Juniata County PA Archives Obituaries.....PATTERSON, John James September 28 1912
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  Anne Stone astone3988@aol.com December 14, 2004, 12:21 am
  
  Lewisburg Pa newspaper date unknown
  The obit is from the Lewisburg News date unknown.
  
  Ex-Senator John J Patterson died at Mifflintown September 28th (1912)
  Statesman and successful business man
  Figured prominently in the affairs of Pennsylvania years ago.
  
  The death of ex-United States senator John J Patterson at his home in
  Mifflintown, PA, on September 28, removed one of the last of the wartime
  statesmen and businessmen of Pennsylvania.  He was an associate and an
  intimate friend of the late Simon Cameron, Colonel Alexander McClure, Thomas
  Scott, Hon. George F. Miller, Hon. John B. Packer, Ner Middlesworth, and all
  that coterie of forceful men who achieved things up to, during and immediately
  following the late civil war.  Following the war Senator Patterson located in
  South Carolina and was elected United States Senator from that state.  He made
  at least a half dozen fortunes at railroad building and had a broader and
  keener conception of location with respect to trolley lines than any man in
  the country.  He promoted and built the first big trolley line located in and
  around Wilkes Barre, and was in Lewisburg at one time looking over the
  situation from Lewisburg to Mifflinburg.  He might have constructed the road
  but for the fact that the population didn't warrant the expenditure.  He was
  well known throughout the state and a few men had as many personal friends.  A
  strong Republican, he was necessarily broad minded and progressive, and in his
  death there passed away a most generous, lovable and companionable man.
       From the Juniata Herald, published at Mifflintown, we clip the following
  brief sketch of the distinguished career of Senator Patterson:
       Col. John J. Patterson, journalist, soldier, legislature, one of the
  founders of the republican party and a pioneer in electric railway building,
  died Saturday morning the 28th ult, at the home of his son, J.J.Patterson,
  Jr., in this place.
       He was a native of Mifflin county , and represented South Carolina in the
  Senate from 1873 to 1879, the days of the reconstruction.  In 1856 and 1857 he
  represented Union, Juniata and Snyder counties in the Pennsylvania
  legislature.
       He was a veteran of the civil war, and was a member of Union Lodge no. 1,
  F. and A.M.  A widow, two sons d a daughter survive him.
       Colonel Patterson attended the first convention of the Republican party
  and was prominent many years in it's councils while a leader of the
  organization in Juniata county.  He was a delegate to the convention which
  nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and enjoyed the distinction of
  having been elected to the United States Senate from a State in which he had
  resided but three years.
       With six other men, all of whom are now dead, Colonel Patterson launched
  the Republican organization in 1855 in Dauphin county, the meetings being held
  in Harrisburg.
       On his twenty-first birthday he was appointed aide-de camp on the staff
  of Govenor Johnson; he served on the staff of General E.C. Williams. In
  command of the Pennsylvania troops during the three months' service at the
  beginning of the rebellion, and later received from President Lincoln a
  commission as Captain in the fifteenth United States Infantry, shortly
  afterward being assigned to staff duty.
       Colonel Patterson was born at Waterloo, August 8, 1830.  His father was a
  Mifflintown storekeeper, whose Scotch-Irish ancestors settled at the Trappe in
  1701.  After several years' experience in the store, young Patterson went to
  Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, and was graduated from that institution in
  1848.
       From Colonel A.K. McClure, in 1852, Colonel Patterson purchased the
  Juniata Sentinel, published in Mifflintown, and at the end of a year sold out.
  He then went to Harrisburg, and after acquiring the Journal and the Telegraph,
  combined the two and published them under the later name.
       A year later Mr. Patterson's interest was purchased by Steven Miller, who
  afterward moved to Minnesota and became Govenor of that State.
       Love for the newspaper work was intense with Mr. Patterson, and with
  George Bergner, in 1856, the paper was made a daily, and the names of Fremont
  and Dayton headed its editorial page.  In 1864 Colonel Patterson sold out to
  his partner and retired from journalism.
       He headed the Juniata district delegation to the national convention of
  1860, and under instructions from the state convention fought to the last
  ditch to have Simon Cameron, and not Lincoln, nominated.
       The banners of the delegation were blazoned with the names of Cameron for
  President, and they were kept flying until defeat was inevitable.  Then the
  delegation cast it's ballot for Lincoln.
       Colonel Patterson was walking on the street in Harrisburg the day Fort
  Sumter was fired upon, when Eli Slifer, then Secretary of State, showed him a
  telegram from President Lincoln calling on Govenor Curtin for troops.  The
  Colonel was then in command of the Juniata Cavalry Company, and he at once
  tendered the services of that organization.  The offer was accepted in a 
  letter from the Govenor, which the Colonel always kept.  It was the first
  acceptance set out, but the company did not get into service, General Scott
  declaring that at that time he wanted no mounted troops.
       After the war Colonel Patterson became interested in street railway
  building.  He was one of the original stockholders of the Chestnut and Walnut
  streets line, Philadelphia.  later he took up the work building railways for
  speculation, one of the most successful of them being that running through the
  Wyoming Valley to Wilkes Barre.  He also built other lines in this state, in
  the west, south, New York and other places.
       After his term in the Senate expired Colonel Patterson continued to
  reside in Washington until 1884, amassing a fortune at railroad building.
  Among the roads promoted by him from Washington were the People's line in
  Baltimore and a steam road in Kansas.  In 1886 he returned home to Mifflintown
  and made his home here, living part of the year in Philadelphia.
       Funeral services were held in Westminster Presbyterian church, at 2 p.m.,
  Tuesday afternoon, in charge of Union Lodge No. 324, Free and Accepted Masons
  of Mifflintown, of which he was a last charter member.  Internment in the
  Mifflintown Presbyterian Cemetery.
  
  
  
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