John A. Patterson, born in 1859 in Ireland, emigrated to the
United States in 1885 to join his parents and siblings, who settled in West
Almond, near Angelica, in Allegany County.
Having never married, Patterson began working in 1913 on
construction of the Welland Ship Canal project in southern Ontario — an amazing
feat of engineering that connects Lake Erie with the use of eight locks to Lake
Ontario. Completed in 1935, the Welland Canal forms a key section to the St.
Lawrence Seaway to bypass Niagara Falls — allowing ocean-going shipping via the
Atlantic to reach into the North American continent to the western end of Lake
Superior.
But construction of the canal came at a cost in lives — 137
workers were killed in accidents during the years of its construction, among
them John A. Patterson, struck by a trunk rail car on Aug. 5, 1914.
Patterson was working on the repair of a dump car on a
railway siding, according to an account compiled by Kathleen Powell, curator of
the St. Catharines (Ontario) Museum, to tell the story of the men who gave
their lives working on the canal.
“(Patterson) was working on the repair of a dump car on a
railway siding,” the account reads. “Having completed his repair, he set off
along the track with a chain slung over his shoulder and, as usual, whistling
as he went. Locomotive engine No. 6 happened to be moving along the track at
the same time and Patterson was hit by a train car and killed instantly.”
He was also among 53 men killed who, were buried in unmarked
graves.
That changes next month when Robert Sears, president of
Canadian Canal Society and member of The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
Task Force, presents a special grave marker for Patterson, to be placed at his
resting place in Angelica’s Until the Day Dawn Cemetery on Aug. 8.
In a program set for 1:30 p.m. that day — the 103rd
anniversary of Patterson’s burial — in the Angelica Grange Hall, Sears will
give a presentation on the Welland Ship Canal, the Fallen Workers and the
Memorial Project and he will present the marker to Robert Jones, town
supervisor.
