Born in 1795 in Bethel, Maine, Patty married David Sessions when she was 17 and started a career as a midwife. In 1834 she joined the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Her husband joined a few years later, before they left Maine for a Mormon gathering in Ohio in 1836. From there they went to Missouri where they lost $1200 in land and $400 in livestock when the Mormons were driven out in 1838. The Sessions proceeded to Nauvoo with their three children--Perrigrine, Sylvia and David. By 1840 both her son Perrigrine and her daughter Sylvia were married with families of their own. Patty's husband, Mr. Sessions, was employed in agricultural work, probably as a farm hand. As a midwife Patty made an average of $2 per birth and assisted at up to three births per week.