The Patton family for generations were prominent in the public life of Pennsylvania. Mary’s great grandfather, an Irish immigrant, Colonel John Patton (1745-1804) was, according to family tradition, a member of General George Washington’s staff during the Revolutionary war and a celebrated patriot and financier of the war.

Mary’s uncle, John Patton (1823-1897), was a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania. Four of John’s sons, Mary’s first cousins, were notably successful. John Patton Jr. (1850-1907) was a U.S. Senator from Michigan. Alexander Ennis Patton (1852-1904) was a State Senator from Pennsylvania who entertained U.S. President Benjamin Harrison and his wife at his home. Charles Emory Patton (1859-1937) like his father was also a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania while his brother Elliot Irwin Patton (dates unknown) was a successful inventor.

In addition her father Edward was a prominent contractor and builder, while her brother John H. Patton (1856-1935) was a notable lawyer, newspaper editor and publisher in Poweshiek County Iowa where he was Mayor of the city of Grinnell.

You could fill a book about the Patton family and their accomplishments and history in Clearfield County, PA and places elsewhere.  Their political influence, at both the national and state levels, spanned a period from as early as the 1820s to at least 1910 when Charles Emory Patton was last elected to the U.S. Congress and would later serve as Pennsylvania state Secretary of Agriculture beginning in 1915.

Many of the landmarks at Oak Hill Cemetery in Curwensville, PA where many of my family and father are buried pay tribute to their accomplishments. There you’ll find huge granite monuments marking the various Patton family plots. Surrounding those monuments can be found the headstones over their individual resting places. The Pattons’ were wealthy and could manifest their affluence, even in death.3
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This obituary indicates Mary was born 18 August 1859.76
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Mary’s mother died at age 27 and when Mary was only ten months old. Her father Edward, who was 34 years old at the time of his wife's death, never remarried and raised all four of his children. 3
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Mary Jane’s father, Edward Byron Patton, hired a nanny to care for his little Mary Jane and her siblings. Mary Jane grew up pampered and indulged by a father who dearly loved his youngest child.

As a young woman, Mary was swept off her feet by the handsome, personable Eli Monroe Lines. It is probable that no one could meet Edward’s expectations for Mary Jane who was the apple of his eye, but least of all Eli Lines who had no wealth or status in the community. Against her father’s wishes, Mary Jane Patton and Eli Monroe Lines were married on May 14, 1879.

Because Mary Jane grew up with nannies and servants no one thought she would be capable of running a household or managing on a meager income, but she amazed everyone. Mary Jane buckled down and learned to do all the necessary chores of bread making, cooking and cleaning and kept a neat home for her family. As the babies came along, she lovingly cared for them and worked hard to make their money stretch to meet their needs. She had a gentle spirit and was inclined to spoil her children.221
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Mary’s husband Eli was a Democrat and would not allow his Republican wife to vote and thereby cancel his own vote.75
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Mary reportedly resided in Newburg, WV for the last 27 years of her life. [This would infer she moved there in about 1916, which other records don’t show to be accurate.]234
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Mary raised her grandson Raymond Edward Lines Jr. (1916). She was his paternal grandmother.235

Raymond Edward Lines Jr. (1916-1995) would go on to enlist as a young man in the U.S. Army. Enjoying a successful thirty year career he retired as a Colonel in 1965, then did consulting work for the Pentagon. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.3
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Mary came from a wealthy aristocratic family of Revolutionary War fame. She was a very religious woman and believed in what God joined together. Her husband Eli was a Democrat who would not allow his Republican wife to vote and thereby cancel his own vote.75
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Almost NO Patton is related to General George S. Patton's [famous World War Two general] line.

Gen. Patton's grandson, Robert H. Patton, wrote a book, titled, The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family (The Warriors). In it he says the general's great grandfather (or maybe great-great) was on a ship immigrating from Europe (probably Ireland or Scotland) going to one of the islands in the West Indies.

There was another man on board the ship named Patton. The Patton man died and Gen. Patton's gg-grandfather took his name (probably because he was running from the law). He eventually ended up in Virginia.

On the gg grandfather's death bed, his wife tried to get him to tell her what his real name was. He replied that, "I have lived my life as a Patton and I will die a Patton."

Therefore no one is related to him unless you are from his direct line or married into it somehow.236

This source indicates Eli and Mary were married in 1880.76
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Eli would have just celebrated his thirtieth birthday when the devastating Johnstown Flood struck the area of Clearfield county, originating sixty miles away.3

Note:

The most destructive flood in the county's history was that of 1889, known as the Johnstown flood on account of the destruction on the same date, May 31st, of the city of Johnstown by a flood in the Conemaugh river caused by heavy rains and the breaking of a dam. In Clearfield county on account of the heavy rains at this time, this flood caused much damage to farmers' crops almost every where, but the principal loss was along the river and tributary streams. The only loss of life so far as known was the drowning of Miss Ada Tate in Clearfield. Her drowning was caused by the upsetting of the boat in which she and others were trying to reach a place of safety.

In this flood scores of bridges on the river and tributary streams were carried away and destroyed, buildings were damaged and some carried away, property of, different kinds destroyed and other damages by water and mud. In Clearfield, where the damage was greatest, even the highest part of the town was said to have been under water at one time, and on many of the streets the water ran from 4 to 6 feet deep at the highest.

A precipitation of over eight inches of rain, beginning May 30, was the cause of the flood.239
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1910 census records has Eli and Mary living apart. He is a boarder and is working as a Company Shop Blacksmith in Durbin, Pocahontas, WV on 23 April of 1910.219 She is living with her son “Byron Lyons” in Curwensville, Clearfield, PA on 30 April.232 What appears to be a testament to the state of their marriage at the time, is that Eli is listed as single while Mary is a widow.3

Note: Durbin is 250 miles from Curwensville.
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“Tunnelton [where Eli and Mary lived in September 1930] is located on WV Route 26, in the middle of nowhere [and] is a lot like a hundred other small towns tucked into the Appalachian Mountains. I probably would have zipped by, without a second thought, had it not been for the town's most eye-catching feature [an ancient looking footbridge]. Most of Tunnelton lies on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, from WV Route 26. To connect the two parts of town, there's [the] footbridge, with a long steel staircase on either side. It seemed wrong to just drive by, without climbing to the top of it.”240