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GEN. PATTON
PILGRIMMAGE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
General George Patton Memorial Church Window
A
weathered bronze statue of Gen. George S. Patton stands with side arm
ready, guarding the graveyard
which
holds his family’s bones.
His statue used to stand in a small garden behind the Episcopal Church
of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, but was moved to his new position
about a year ago. The family into which Patton was born were long time
members and benefactors of the church which was first built in 1867,
originally of adobe and hand-made nails. The little church of wood and
plaster with a neo-Gothic design is one of the prettiest you might find
in Southern California, unique for its own history as for its Patton
connection, though best known for the memorial stained glass window commemorating
the famous General’s life and exploits.
The
American iconic general of World War II, George Smith Patton Junior
was certainly a son of
California.
He had come from a long line of soldiers
on his father’s side. His great uncle Waller T. Patton was killed
at Pickets Charge in the Civil War, another relative was a General in
the Revolutionary war. His mother was the grand-daughter of Benjamin
Davis Wilson, a fur trader who acquired huge tracts of land in the San
Gabriel valley to the east of Los Angeles. Benjamin Wilson, for whom
Mount Wilson, with its famous observatories and tv towers is named,
also acquired the moniker "Don Benito" Wilson, from the Spanish
Native Americans, apparently 
for
his benevolent treatment of the indians on his lands. Benevolence being
relative - since the story of the west is that the American Indians
didn’t
quite realize that a person could actually own land - Wilson’s
property, Rancho San Pascual, inherited by Gen. Patton’s family,
encompassed what is today the towns of Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra,
San Marino
and San Gabriel. The arroyo which passes the Rose Bowl was once called
Wilson’s Ditch, bringing water to his parched desert valley
long before Mulholland would build his aquaduct for Los Angeles. Wilson
subdivided and sold off much his land until remaining with a
house in what
is now
San
Marino,
where the general who would become “Old Blood and Guts” was
born.
The
stained glass Patton memorial window in the Church of Our Savior was
commissioned by the general’s
children and wife after his death in a car accident near Heidelberg
Germany in 1945 and dedicated on October
13, 1946. The window is a curious mixtute of war and religious iconography.
The subject is St. George slaying the Dragon, though the saint is meant
to represent general George, the dragon’s scales are of Nazi Swastika,
the horse’s blanket bears the insignia of the armored tank corps
under Patton’s command. The main battles of Europe which Patton
commanded his tanks - Metz, Coblenz and Bastogne, and the towns he considered
he liberated from the Nazi hold are referenced as being released from
the dragon’s claw. 
The
general himself is depicted in a tank. The Patton window is only one
of many to discover in the church, like exploring
a “where’s Waldo” puzzle. In another you can find the
image of Patton’s father. Patton’s wife Beatrice Ayer Patton
is depicted in another, as St. Beatrice kneeling before Christ the Healer,
with symbols of her home state Massachusetts. Look for the Wells Fargo
stagecoach in another window, refering to the arrival of the supplies
for the building of the church. You’ll also find Martin Luther
and Canterbury Cathedral in windows depicting the history of Christianity
and
formation of the Episcopal church. There is a booklet describing the
windows in the vestibule, or you can purchase a copy in the church office
for 5 dollars.
If
taking a pilgrimmage to the family church of General Patton, take a
good road map. A few blocks
away you
can find the Patton family house
on a small cul-de-sac, 1220 Patton Court, just off Euston Road and Patton
Way around the corner from the Huntington Library in San Marino.
The house is
a private
residence
and not open to the public, so don't knock on the door, or the ghost
of Patton's Bull Terrier may come snarling from the yard. For the
more adventurous General Patton fan with
time
and
gas
to spare,
about two hours to the east of the Patton sites in San Gabriel and San
Marino is the modest Patton Tank Warfare Museum, located at the site
of Patton’s California tank training facility just off Interstate
10, where he trained his tank crews to face Rommel in North Africa, about
45 minutes east of Palm Springs (see Patton
Desert Tank Warfare Museum).
Patton’s family is buried in the cemetary grounds over which his
statue now stands watch, but Patton himself lies in a military cemetary
in Luxembourg (see Patton
Grave Luxembourg). © Bargain
Travel West
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