Charles Patterson Livingston

Charles Paterson Livingston was born May 18, 1794, at "Locust Grove," the estate of his father near poughkeepsie, and was baptized Aug. 20, 1794, in the Dutch Church there. he died Aug. 29, 1847, aged 53 years, in Painesville, Ohio, where, besides being a practicing physician, he was also mayor of the city. On Jan. 5, 1826, he married, the Rev. John Reed rector of Christ church, Poughkeepsie, officiating, Ellizabeth Clement Brewer who was born July 13, 1798, in Yorktown, Westchester County, NY, and died Apr. 2, 1878, in Sandusky, Ohio, a daughter of Dr. Joseph & Hannah (Mitchell) Brewer. Dr. Livingston is buried in Painesville and his wife in Sandusky, as she made her home there with her daughter, after her husband's death. Dr. Livingston and his wife left Poughkeepsie in May 1825 for Cleveland, Ohio. He had lived for seven years in Kaskaskia, IL, but was obliged to leave there on account of ill health; however, he had visited Cleveland and liked it, so he decided to settle there. They went by boat to Albanyand by canal to Dunkirtk NY, and there waited a week for the lake boat. They received a warm welcome on their arrival in Painesville and found there several families that they had known, or had known of, in the East. While Dr. Livingston had planned to establish his home and practice in Cleveland, he realized that there was a greater need for a physician in the smaller community of Painesville so he decided to settle permanently in the latter place. He was a Surgeon in the Black Hawk War, commissioned Jan. 22, 1830, by Allen Trimble, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in Ohio, in the "1st Squadron Cavalry, 1st Brigade, 8th Division, in the Militia of this State" (Fam. recs.).

Several letters, written by him in his twenties, have survived. One, dated Utica, N.Y., Sept. 3, 1817, to his mother, tells of visiting the Breeses, Platts, and other family relatives and that he expected to return home by way of Newburgh, N.Y., where he hoped to form a partnership with a physician. Two years later he was in Illinois, for in a letter of Sept. 4, 1819, addressed to his father, he speaks of his recent arrivial in Kaskaskia and exhibits great enthusiasm about the western country. A few years later his attitude had changed for on Oct. 26, 1824, he wrote: "I have almost determined to leave this country next spring, and as soon after as may be, locate in Ohio, say at Sandusky, Cleveland, or Erie. Times are hard [and] I shall not be able to collect much money..."