Mary Kate Patterson Davis Hill Kyle

Mary Kate Patterson Davis Hill Kyle. October 15, 1838 - July 6, 1931. Mary Kate was the daughter of Dr. Hugh and Ellen T. Patterson. They lived along Nolensville Pike in the defunct community of Rashboro, now within Nashville. She was attending Elliott School when the U.S. capture of Nashville interrupted her education., Mary Kate's brother Everett served with Coleman's Scouts. The most famous member was Sam Davis, whose statue is on Capitol Hill, and whose home is a shrine in Smyrna. He was hung as a spy, though captured in his uniform. The Patterson home was a secret rendezvous for the scouts. A closed or open shutter could signal all clear, and lamps could be placed in designated windows to relay other information. Messages were left in stumps and hollow trees referred to as post offices. An approaching scout might give the haunting call of the Bob White to announce his presence., The Confederate forces had difficulty procuring medicines. Dr. Patterson had contacts in Nashville that provided crucial quinine and morphine. They had a false bottom built into a buggy so that Mary Kate could bring them out. If room was left, she also conveyed such items as boots, bridles, and spurs. Sam Davis wore a pair of boots Mary Kate had made for him, and was wearing them when hung by the U.S. Army. Davis refused to reveal the source of papers he was carrying with information on U.S. troops. It may be that he was protecting Mary Kate., One night in mid-November 1863 Mary Kate heard a pebble tossed at a window. It was Sam Davis's special signal. It was too dangerous to stay in the Patterson home, so he camped in a nearby thicket. The next morning Mary Kate brought him coffee and a warm breakfast. She also brought him soap, a toothbrush, and U.S. newspapers. She may have brought him troop movement information and a diagram of U.S. forts around Nashville. All of these items were on him when he was captured later in the month. Before he was executed he could have saved his life. Davis declined saying, “If I had a thousand lives I would lose them all here before I would betray my friends or the confidence of my informer.”, The following February Mary Kate married Sam Davis's elder half-brother John Davis. After the war John was a partner with Dr. Patterson as owners of a steamboat. In February 1867, just three years after they married, John was killed when the boat exploded on the Mississippi River. Mary Kate married two other times, before dying as a widow in 1931.