Joseph Medill Patterson – Captain, United States Army

Joseph Medill Patterson was born on January 6, 1879 into the American family that founded the Chicago Tribune.

He worked in the newspaper business and volunteered for service in the United States Army at the outbreak of World War I. He served throughout the war, and received high praise from Douglas MacArthur who called him “the most brilliant soldier that I ever served with.”

Following the war, while his cousin, Robert McCormick, ran the Chicago Tribune, Patterson founded the New York Daily News. He again volunteered for combat service at the outbreak of World War II, but was rejected due to his age (62). He died in New York on May 26, 1946 and is buried, along with his wife (Mary King Patterson) in Section 6 of Arlington National Cemetery.

A member of the sprawling Medill newspaper family, Joseph Medill Patterson was born in Chicago in 1879. He enjoyed an affluent Gold Coast upbringing, but as a young man enjoyed slumming in the seedier parts of town. He extended his family connections by marrying Alice Higgenbotham, whose father was a partner in the Marshall Field department store; they had three daughters and adopted a son.

Joseph Medill Patterson’s grandfather and namesake, Joseph Medill, was the founder of the Tribune. Medill passed the Tribune on to his son-in-law, Robert Wilson Patterson, Jr. – Joseph Medill Patterson’s father.

Patterson began his newspaper career working for his father at the Tribune, but resigned over a disagreement. He retreated to a farm, where he wrote his two novels and a play. These early works, with their emphasis on the consequences of poverty and the evils of the idle rich, reflect Medill’s drift toward socialism. In 1903 he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives on a reform platform. The Socialist Party tried to draft him as a figurehead, but family ties proved stronger, and Patterson returned to the Tribune after his father died in 1910.

While he was editor of the Tribune from 1910 to 1925, Patterson began experimenting with the content of the front page, attempting to draw more readers by featuring more crime news. Balancing out Patterson’s move toward popularization, however, was publisher Robert McCormick, who insisted on keeping the editorial page conservative.

Patterson served in the army during World War I. While he was in London, the flashy British tabloids caught his eye, and he became convinced that Americans would buy similar publications. After the war he put his idea to work in New York City, founding the Illustrated Daily News in 1919. With its large photos and lurid, gossipy stories, the Daily News was an instant hit, and Patterson devoted most of his time to developing it.

Patterson won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials supporting Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to run for a third term, but turned against the president when the United States got involved in World War II. In a reversal of his earlier politics, Patterson became an ardent anticommunist in the “Red Scare” of the 1920s and 30s. He divorced and remarried in 1938.

PATTERSON, JOSEPH M
CAPT FIELD ARTILLERY U S ARMY

• DATE OF DEATH: 05/26/1946
• BURIED AT: SECTION 6  SITE 5681-A
  ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard