| Summary: | Robert Miller Patton was one of five Lauderdale County residents to serve as governor of Alabama. Patton was born in Virginia in 1809. He and his parents came to Alabama in 1818 and he took up residence in Florence in 1829. In 1832, he became a member of the Alabama State Legislature and served several terms between that time and the onset of the Civil War. He married Jane Locke Brahan the same year, and they made their home at Sweetwater. He and his wife had eight children, two of which died in the Civil War. One of these, William Anderson Patton, was killed at the Battle of Shiloh. Robert Patton became the first president of the Florence Synodical Female College in 1855.
In 1865, Patton became Alabama’s twentieth governor. Federal authorities removed him from office in July 1867 by military order because his actions in office did not suit the stringent federal authorities. Following his term in office, Patton worked to establish railroads in the South and served on the University of Alabama’s Board of Trustees. Patton passed away in 1885.
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