ENFIELD — Steven Patten, who runs his own excavation company, remembers taking the logs from a 2019 project up to the Enfield home of his father, Carl Patten.
He promised his father, then in his late 80s, that he would come back to help saw and split the wood, which would come in handy that winter.
But he wasn’t back to his car before Steven Patten said he heard the sound of the chainsaw running and Carl Patten rolling logs up a plank one by one. Overall, the elder Patten took on about two logs a day to split 10 cords of wood that year.
“He always kept going as long as he could,” Steven Patten said.
From an early age, hard work was a part of Carl Patten’s daily routine. From work at his father’s sawmill, to long hours in a truck, to his own excavation company, he was on the go for most of his life.
But family and friends say he took the expertise gained over those years and poured it back into his family and his community. Not only as a provider but as a teacher and civic leader.
It’s that commitment that many say they’ll miss about Patten after he died on March 12, 2021, at 90.
“He always worked so hard and never asked for much himself,” said Marlene Patten, his wife of 60 years.
Patten was born May 6, 1930, to Orion and Marjorie (Bills) Patten and grew up in Milford, N.H. He was one of 21 children in the family, with 12 brothers and eight sisters.
Family members describe Patten’s upbringing as difficult. His father ran a sawmill in town and only allowed Patten to attend school regularly through the fourth grade.
By the time Patten reached the eighth grade, his father demanded that he drop out and start working full-time, prompting him to run away from home.
Patten initially intended to flee to Canada but, after stopping to visit a brother in the Upper Valley, decided to settle in Enfield.
However, Patten would still make it a habit to stop by, sit and talk, especially after the death of his mother, according to his younger brother Roland.
It was only later in life, Roland Patten said, that he came to realize that the visits were his older brother’s way of checking in to see whether everything was alright at home.
“Out of all my brothers, he was my favorite,” Roland Patten said. “He was my big brother and he always looked out for me.”
From age 14, Patten found work with “anybody who would take him and let him work hard,” according to Marlene Patten.
He worked for Perini Construction helping to build the North Hartland Dam, delivered forest products to the North Country and drove truck for the Lebanon-based Decato Brothers.
Marlene Patten said it was while he was trucking that she ran across him in Cornish in 1961. He convinced her to accept a date and the two quickly fell in love, she said.
At the time, she had three children from a previous marriage, while Patten had two sons — Steven and Gary.
“His wife had left him with two little boys and so we were both in the same boat. Neither one of us had anything but we grew together,” Marlene Patten said, adding that they quickly merged into a single family, including daughters Mary, Tina and Nellie.
“We never said your kids and my kids,” she said. “They were our children, always our children.”
Marlene Patten said her husband’s trucking days were tough on the children. The job would often see him leave on Sunday at noon and arrive back home Saturday night.
“After a couple of years, I said ‘You know, these kids should really see you in the morning before they go to school and they should see you when they’re ready to go to bed at night,’ ” Marlene Patten recalled telling her husband.
He responded by going out and buying a truck and backhoe, resulting in the creation of Carl Patten Construction.
Over the next 37 years, the business became known for its reliability and expertise in excavation. It also was run as a team. Patten would manage projects, Marlene Patten would do the bookkeeping and Steven and Gary trained under them.
Lifelong Enfield resident Dwight Marchetti said Patten became known throughout town as a reliable businessman who “set the gold standard for work ethic.”
Marchetti said he called on Patten in the 1960s to build access to a property he owned in Enfield and in the 1970s to perform the excavation work — digging the cellar hole and septic system, and constructing the driveway — on his first home.
“Everything he did was neat. He was somewhat of a perfectionist,” Marchetti said.
Patten often took his children to jobs when they weren’t in school, said oldest son Steven Patten.
“We learned to run equipment young and he was always proud to show us off to his friends, but he never told us that we did good work,” Steven Patten said.
He said his father never said no to a job and recalled a specific project that required the relocation of a 10-room house in the way of Interstate 89’s construction through Lebanon.
“He’d send me over with a sledgehammer and I’d break the foundation up. It was OK that I worked hard because he would show up and work just as hard with me,” Steven Patten said. “He’d never ask any of his help to do anything that he wouldn’t do.”
The family’s labor meant that Steven Patten and his siblings always had clothes on their backs and didn’t go hungry, something that wasn’t guaranteed in a town that often saw its prosperity hinge on the success of the Baltic woolen mill.
Steven Patten said it was during his father’s construction says that he got into politics. Unhappy with the way the roads were maintained, Patten ran for and was elected road agent in 1972.
Patten served in that role until 1974. He was then elected to the Enfield Selectboard in 1976 and served for 11 years in a dual role that included tending to the town’s sewer and water system.
Like his work in the construction field, Patten took a hands-on role while in office and often responded to water emergencies personally. Valley News stories from the time tell of Patten and fellow Selectboard member Don Crate working as a team to shut down the water system by closing gates at its reservoir and draining the system by opening fire hydrants when a broken valve needed to be repaired.
Perhaps Patten’s biggest contribution to Enfield is the one that bears his name — Patten’s River Crossing, the bridge that links Baltic and Pillsbury streets across the Mascoma River.
Patten led a group to build a new bridge starting in 1993, when he balked during Town Meeting at the idea of committing taxpayer dollars to a study of future bridge options. When the Selectboard suggested he oversee a committee to look into the issue, Patten jumped at the chance, according to his son.
Paul Putnam, who served on the Enfield Bridge Committee alongside Patten, said he was an “outstanding person to work alongside.”
“Carl was very much a gentleman with the state, the contractor and everyone in the committee,” Putnam said.
In July 1996, the bridge officials opened with a monument on its southeast corner paying tribute to Patten.
Marlene Patten describes the bridge opening as a celebratory event where “everybody was so excited.” Her husband cut the ribbon and drove across in his antique truck containing several grandchildren, she said.
Patten also went on to serve for four years on the building committee that resulted in the current Enfield Public Works building, according to the 2006 town report, which was dedicated after him.
Patten ultimately retired in 1998 at the age of 68. He initially intended to work until age 70, Marlene Patten said, but changed his mind after attending the funeral of a close friend.
“He came home from that funeral and said ‘I’m all done. I’m not going to follow him,’ ” she said.
But retirement didn’t necessarily mean he slowed down. Patten and his wife owned a camper and started taking annual trips to Florida every winter, a tradition that lasted for 20 years.
Patten also invested more time into hobbies and volunteer efforts. A lifetime member of the Enfield Outing Club, he was an avid gun collector with a great eye for a deal, according to Steven Patten.
Kevin Howard, who became president of the outing club about four years ago, said Patten was “instrumental” in the construction of several improvements at the shooting range on Shaker Hill Road.
After a 2017 out-of-court settlement with neighbors, the club agreed to curtail its hours and built a 16-foot-tall wooden wall between the property and roadway.
“He was there when I needed him,” Howard said, adding that Patten would deliver advice without becoming overbearing or cross.
“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know that we could have got it done as smoothly as we did,” he said.
Patten, who was known for this sharp mind, also excelled at puzzles, crosswords and could easily solve a Rubik’s cube, Steven Patten said. He also was known to read both the Valley News and New Hampshire Union Leader from front to back every day.
Friends and family say Patten’s most beloved hobby may have been his garden in Enfield. Steven Patten said his father was known to till the soil at the first sight of spring in anticipation of the growing season.
“When the snow was gone off the dirt, he’d say ‘I think I’m going to go out and plant my peas,’ ” Marlene Patten said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.