Zeboim Lupton Patten (1907-1958), Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr. (1906-1982)

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, January 12, 1950.

  We continue our journey through Tennessee and today examine the lives of two men named Zeboim. The first of these men, Zeboim Lupton Patten, was one of the outstanding civic leaders in his section of Tennessee, being the president of one of that city's oldest businesses, the Chattanooga Medicine Co. Additionally, Patten chaired the University of Chattanooga's Board of Trustees, and achieved further prominence in finance, being chairman of the local community chest campaign and was director of the American National Bank and Trust Co. Long active in Republican politics in his region, Patten was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1940 and eight years later was named an alternate delegate.

  The son of John Alanson (1867-1916) and Edith (Manker) Patten (1867-1943), Zeboim Lupton Patten was born in Chattanooga on January 29, 1907. Descended from one of the leading families in Chattanooga, Lupton Patten (as most sources list him) was the great-nephew of Zeboim Cartter Patten (1840-1925), the founder and president of the Chattanooga Medicine Company. A native of New York, Patten removed to Tennessee following his service in the Union Army and in the latter half of the 19th century had become one of the leading industrialists in Tennessee. Additionally, Patten established a life insurance company and as head of the Stone Fort Land Company made major developments to the city infrastructure of Chattanooga.

  Receiving the name Zeboim, Lupton Patten's first name is of biblical origin, and is recorded in the Book of Genesis as "one of the five cities of the plain of Sodom." Zeboim is also mentioned as "a valley or rugged glen near Gibeah" in the First Book of Samuel, and an area populated by the Benjamites in the Book of Nehemiah. As the son of a pioneer Chattanooga business family, Patten was afforded a fine education, graduating from the Baylor School in 1923. He continued studies at the University of Chattanooga and graduated in 1927 with his BA degree. Shortly after his graduation, he returned to his alma mater as a junior instructor in French and Philosophy, teaching from 1927-28.

Portrait from the Moccasin Yearbook, 1927.

   In May 1928 Lupton Patten married Mary McChesney Sanford (1908-1972), to who he was wed until his death. The couple had four daughters, Peggy (1931-2014), twin sisters Charlotte and Phyllis, and Mary Fontaine Patten Moore (1943-2020). In the year of his marriage, Patten joined the Chattanooga Medicine Co., working in its credit department. He quickly rose through the ranks of the business, holding the posts of assistant sales manager, sales manager, and in 1938 was named company president. Just 31 years old, he succeeded his uncle Zeboim Charles Patten (who had advanced to chairman of the board). Lupton Patten held the additional role of president of the board of the Brayton Pharmaceutical Co., and his two-decade stewardship of the Chattanooga Medicine Co. was later profiled in the Chattanooga Daily Times five years after his death, which remarked:

"Lupton Patten had business foresight. He had a vision of a modern drug manufacturing company with hospital-like cleanliness, with automated production lines and a with a thoroughly mechanized office operation...He saw a pharmaceutical division to make new drugs available to the medical profession and he saw a division to make fine chemicals available to industry. Not only did he have a vision for all these things; he set out to bring them to pass. And in less than 10 years this vision became a reality."

  With his name firmly established in Chattanooga by 1940, Lupton Patten could already look back on an impressive career. A champion tennis player during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Patten helped found the Chattanooga Tennis Club, which was later renamed the Manker Patten Tennis Center in honor of his eldest brother (1894-1956). Patten would remain connected to the affairs of his alma mater through his life, serving as chairman of the University of Chattanooga's Board of Trustees from 1957-58. He held seats on the boards of the Bright School and the Girls Preparatory School of Chattanooga, and in 1940 was honored as the Junior Chamber of Commerce's Man of the Year.

From the Chattanooga News, January 14, 1936.

  In addition to his prominence in the pharmaceutical industry, Lupton Patten made additional headway into Chattanooga's business sector with his service as director of the American National Bank and Trust Co. and was on the Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company's board of directors. On the civic front Patten chaired the Chattanooga community chest campaign in 1940, and from 1949-50 was its president. In these capacities, Patten directed fundraising efforts that financed the Chattanooga symphony orchestra, and "many other public service activities in his local community." In 1941 he was vice-chairman of the Greater Chattanooga War Fund and was a progressive on race issues of the day, with his donations to African-American institutions. In a Congressional Record memorial published not long after his death, Patten was acknowledged for his charity, with Congressman Brazilla Carroll Reece remarking:

"Lupton Patten, like his father, gave much of his means to Negroes, particularly Negro ministers. When adversities knocked on Negroes' doors they made a beaten path to the Chattanooga Medicine Co. to see the little man with the big heart, Lupton Patten. When Negro churches needed a roof and other things to keep them in good repair where they may religiously educate their children Mr. Patten furnished the means by which they could do the necessary work needed to be done. In that he was following in the footsteps of his illustrious father because his father, in all probability, gave more money to Negro churches in this community than anyone that I know about. Sometimes it wasn't the need for a church proper, but it was a need for the minister of the church and he also considered their pleas and helped them on their way."

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, September 13, 1940.

  Despite being a political non-office holder, Patten was long an active worker for the Republican party. "An unabashed conservative", he was a prominent backer for Ohio senator Robert Taft in the 1940 Republican primary and was elected as part of the Tennessee delegation to the June 1940 Republican National Convention held in Philadephia. In 1948 Patten was chosen as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention (also in Philadelphia) where Thomas Dewey was nominated for the presidency. In addition to Lupton Patten's long service to the Republican party, attention must also be given to his wife's party service. Mary Sanford Patten attended three RNC conventions (two with her husband) and in 1952 chaperoned their daughter Peggy, who was a convention page. In 1955 Mrs. Patten was a candidate for Republican National Committeewoman from Tennessee and was elected, serving until at least 1960. In the last-named year, she represented Tennessee at the National Federation of Republican Women's "Bridge of Women" pageant held in Washington, D.C.

  Following his service as an RNC delegate, Patten continued prominence in Chattanooga, and in 1949 was named foreman of the Hamilton County grand jury. In the next year, he participated in a "blue ribbon jury" panel that investigated jury irregularities. In 1950 his service to the pharmaceutical industry was acknowledged with his election as president of the Proprietary Association for 1950-52. For an indeterminate period, Patten sat as a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Manufacturers and the Tennessee Manufacturers Association, and in May 1957 was bestowed an honorary doctor of laws degree from Tennessee Wesleyan University. 

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, December 8, 1958.

  The last year of Lupton Patten's life was marred by heart ailments, first being struck in the fall of 1957. After a period of recuperation, he resumed his business dealings, but on December 7, 1958, was felled by a fatal heart attack at his home. The loss of one of Chattanooga's standout figures left the community grief-stricken, and it was left for the Chattanooga Daily News to write:

"For here indeed was a man whose abilities were manifold, whose concern for the betterment for the place of his birth and of his deserved success was without limit, whose willingness to give himself on its behalf was without measure."

  Just 51 years old at the time of his death, Z. Lupton Patten was survived by his wife Mary and four daughters. Following her death in 1972, Mary Sanford Patten was interred alongside her husband at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga. Six decades following his death, the memory of Zeboim Lupton Patten remains strong in Chattanooga, and in November 2020 a $1,000,000 endowment was given by the Patten family to the University of Chattanooga's Gary W. Rollins School of Business. The endowment, the brainchild of Patten's youngest daughter Mary Fontaine Patten Moore, came to fruition following the death of her son Douglas B. Moore, with the family noting the endowment to be "a particularly appropriate memorial to Lupton Patten's business, cultural, and civic achievements and lifelong devotion to the University as student, teacher, benefactor, and trustee."

From the Chattanooga Daily News, December 9, 1958.

Senator Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr.

  Public service (and unusual names) continued in the Patten family with Zeboim Cartter Patten Jr., the son of Chattanooga Medicine Co. founder Zeboim Cartter Patten Sr. and uncle of Zeboim Lupton Patten. Like the man who preceded him here, Patten was a long distinguished figure in Chattanooga, being a life insurance company executive, banker, civic leader, and politician. He would serve one term in the state assembly, was a delegate to the 1965 state constitutional convention, and in 1960 was elected to the first of three terms in the state senate.

   Born on February 2, 1903, Z. Cartter Patten Jr. was the only child of Zeboim Cartter and Sarah Avery (Key) Patten (1863-1958). Born when his father was sixty-two years old, distinction carried over to the maternal side of Patten's family with Sarah Key Patten's father, David McKendree Key (1814-1900). Prominent in Tennessee politics, Key served as U.S. Senator from 1875-77, was Postmaster General under President Hayes from 1877-80, and was a U.S. district court judge from 1880-95. 

  Z. Cartter Patten Jr. (as most sources refer to him) attended the Duval French and English School in Chattanooga and later studied for four years at the Asheville, North Carolina School For Boys. His time at this institution saw Patten develop a lifelong interest in conservation and, having grown up on his father's Ashland Farm in the Chattanooga Valley, carried with him a love of the outdoors for the remainder of his life. 

  With his interest in conservation deepening, Patten continued his studies at Cornell University, where he took agricultural courses, and in 1925 graduated with his bachelor of science degree. This was followed by a summer-long trip through Europe with a friend, and in 1926 returned to Tennessee to join his late father's life insurance firm. Becoming an assistant treasurer with the Volunteer Life Insurance Company, Patten later advanced to the post of vice president and after the company's sale continued to sit as a member of its board of directors. 

  Z. Cartter Patten Jr. married in Tennessee on August 19, 1931, to Elizabeth Nelson Bryan (1907-1990). The couple's five-decade marriage produced four children, Sarah Key (1932-2017), Emma Berry (1935-2020), and twin sons Z. Cartter III and Bryan.

  Through the 1930s and 40s Patten's profile continued to rise in the Chattanooga business sphere, with his service as director of the Hamilton National Bank. He was chairman of the board of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association and the Ringdale Bank and Trust Co. and was a director of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. Further business prominence came with Patten's tenure as president of the WDEF-TV Broadcasting Co., Chattanooga's first television station, and in 1953 served as president of Chattanoogans, Inc.

From the Chattanooga Daily Times, January 4, 1960.

   Z. Cartter Patten Jr. owned and operated the Key Hotel in Chattanooga and as owner of the Grandview Company had over 20,000 acres of timberland on Signal Mountain. Having purchased as a substantial tract of land for growing pine trees on Signal Mountain in 1943, Patten was acknowledged in the Chattanooga Daily News in 1960, where he remarked that "in fifteen years it will be fully developed, growing timber as fast as it is cut." These vast tracts of pinelands later received mention as one of the "favorite conservation tracts" by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Additionally, Patten was a founding organizer of the Tennesee Conservation League in 1946.

  Active as an educational booster in his region, Patten served on the University of Chattanooga's board of trustees and also chaired the Bonny Oaks School board of trustees for several years. A keen historian, Patten devoted much time to the preservation of Tennessee history, and from 1949-51 served as the first president of the Chattanooga Area Historical Association. He added the title of author to his resume in 1951 with the publication of "A Tennessee Chronicle" and in 1961 authored a history of the Signal Mountain and Walden's Ridge areas. 

  Patten first entered the political life of his state in 1958 when he was elected as a representative from Hamilton County to the Tennessee General Assembly. The 1959-61 session saw him named to the committees on Business, Education, Local Government, and Military and Veterans Affairs, and in November 1960 won election to the state senate.

From the 1959 Tennessee general assembly composite.

   Patten's first senate term (1961-63) saw him chair the committee on Insurance and Banking, and in January 1961 made headlines when he announced that he'd prepared legislation that would repeal Tennessee's anti-evolution law. A law that had been on the books prior to the Scopes Trial of 1925, the bill (co-sponsored with Rep. Charles Galbreath) was remarked as having "little prospect" of passage during that year's session, with Patten stating:

"But I think the bill will have a good effect, in that it will concentrate attention of the legislature and the people on this matter, and perhaps it will be a start toward getting something done eventually."

  In 1962 Patten won his second senate term and in 1964 won a third term. During the 1965-67 session he co-chaired the Committee on Conservation, and with fellow senator Hobart Atkins proposed a bill that would "create a board of regents of higher education which would ''develop a master plan for public higher education in the state.''' Additional legislation backed by Patten included a bill to repeal the sales tax on utilities, and in 1965 pulled political double duty when he was elected as a delegate to the state constitutional convention held in Knoxville. This convention discussed term lengths, vacancies, elections, and legislative district reapportionment, and during the proceedings, Patten proposed a constitutional amendment that "would give state clarification of the U.S. Supreme Court's ''one man-one vote reapportionment formula.'''

From the Nashville Tennesseean, May 30, 1965.

  Patten's final senate term concluded in 1967 and in March 1970 he was awarded the Sears  Foundation trophy for Conservationist of the Year for Tennessee. After decades of prominence in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Z. Cartter Patten Jr. died aged 79 on February 6, 1982. He was survived by his wife and four children and was interred at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.

From the Nashville Tennessean, February 7, 1982.

Aytchmonde Perrin Stone Jr. (1907-1984)

From the 1958-59 Official Manual of the State of Missouri.

    Hailing from a state that has been well represented here over the past three years, Missouri jurist Aytchmonde Perrin Stone Jr. was blessed with a truly curious name. An attorney based out of the city of Springfield, Stone would go on to further distinction as both an Associate and Presiding judge on the Missouri State Court of Appeals for the District of Springfield, serving a quarter-century on the bench. 

   The son of Baptist minister Aytchmonde P. Stone Sr. (1862-1942) and the former Julia Ann Minter (1872-1954), Aytchmonde Perrin Stone Jr. was born in Tecumseh, Oklahoma on April 14, 1904. As one can see, the odd name of "Aytchmonde Perrin" was passed down from father to son, and, if you were like me, you may be wondering as to the exact origins of this peculiar name! Both Stone and his son inherited their unusual appellation from Aytchmonde Lane Perrin (1811-1897) a resident of Platte County, Missouri who had found distinction in banking and religious circles. 

   Three years after his birth Stone returned to Missouri with his parents and would attend school in Neosho. He graduated from that city's high school in 1922 and would later study at the William Jewell College and the Southwestern Teacher's College of Missouri (also known as the Southwest Missouri State College). Stone's time at the Southwestern Teachers College saw him be a member of the college orchestra, the English Club, Polity Club, and was an "inter-class debater" being one of two Springfield students to take part in the 1924 Inter-college Debates. Stone and fellow student Russell Baugh were tasked with debating an affirmative stance in regard to the query "Should the United States enter the permanent court of arbitration?" As the 1924 Ozarko relates:

"Although this is A.P. Stone's first year in forensic work, the exceptional ability in which he has shown in such events during the year gives great promise in his future success at public speaking. His debating is characterized by the clear understanding of the subject, combined with a persuasive style, pleasing as well as convincing. We are proud of Russell and Stone, as worthy a team as ever won honors for S.T.C."

   The Ozarko yearbook notes that as a young man with a gift for oratory, Stone was bound for great things, and the brief statement below his portrait in the 1924 Ozarko Yearbook mentions his "Old head on young shoulders", a perfect encapsulation for a young man who would one day be a distinguished lawyer and jurist. Following his graduation from the S.T.C. Stone enrolled at the Washington University School of Law, and in 1929 graduated from this school with his bachelor of laws degree. Prior to establishing a law practice Stone was employed as a high school principal in Potosi, Missouri from 1925-26, and soon after his graduation from the Washington School of Law relocated to Springfield, Missouri to begin a law practice.

A seventeen year-old Aytchmonde P. Stone Jr., from the 1924 Ozarko Yearbook.

    Two years after launching his law practice Stone was selected as assistant prosecuting attorney for Greene County, Missouri, and served two years in that post (1929-31). On August 16, 1940, he married Fay Adeline "Addie" Lambeth (1907-1995). The couple were wed for forty-four years and would remain childless.
   Five years following his marriage Aytchmonde P. Stone Jr. entered into the position of counsel for the Springfield Board of Public Utilities, continuing in that role until January of 1954 when he was appointed by then-Governor Phillip M. Donnelly as an Associate Judge on the Missouri State Court of Appeals for the District of Springfield. Stone's appointment to the bench was occasioned by the death of Judge William Vandevanter, who had died a few weeks previously in November 1953. In November 1956 Stone was elected to a twelve-year term on that court and took office as Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeals in 1957.
    In 1968 "A.P." Stone Jr. was elected to another twelve-year term on the Springfield Court of Appeals, a term which would conclude on December 31, 1980. However, Stone retired from the bench in 1979, having reached mandatory retirement age. Following his retirement, little else could be found on his life, except notice of his death on September 6, 1984, at age 77. He was survived by his wife Faye, who, nine years after her husband's death, "committed a 2.7 million estate gift" to the Missouri Baptist University, which in turn would fund a "university institutional scholarship". The "Aytchmonde P. Stone Endowment" continues on to this day, and following her passing in 1995 Faye Stone was interred alongside her husband at the Hazlewood Cemetery in Springfield.

Portrait from the 1974 Official Manual of Missouri.

Garvious Oresal Biles (1907-1973)

   The last profile for October takes us to Arizona and one of that state's more interestingly named public officials, Garvious Oresal Biles of Greenlee County. Biles served nearly two decades in the Arizona State House of Representatives from 1955 until 1971, and was also active in that state's mining industry, serving as a mine foreman for a number of years.

  Garvious Oresal Biles was born in Nolanville, Texas on March 18, 1907, the son of John Henry Biles (1861-1965, lived to age 103) and his second wife Linia Elizabeth Bryant. Nicknamed "Sonny", little could be found on Garvious's early life or education. He went on to marry Ms. Lillian Pinckney (1908-1994), with whom he had two children, Donald Kenneth and Jean Evelyn. The Arizona Memory Project (which gives a substantial overview of most of Arizona's past legislators) notes that Biles moved from Texas to Rosedale, New Mexico before finally settling in the Morenci, Arizona area around 1936.

   After establishing his roots in the Greenlee County area, Biles became a mine foreman for the Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation, a mining company headquartered in Phoenix. This company was in existence for over 170 years before finally being bought out in 2007. Biles was employed as a foreman at this organization for eighteen years, this according to his obituary in the Scottsdale Daily Progress. 

   Biles was elected to the Arizona State House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1954, officially taking his seat at the beginning of the following year. His service in the house extended for nearly two decades, and during that time Biles earned a reputation as one of Arizona's "most powerful legislators." During his lengthy term of service, Biles held a seat on numerous legislative committees, including the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, chairman of the Fish and Game Committee, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Indian Affairs, and vice chairman of the Tourist and Industry Development committee. 

  In addition to serving as a chairman or vice-chairman, Biles was named to numerous other House committees, including those on Labor, Livestock and Public Lands, Public Health, Education, Judiciary, Rules, Municipalities, Transportation, Ways and Means, Highway Fact Finding, and lastly, Commerce and Industry. 

   

                      Another picture of Garvious O. Biles, taken early in his tenure in the legislature.

  Biles continued to serve in the legislature until 1971 and declined to run for reelection in 1972 because of health concerns. In that year the Scottsdale Daily Progress noted that he underwent surgery for lung cancer, but continued to be a familiar face in the legislature in the months before his death, "acting as a lobbyist for the mines."

  Garvious Oresal Biles died at age 66 on May 24, 1973, at the Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. Shortly after his death he was interred at the Green Acres Memorial Park in Scottsdale and was survived by both his children as well as his wife Lillian, who died in 1994 at age 86 and was also interred at the Green Acres Memorial Park. 

                                              From the May 25, 1973 edition of the Scottsdale Daily Progress.