Minnie Ward Patterson

Minnie Ward Patterson, A Woman of the Century (1893)

Minnie Ward Patterson (née Minnie Ward) was a poet and author, born in the city of Niles in Michigan. Her most famous work is Pebbles from Old Pathways.

Life[]

Minnie Ward was born in 1844 in Niles, Michigan.^[1] Before she reached adulthood, both her parents died, and she was left to the care of strangers.^[2] From an early age, she taught music and painting, filling every spare moment with writing.^[1] She graduated with honours from Hillsdale College at the age of twenty, and afterwards a degree of A.M.

Soon after leaving school, she opened a studio in Chicago, and was a frequent contributor to the "Sunday Times" usually over the signature of "Zinober Green". While on a sketching tour along the Upper Mississippi, during the summer of 1867, she became the wife of , a former class-mate in Hillsdale, and a graduate of the law school in Albany, who became a prominent member of the Michigan bar and then was twice elected to the Senate of that State. The couple then resided in Marshall, Michigan.^[2] She had some communication with William Cullen Bryant who advised her against making poetry her primary occupation.^[3]

Career[]

Patterson's poems appeared in the Boston Transcript, Youth's Companion, Wide Awake, Peterson's Magazine, the Free Press, Detroit Tribune, Detroit Times, the Journal of Chicago, and various other periodicals.^[2]

In 1875 published a book entitled Pebbles from Old Pathways, a 200 page collection of her poetry.^[1] Not long after the appearance of that Pebbles she became greatly interested in the Norse languages and literature, and her next work of importance was the translation of three volumes of the Swedish book The Surgeon's Stories, entitled respectively Times of Frederick I, Times of Linnæus, and Times of Alchemy. She also translated many folklore tales from Norwegian, which appeared in various newspapers.^[2]

References[]

Citations[]

Bibliography[]

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Herringshaw, Thomas William (1892). Local and National Poets of America with Interesting Biographical Sketches and Choice Selections from Over One Thousand Living American Poets. Chicago: American Publishers' Union. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.
• "Poetastery". The Quarto. Clements Library, University of Michigan. 1 (1). July 1943. Retrieved 19 December 2021.

External links[]

• Works related to Woman of the Century/Minnie Ward Patterson at Wikisource