John Patton Jr.
American politician (1850-1907)

John Patton Jr. (October 30, 1850 – May 24, 1907) was a U.S. senator from the state of Michigan.
Patton, the son of John Patton and the brother of Charles Emory Patton, was born in Curwensville, Pennsylvania. He prepared for college at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated from Yale College, where he served on the third editorial board of The Yale Record and was a member of Skull and Bones in 1875.
After graduating from the law department of Columbia College, New York City, in 1877, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1878, was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law.
He was appointed by the Governor of Michigan John T. Rich as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Francis B. Stockbridge and served from May 5, 1894, to January 14, 1895, when a successor was elected and qualified. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1895 to fill the vacancy, losing to Julius Caesar Burrows.
He was then a banker and a member and later president of the Board of Library Commissioners of Grand Rapids.
He died in Grand Rapids and is interred there in Oakhill Cemetery.
References
Sources
United States Congress.
“John Patton Jr.” enters the record as american politician (1850-1907). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Patton and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1701353. VIAF identifies the subject as 232990594. The Library of Congress control number is n88655160. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1850, 1907, 1875 and 1877.
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