest Haven Hospital in Sidney. After several months of treatment and no improvement we moved back to Kelowna.

She died not long after from complications following surgery.

Dad was a quiet gentle person who showed no emotion in most circumstances. The only time I heard of him being at all emotional was when Rud [George Rudolph Patterson – Marion’s brother] was reported missing in action. He flatly refused to believe that Rud had not survived and of course was proven correct when word came that he was a prisoner of war. Dad did something he had never done before – he went to the liquor store and bought his ration of rye every month and saved it all for Rud when he got home.

In 1939 he married Leone Henderson (nee Morrison) and built a lovely home for her on Buckland Ave. His contracting business flourished and he opened his own “sash, door & cupboard” facility on Water Street. May buildings he had built in those years are still standing in Kelowna. I guess the most well known one was the local Post Office which he built around 1940. The City decided to knock it down about 1974 and had a terrible time getting it down. Dad had put so much steel in the concrete the wrecking ball had very little effect.

Dad was a well known and respected person in Kelowna. Everyone knew that his word was his bond and that any agreement he made he would stick to. He liked to curl in later years and loved hockey. He was a great fan of the Kelowna team and often travelled to Vernon or Penticton to see them play.

He developed lung cancer about 1952 and passed away in March 1954.

Transcribed by William Denham – August 28, 2015

Sources

• This is his death certificate

• This is his marriage certificate with Mary Ella Day.

• This is the death certificate of his second wife, Alice Leone Morrison.