COUNTY
TENNESSEE
Among the native sons of Memphis who have risen to positions of responsibility and trust in her commercial and financial circles is James H. Patton, president and treasurer of the National Bedding Company, whose plant is located at Cossitt Place and the Southern Railway. He was born on the 18th of February, 1879, one of the two sons of the late Thomas N. Patton, who died on the 9th of May, 1912. The father was born at Trezevant, Carroll county, Tennessee, and came to Memphis prior to the Civil war, in 1857, remaining here during the remainder of his long life. He was a private in the Confederate army during the Civil war and lived through three terrible epidemics of the dread yellow fever in this city, but was most fortunate in never contracting the disease. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church on Court avenue for half a century. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Helen A. Coulter, was born at Bartlett, Shelby county, sixty-six years ago and now makes her home with her son James H. at 885 Vance avenue, Memphis. The other son is a young man of twenty-eight years and is associated with James H. in business as vice president and secretary of the National Bedding Company.
After spending his boyhood in the manner of most city youngsters, dividing his [p.568] time between his play and his school and vastly partial to the former when it came to a display of interest, James H. Patton started in the mattress manufacturing business at the age of sixteen by going to work in the factory owned by Joseph Rose of Memphis. He remained with Mr. Rose for fourteen years, during which time he mastered all the details of the industry and gained enough knowledge of factory management and sales methods to enable him to start in business for himself. In 1909 he engaged in the manufacture of mattresses, operating under the name of the National Bedding Company. His partner in this undertaking was the late G. G. Bostick, who became president of the concern when it was incorporated in 1913. Mr. Patton was vice president and treasurer. Following the death of Mr. Bostick, on the 1st of February, 1922, Mr. Patton became president and treasurer of the company. A man of executive ability and foresight, Mr. Patton deserves much of the credit for the success of the National Bedding Company, to whose development and prosperity he has unremittingly devoted his efforts in the past fourteen years.
On the 16th of October, 1901, Mr. Patton was united in marriage to Miss Mattie Hays Patton of Trenton, Tennessee, and they have become the parents of seven children: Hal, Helen, Thomas, Charles, Ernest and twin girls of three and a half, named Martha and Nancy. While Mrs. Patton's maiden name was Patton, she is not related to her husband by ties of blood, coming from an entirely different family of the same name.
Mr. Patton belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club of Memphis. He gives his allegiance and services to the democratic party in political matters and was elected to the lower house in the Tennessee legislature for the term 1921-1922, where he served his constituents ably and well. He is a deacon in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, holding the office his father filled for fifty years.
Tennessee - The Volunteer State
