John J. Patterson

John J. Patterson

John James Patterson (born August 8, 1830 in Waterloo , Juniata County , Pennsylvania , †  September 28, 1912 in Mifflintown , Pennsylvania) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of South Carolina in the US Senate .

John Patterson grew up in Pennsylvania, where he attended public schools and later Jefferson College in Canonsburg . In the 1850s he worked in the newspaper and banking industry. Among other things, he was editor of the Juniata Sentinel in 1852 ; the following year he became editor and co-owner of the Harrisburg Telegraph . He took his first political mandate in 1854 as a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania , to which he was a member until 1856.

After the outbreak of the Civil War , Patterson joined the Union Army . He served with the rank of captain in the 15th Infantry Volunteer Regiment from Pennsylvania. While in the military, he also ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1862 , but lost the election. After the war ended, he moved to Columbia , South Carolina, where he worked in railroad construction.

He also resumed his political activities and was elected to the US Senate by the South Carolina Legislature in 1873, where he remained from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1879. Like many northerners who lived in the south after the war and held public offices there, he was widely viewed in South Carolina as a carpet excavator . In the Senate, he was chairman of the Education Committee and a member of the Territories Committee. When his term ended, the reconstruction in the southern states was also complete; the Democrats then resumed their old leadership role in politics. Patterson therefore had no chance of a possible re-election by the state parliament.

After the end of his senate career, he mainly operated in finance. In 1886 he returned to Pennsylvania, where he spent the last years of his life in Mifflintown.

Web links

• John J. Patterson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John J. Patterson in the database of Find a Grave (English)