[1] Patterson served as attorney general for Shelby County from 1894 to 1900, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

[5] Patterson's Republican opponent, Henry Clay Evans, had been gerrymandered out of Congress in 1890, and had long accused state Democrats of fraudulent tactics.

[5] During Patterson's term as governor, he created a State Highway Commission, signed legislation that banned gambling on horse races, and enacted food and drug regulations.

[6] During the governor's race of 1908, Edward W. Carmack, who had lost his Senate seat to Robert Love Taylor two years earlier, challenged Patterson for the nomination.

[5] In October 1908, a feud between the West Tennessee Land Company and Obion County residents over control of Reelfoot Lake resulted in two of the company's officers, Quentin Rankin and Robert Z. Taylor, being kidnapped by a vigilante group known as the Night Riders.

[7] Patterson personally led the state guard into Obion County, where they rounded up and incarcerated dozens of Night Riders (several would later be put on trial).

This action boosted his popularity, and he defeated Tillman on election day in November, 133,166 votes to 113,233.

[5][2] Shortly after the election, Patterson became involved in a scandal that would eventually end his political career.

[5] Carmack, his former opponent, had published an article ruthlessly mocking Patterson's advisor, Colonel Duncan Cooper.

In state judicial elections on August 4, Statewiders (running as independents) routed the Regular Democrats.

He joined the Anti-Saloon League, and toured the nation giving lectures calling for Prohibition.

[1] In 1915, Patterson sought his party's nomination for U.S. Senate, his opponents being Luke Lea (the incumbent) and Kenneth McKellar.

[1] In 1923, Patterson was appointed Judge of the First Circuit Court in Shelby County by Governor Austin Peay.

Virginia Foster Durr (1903–1999), Patterson's niece (daughter of his sister, Anne), was a noted civil rights activist in the 1950s and 1960s.