John Nelson Pattison (1838–1905) was a concert pianist and composer of popular sheet music in New York and surrounding areas during the late 19th century.

[3] Pattison was born on 22 October 1838, in Erie County, New York, the third of eight children in a Methodist family of Scotch-Irish farmers.

[1] Pattison was one of the only musicians or composers who published their own material during the late 19th century explosion in sheet music sales.

Politicians and doctors looked on as he demonstrated that he could soothe a number of different “maniacs” with familiar music from their lands of origin.

His first wife, Florence Camp, a 21-year-old contractor's daughter from Erie, Pennsylvania, left him after a year and returned home.

[1] His third wife, Emma Roemheld, was an opera singer from Chicago, the daughter of a well-known German pharmacist there.