John James PATTERSON, Congress, SC (1830-1912)

PATTERSON, John James, a Senator from South Carolina; born in Waterloo, Juniata County, Pa., August 8, 1830; attended the common schools and graduated from Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., in 1848; engaged in newspaper work; publisher of the Juniata Sentinel in 1852 and became editor and part owner of the Harrisburg Telegraph in 1853; engaged in banking; member, State house of representatives 1854-1856; during the Civil War served in the Union Army as a captain in the Fifteenth United States Volunteer Infantry; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress; engaged in banking 1863-1869; moved to Columbia, S.C., in 1869 and engaged in railroad construction; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate from South Carolina and served from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879; was not a candidate for reelection to the Senate; chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (Forty-fourth Congress), Committee on Territories (Forty-fifth Congress); resided in Washington, D.C., and engaged in various financial enterprises; moved to Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa., in 1886; engaged in the construction of electric railways and electric lighting plants; died in Mifflintown, Pa., September 28, 1912; interment in Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present