CR Patterson
By
John C Abercrombie
Because so many subjects have been neglected by historians it is not surprising that so many Blacks are overlooked, it is not surprising that so many categories of achievement have been ignored. Such is the case of CR Patterson and Sons, an automobile manufacturer that survived for 3 generations before falling to the great depression.
Charles Richard Patterson was born into slavery in April 1833 to Nancy and Charles Patterson on a plantation in Virginia. Patterson escaped from slavery in 1861 just before the start of the Civil War. He settled in Greenfield, Ohio around 1862.
Greenfield was involved in the anti-slavery movement. In 1833 The Abolition Society of Paint Valley was formed to educate and do missionary work with a stance of ending slavery. The Abolition Society was later disbanded but quickly re-formed as the Greenfield Antislavery Society. Many members helped Blacks gain freedom. Greenfield played a major part in ending slavery. Former slaves passed through the area on their way to Canada using the operation of the Underground Railroad.
Just before the Civil War CR Patterson escaped slavery bring his most valuable asset, the blacksmith skills he learned in Virginia. After settling in Greenfield, Patterson began working for a carriage company. By 1870, he was a foreman and in 1873 he went into business with JP Lowe, a White carriage maker.
His 2 sons, Frederick Douglas (named after the abolitionist Frederick Douglass) and Samuel were able to work in the business that was now known as CR Patterson and Son Carriage Company.
Frederick went on to make history on his own by being the first Black person to graduate from the town’s High School in 1888. He then became the first Black to play football for The Ohio State in 1891. It needs to be remembered that many Blacks were not welcomed in higher education and Blacks were not recruited for athletic endeavors like today.
After Ohio State, Fred taught History in Louisville, Kentucky before rejoining his father in 1897. He started to take a leadership role in the company. CR died in 1910 and Fred began to work towards a motor driven vehicle as it was a new and emerging industry. Cars were on the horizon and the death knell for carriages was plainly visible. The company looked towards creating the Greenfield Touring Car and a Roadster.
It is believed that the first car rolled off the line September 23, 1915. The vehicle had great features for the day, a full floating rear axle, cantilever springs, electric starting. It featured a Continental engine and was capable of going up to 50 mph. There are reports that it was superior to the Ford Model T.
Ford was able to capitalize on a revolutionary method of building cars, the assembly line and moved ahead of many small companies by being able to produce a large number of vehicles and taking advantages of scale. With scale, as you buy larger quantities of items, the cost goes down. It is estimated that Patterson made between 30 and 150 automobiles and as of today, there are no automobiles known to exist, although a small number of the carriages do.
Due to a lack of capital, the company halted the production of cars in 1919 and moved to producing trucks and busses. They used chassis from other manufactures and made wood frames with metal skins. This was a growing business. The business closed for good as a result of the Great Depression.
There is a small display of CR Patterson in the visitor’s center at the Historical Society in the East end of Greenfield, Ohio.
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C.R. PATTERSON & SONS COMPANY – Only African American Car Company
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The C. R. Patterson and Sons Company:
Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865-1939 The C. R. Patterson and Sons Company conducted business in Greenfield, Ohio, from 1865-1939. Founded by slave-born Charles Richard Patterson, this company passed through three generations of the Patterson family. Throughout its history the company transitioned from building carriages, automobiles, trucks, and then buses, all in order to keep up with the rapidly changing demands and technology of the transportation industry. When C. R.’s son, Frederick, began producing automobiles in 1915, he became the first and only black ever known to have built an automobile. This company led many pioneering efforts in providing vehicles for both horse-drawn and motorized school transportation and was an industry leader in winter buggy design. The Patterson’s tried to find their niche within the transportation industry where they could remain competitive and achieve continued success. The family was highly involved in other areas as well, including Freemasonry, politics, and aiding Booker T. Washington in the founding of the National Negro Business League. This company and family have a unique history, and a thoroughly detailed account has never been told that fully documents their story of overcoming adversity and surviving for 74 years in the white dominated business world. This book provides as many details as possible about the Patterson family from their arrival in Greenfield to 1939 when a series of multiple factors caused the family to finally lock the factory doors and close their unique chapter in history. This 214 page book includes 37 photographs and illustrations of the Patterson family, factory, and products. This history of the Patterson’s is an adaptation of a master’s thesis and has been peer reviewed for content and accuracy. This book provides a never before seen glimpse into the lives of the Patterson’s through exhaustive research to discover those obscure gems of information that have remained hidden until now yet adds so much to the overall story.
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The first Black-owned car company was C. R. Patterson and Sons
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Greenfield (Images of America) Paperback
In 1799, weary settlers traveled north from the Ohio River and west from Chillicothe to form a settlement that would eventually become Greenfield, Ohio. Those early settlers staked out their future along Paint Creek. Gen. Duncan McArthur platted the town, which grew quickly. Prominent leaders over the years included Rear Adm. Noble Irwin, Gen. John Hull, Edward L. McClain, and F.R. Harris. Many factories and businesses developed, including Wilknet, Waddell, Greenfield Pad and Textile Company, and C.R. Patterson and Sons. As in all towns, businesses opened and closed, but Greenfield’s shining monument throughout the last century, E.L. McClain High School, remains a proud centerpiece of the community.
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The brother Manufactured Cars before Ford! C.R. Patterson!
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Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
The basis of a major PBS documentary by Gretchen Sorin and Ric Burns (first airing: October 13, 2020 at 9PM ET), this revelatory history shows how the automobile fundamentally changed African American life. It’s hardly a secret that mobility has always been limited, if not impossible, for African Americans. Before the Civil War, masters confined their slaves to their property, while free black people found themselves regularly stopped, questioned, and even kidnapped. Restrictions on movement before Emancipation carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond; for most of the 20th century, many white Americans felt blithely comfortable denying their black countrymen the right to travel freely on trains and buses. Yet it became more difficult to shackle someone who was cruising along a highway at 45 miles per hour.
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The Patterson-Greenfield Story
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The Warmth of Other Suns:
The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
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This Black Man Had His Own Car Company 100 Years Ago. | Frederick D. Patterson | Black History
This untold automotive history documentary profiles Frederick Douglas Patterson (1871-1932), a successful African-American entrepreneur, who manufactured the Greenfield-Patterson automobile. Frederick Patterson is the first black man known to have made cars during this period.
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In CR Patterson and Sons we see capable automobile makers, able to make a high quality product. The company wa limited by not being able to secure the funds, which a long standing practice. we alxo see major competitors able to make the changes to switch to assymbly line production. Financing is one of the major roadblocks for many groups and there needs to be change to make the playing field level. It is necessary foor financial institutions to take a serious look at diverity.