Named after Marshall H. Patterson, who served five terms as sheriff of Woodruff County as well as two terms as the state representative from Woodruff and Cross Counties. Received several rewards for the capture of notorious fugitives in the area. Also established in 1901, the first telephone service between Augusta, Newport, Bald Knob, Wynne, and Brinkley. From "Sheriff Marshall Patterson and the Oliphant Train Robbery of 1893" first printed in the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1923 and reprinted in Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Vol. XVI (Augusta: Woodruff County Historical Society, 1989), pp. 35-37:

One night in November of 1893, a passenger train on the Iron Mountain Road made its regular stop at Oliphant, a small town in Jackson County. The peaceful slumber of the passengers was suddenly disturbed when eight horse were driven alongside the train, and as many masked men entered the express car. A shot rang out, and Conductor McNally fell to the floor. The express car was robbed, and then in desperado style the robbers entered the passenger coaches. Women fainted, babies whimpered, and in obedience, men "reached for the sky." The intruders robbed each passenger and then headed for the hills. For a minute no sound was heard, passengers were almost afraid to breathe. One woman who was wearing a watch and fob pinned to her bosom had turned the watch inside her dress hoping they would pass her by. but one had snatched it roughly. She was the first to cry out, breaking the silence as horses' hoof were growing faint in the cold dark air... Sheriff Patterson boarded the engine at Augusta, and by 3 o'clock had joined the posse at Oliphant. They headed their horses in the direction the robbers had fled... Just as the streaks of dawn reddened the sky, and long fingers of a wintry sun came out to melt the frost, two men appeared over the hill. Sheriff Patterson instructed his comrades, and as spokesman, he rode up to one of the men and greeted him. "Have you seen our dogs?" Posing as a hunter he made conversation. Two gold watch chains dangled from one stranger's vest and a diamond ring sparkled in the early morning sun. Patterson gave the sign to his comrades and said to the stranger, "That is a fine gun you have," and at the same time handed him his gun, which is common courtesy between hunters. The stranger, unaware of trickery, handed his gun to the sheriff, and a cry rang out "Hands Up." Both men were well covered. The sheriff's gun was unloaded, and the man had walked into a trap. Mr. Lippman, who kept the other man covered, said he was the biggest man he ever saw, and with his hands up, "he looked like a tree."

...In 1909, the Patterson family had moved to Jelks, one mile from McCrory. Shortly after this move, the name of the town was changed to Patterson, but many people still used the old name of Jelks.

On May 21, 1921, Patterson was killed in a gun battle in the office of the railroad station at Patterson. The Commercial Appeal story did not include the details of the tragedy.

According to the Home News, the McCrory newspaper of the time, Patterson was shot by Ed Harris, a traveling salesman. There had been an argument between the two men. Witnessing the affair were the station agent, I. N. Faulkner, and J. W. Mullens. An inquest was held by a jury empaneled by the acting coroner, R. A. Jones. A pistol was found on Patterson's body, and Harris stated that he had fired in self defense.

Harris was arrested and held in the county jail. On May 27, the newspaper reported that at a habeas corpus hearing he was released on a $6,000 bond. At this hearing, Faulkner and Mullens testified that Harris shot Patterson after the latter attempted to draw his revolver. Both witnesses said that Harris used two revolvers in the attack. Other than the two eye-witnesses, those who testified at the hearing were R. A. Jones, acting coroner, J. D. Angus, J. L. Bronte, and the sheriff, W. N. Wilkes.

Within ten minutes after the court stated that Harris' bond be fixed at $6,000, friends executed a bond for the defendant in the amount of $40,000. Among those who signed the bond were J. H. Snapp, A J. Marsh, J. H. Crossett, H. D. Angus, J. W. Mullens, W. O. Scales, G. W. Barber, and others, all prominent Woodruff County citizens.

The newspaper stated "that the killing will be investigated at the next term of Circuit Court at Augusta."

However, no indictment was ever issued and no trail was held. As all politicians, Patterson had made some enemies and was often threatened with death... Shortly before he was killed he had lost the race for another term as sheriff on the independent ticket, and had just been appointed prohibition officer.

A short history of the Patterson School by Velma Rose Raymond can be found in Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Vol. IV, No. 1 (Winter 1976), p. 56:

In 1900 Mr. Marshall Patterson moved his family from Augusta to Jelks which is now Patterson... Mr. Patterson, a state representative at the time, bought some land and donated it for a school. He, along with Mrs. Patterson, had a one room frame building built and organized the first school with Mrs. Patterson as the first teacher. As long as the building remained as a school no charges were made to the district, but when it ceased to be a school there the land and building was to revert back to the Patterson estate. Most of the revenue for the school was derived from the Missouri Pacific railroad and "Old Jude" railroad which ran from Newport to Brinkley...

After Mr. Patterson's death the people of Jelks petitioned the Missouri Pacific to have the name of Jelks changed to Patterson, and that's how Jelks became Patterson.

The school at Patterson was maintained until the early 50's when it was consolidated with McCrory. The building and land reverted back to the Patterson estate and was then donated to the people of the Baptist Church to be used as such.

From "Now It Is Patterson" by T. M. Jeffries, Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Vol. VI, No. 2 (Spring 1978), p. 15-16:

First it was Martin's Junction - then it was Jelks - and now it is Patterson...

It came into being when the B & B Railroad tracks were laid in the 1880's, crossing the Missouri Pacific tracks about thirty feet east of the present Highway 17. Rufus Martin and W. J. Thompson, both Woodruff Countians, had bought out interests of a group of Brinkley men who had started the railroad. Martin was the construction engineer, so the name of Martin's Junction for the little community was a natural...

Shortly after the tracks were laid, the Sanders Sawmill located on Cache River where it was crossed by the Missouri Pacific, and floated their logs down the river to the spot that had come to be called by the name of Martin's Junction. The Company built several shot gun houses there for the use of its employees. There were several other sawmills in the area, one of them was the Baxter Sawmill. There was also the Peal Files Stave Mill. A descendant, Ruth Files, still lives in McCrory.

One of the first businesses, if not the first, in Martin's Junction was a store operated by W. H. Blackstone, whose granddaughter, Mrs. Walter Fowlkes, now lives in McCrory.

The combination of the railroad intersection and the logging business in the area made Martin's Junction a good shipping point, with favorable freight rates. Several wholesale grocery houses located there, including Mayo & Robinson (later Robinson's), the J. W. Mullins Co., and Burton & Bird, which became the Burton Company.

The railroad changed the name to Jelks, after the Jelks family who lived about two miles northwest of the Junction. One member of this family, J. R. Jelks, was the second sheriff of Woodruff County, serving from 1866 to 1868. Several descendants are still living in McCrory.

About 1909, the McCrory Beedeville & Southern Railway was built into Jelks. This road ran from there to near the Cowlake community north of McCrory, and was owned by the H. A. Langston Co., operators of a sawmill at McCrory.

The Missouri Pacific stopped its trains at Jelks, where most of its business was generated, and ignored McCrory, just two miles distant. Any incoming and outgoing passengers from McCrory had to rely on a "taxi" service between the two communities.

About 1909 W. H. Patterson moved from Augusta to Jelks. He built what was then considered a very find two-story house, which became a social and political center. The house is still standing, and is now the home of the A. W. Eaves family. Mr. Patterson was a large land owner, and owned practically all of the area in and around Jelks...

He was also a prominent politician, well-known throughout the state. He was elected sheriff of Woodruff County about 1900, and was said to be the youngest to hold that office in Arkansas...

There was no doubt that Patterson led the field in Woodruff County politics for many years. He held almost every political office in the country, and was a representative and a senator in the Arkansas Legislature.

Apparently, he pulled some political strings, and before anyone knew about it, the Post Office had a new name - Patterson. The railroad still called it Jelks for a number of years, and the situation resulted in considerable confusion...