It was March the seventeenth, 1872, that the family of George and Isabel Patterson, together with their children, Robert, his wife and their two children; Richard G., Osborne, Mary, Hannah, Belle, and Rachel set sail for American in the steamboat, THE CITY OF BRUSSELS, which at that time was considered about as risky as traveling in an aero plane generally is considered today. The trip was made in record time--eight days and four hours, for bids had been made by THE CITY OF BRUSSELS company, the Inman line and its competitor, the White Star Line, for carrying the mail, for the winner of this race was to get a five year contract. THE CITY OF BRUSSELS won the honor for the Company and gave its voyagers the distinction of having at that time made the trip across the Atlantic in the shortest space of time ever consumed. The trip was made from Liverpool, England to New York City.
George Patterson gave up his business as contractor and builder to come to America. His son, Robert, also sold his farm which joined his father's; Richard gave up his position is Manchester as one of the Queen's Life Guards. Osborne, who was a youth of 17 or 18, and his sisters, Mary, Hannah, Bella and Rachel, all younger than he, were under the parental roof. The only member of the family remaining in the British Isles at this time was Adam Patterson, who together with his wife, Jane, was living in Manchester where Adam was a minister.
The family spent about two weeks in Philadelphia with Dr. John Patterson before they left for Fremont, Nebraska, where George Patterson and his family lived for about two years on what was known as the SIOUX CITY FARM--a site to which the present city of Fremont has been extended. From there they moved to Township 19, Range 8, Section 4, which is now owned by Osborne Patterson, a grandson of George Patterson and a namesake of Osborne Patterson, Sr. Ritchie and Osborne also took up homesteads in this vicinity and later Adam, who meantime had come from England also, took up a homestead. Mary, who had stayed to teach in Fremont was married to Robert Roberts and they took up a homestead in Greeley County across the Cedar River from where Robert Patterson had taken up his homestead.
---------------HISTORY OF PRIMROSE AND DUBLIN, NEBRASKA 2002 pages 249-351