A closer examination of the early life of the founder of the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company
Charles Richard Patterson (1833–1910), founder of the Greenfield, Ohio, vehicle-manufacturing enterprise that became C.R. Patterson and Sons, is frequently described as a formerly enslaved man who escaped from Virginia before the Civil War. That account has appeared in newspaper articles, automotive histories, museum publications, and numerous internet summaries. Although widely repeated, it does not reflect the conclusions reached through detailed research into the Patterson family's early history. The available genealogical and historical evidence identifies Charles Richard Patterson as a free person of color whose family relocated from Virginia to Ohio around 1841–1842. His father, Charles Patterson, and grandfather, David Dover Patterson, are likewise identified in the research as members of a family with a history of freedom extending across multiple generations. Understanding this distinction requires examining two separate questions: the family's legal status and the date of its migration to Ohio.
Charles Richard Patterson was born in Virginia in 1833. His father, Charles Patterson, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1806, while his mother, Nancy Patterson, was also a Virginia native. The family's ancestry extends to David Dover Patterson, born in 1774, and Fanny Dover Patterson, born in 1790. Both were born in Virginia and were later enumerated among the free inhabitants of Greensburg, Kentucky, in the 1850 United States Census. The family's genealogical history, together with contemporary records, supports its identification as a family of free people of color.
However, the distinction between documented freedom at a particular date and freedom from birth deserves care. A census entry establishing that an individual was free in 1850 does not independently establish that person's legal status decades earlier. Nor can surviving records necessarily establish the circumstances of every earlier generation. The research identifies C.R. as freeborn, but the historical argument should rest on the family's broader documentary record rather than on any single census entry. The circumstances of more distant Patterson ancestors remain uncertain.
A separate body of evidence establishes that the Patterson family arrived in Ohio long before the Civil War. Charles and Nancy Patterson moved their family to Greenfield around late 1841 or early 1842, when C.R. was approximately eight years old. The migration date can be reconstructed from the birthplaces of the Patterson children. Their son Henry was born in Virginia in 1841, while John Edward was born in Ohio in 1842. The 1850 census provides additional evidence through the children's recorded ages and birthplaces. This chronology places the family in Ohio approximately twenty years before the beginning of the Civil War.
It directly contradicts accounts suggesting that C.R. escaped slavery and arrived in Ohio around 1861, or that he came to Greenfield following emancipation. The migration records do not, by themselves, establish the family's status at birth. They do, however, provide a clear chronology against which later narratives can be tested.
By the 1850s, the Patterson family was firmly established in Greenfield. C.R.'s father was a blacksmith, a trade that several of his sons also pursued. Charles Richard developed his own skills as a blacksmith and carriage craftsman, eventually establishing himself as a respected businessman. County records document C.R.'s purchase of property in January 1862. On July 4, 1864, he married Josephine Outz of Greenfield.
Three of C.R.'s brothers—Henry L., John Edward, and William David—served on the Union side during the Civil War. John Edward's military records identify him as a free Black man. Henry and John died during the war, while William returned to Greenfield and continued in the blacksmith trade. These records help reconstruct a family whose activities in Ohio were already well established before emancipation.
The origins of the commonly repeated escaped-slave story are not entirely clear. Among the published accounts repeating it were Bill Naughton's 1980 article, “Former Slave, Descendents Were Early Vehicle Pioneers in Ohio,” in the Tri-State Trader, and Reginald Larrie's 1981 article, “From Slave to Auto Manufacturer: The Black Family Who Built Cars,” in Ward's Auto World. Later writers repeated similar claims, sometimes adding conflicting details about Patterson's arrival in Ohio. Such repetition can gradually transform an inadequately documented claim into what appears to be an established historical fact. The purpose of correcting these accounts is not to diminish the work of previous writers, but to distinguish conclusions supported by contemporary documentation from stories repeated through secondary sources.
Being born free did not exempt Charles Richard Patterson or his family from the discrimination faced by Black Americans in nineteenth-century society. Virginia imposed significant restrictions upon free people of color. Ohio offered greater opportunities, but equal treatment was far from guaranteed. The Patterson family's experience demonstrates these limitations. C.R. became a successful craftsman and property owner. By 1870, his reported real estate holdings placed him among approximately the highest 23 percent of Greenfield property owners, regardless of race. Yet in 1886, his son Frederick Douglass Patterson was denied admission to Greenfield's white high school.
C.R. challenged the refusal in court. The resulting decision required school officials to admit Frederick under the same regulations applied to white students. Frederick graduated in 1888 and later attended Ohio State University, where he became president of the Class of 1893. The family's achievements were therefore not the result of a society free from racial barriers. They reflected the family's determination to challenge those barriers and pursue opportunities through education, craftsmanship, enterprise, and public involvement.
The significance of Charles Richard Patterson's life does not depend upon a narrative of escape from slavery. His documented accomplishments are substantial in their own right. He became a respected craftsman, acquired property, helped build a successful carriage-manufacturing enterprise, and established the foundation for a family business that continued into the automobile, bus, and truck industries. His descendants carried that enterprise forward until 1939. Correcting the circumstances of his early life allows us to recognize a fuller and more accurate history: the story of a free Black family that confronted discrimination, developed valuable skills, established a successful business, and contributed to American transportation and industrial history across several generations.
• United States Federal Census, 1850, 1860, and 1870.
• Highland County, Ohio, Deed Records, Vol. 30, p. 393; Vol. 33, p. 448.
• Highland County, Ohio, Marriage Records, Vol. 7, p. 824.
• Charles B. Galbreath, History of Ohio (1925).
• J. W. Klise, The County of Highland (1902).
• Bill Naughton, Tri-State Trader, July 5, 1980.
• Reginald Larrie, Ward's Auto World, 1981.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Introduction and Chapter I.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The remarkable family history behind one of America's pioneering Black-owned vehicle manufacturers
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company is best remembered for manufacturing the Patterson-Greenfield automobile in 1915. Its place in automotive history is important, but the automobile represents only a relatively brief chapter in a much longer family story. By the time the first Patterson-Greenfield automobile appeared, the family had already spent decades establishing itself in business, education, and community life. Charles Richard Patterson had become a respected craftsman and manufacturer. His son Frederick Douglass Patterson had overcome racial barriers in education, distinguished himself at Ohio State University, taught in Kentucky, and developed a reputation as a businessman and public speaker. Their achievements were part of a broader family tradition extending across generations.
Charles Richard Patterson arrived in Greenfield, Ohio, with his parents and siblings around 1841–1842. His father, Charles Patterson, was a blacksmith, and several of his sons entered the same trade. Blacksmithing offered opportunities for skilled employment, but it also required technical knowledge, experience, and the ability to develop a reliable reputation among customers. C.R. became an accomplished craftsman and eventually entered the carriage business. In 1873, he formed a partnership with James P. Lowe. Twenty years later, in 1893, Lowe sold his interest to Patterson, who became the sole owner. The business developed a reputation for quality workmanship and eventually became a substantial employer in Greenfield.
Although C.R. Patterson achieved considerable success in business, he recognized the importance of education for his children. In 1886, his son Frederick completed his studies at Greenfield's school for Black children and received a promotion card indicating that he had advanced to the high school grade. Greenfield did not maintain a high school for Black students. When Frederick attempted to attend the town's white high school, Superintendent William G. Moler refused to admit him. C.R. filed suit against the Greenfield Board of Education on September 30, 1886.
The case continued into the following spring, when the court ordered school officials to admit Frederick under the same regulations applied to white students. Frederick became the first Black student to graduate from Greenfield High School in 1888. According to his sister Kathleen Patterson Buster, he graduated as valedictorian. The victory was significant not simply because Frederick obtained an education, but because his father had successfully challenged a barrier that prevented Black children from receiving the same educational opportunities as white children.
After graduating from high school, Frederick moved to Columbus and worked as a railroad porter before enrolling at Ohio State University on September 11, 1889. At that time, very few Black students attended the university. Sherman Hamlin Guss had entered the previous year and was the institution's first Black student. Frederick became involved in numerous aspects of university life. He participated in the early Ohio State football program, becoming its first Black football player. He also played baseball, took part in military training, and became active in the Horton Literary Society.
His university activities extended to journalism. He held editorial responsibilities with The Lantern, the student newspaper, and later served as its assistant business manager. These activities suggest a young man whose interests and abilities extended well beyond the classroom.
One of Frederick's most remarkable accomplishments was his selection as president of Ohio State's Class of 1893. His position is documented in the university's contemporary Makio yearbook. The achievement is particularly striking when considered alongside his earlier experience in Greenfield. Only a few years before becoming president of his university class, Frederick had been refused admission to high school because of his race. At Ohio State, he earned a leadership position among his classmates at a predominantly white institution during an era of widespread racial discrimination. His election does not establish that he encountered no prejudice, but it does demonstrate that he attained a position of substantial recognition within the student body.
Another important aspect of Frederick's university experience was his residence in North Dorm, the main campus dormitory. Frederick lived there throughout his three years at Ohio State. His fellow residents included Sherman Hamlin Guss, the first Black student admitted to Ohio State the year prior to Frederick, and approximately sixty white students. A surviving photograph in the Ohio State University Archives depicts Frederick and Sherman with their dormitory companions. The photograph provides a rare visual record of Black students participating in campus residential life during the university's early years.
This experience is particularly noteworthy when compared with the university's later history. By the early twentieth century, racial segregation had become more pronounced, and even Jesse Owens encountered discriminatory restrictions during his years at Ohio State. The contrast illustrates that progress toward racial equality was neither steady nor inevitable.
Despite his accomplishments, Frederick did not complete his degree. After three years at Ohio State, he left to teach in Kentucky, relinquishing his position as class president. His correspondence with The Lantern indicates that he regarded practical experience as an important part of his development. Frederick subsequently taught history at Louisville Central High School before returning to Greenfield and becoming involved in the family business. His university years had nevertheless provided valuable experience in public speaking, leadership, organization, and working with people from different backgrounds.
The Pattersons' contributions extended into civic and community affairs. Both C.R. and Frederick participated in Greenfield's Cedar Grove Masonic Lodge. C.R. held several offices within the lodge, while Frederick became known for his speaking abilities. C.R. also participated in Republican Party activities, and Frederick eventually served on Greenfield's City Council. Frederick became associated with Booker T. Washington's National Negro Business League, serving in national leadership positions and advocating business development among Black entrepreneurs. Other family members contributed to the company and community as well.
C.R.'s daughter Kathleen, known as Kate, worked in the company office from 1897 until her marriage in 1913. Other relatives held stock, worked in the business, or participated in community activities. These accomplishments demonstrate that the Patterson story was never limited to the production of vehicles.
The company's automobile production began in 1915, approximately fifty years after the date the family associated with the beginning of Patterson service in the carriage trade. By then, the family had already established a remarkable history. The Pattersons had developed a successful manufacturing business, challenged educational discrimination, achieved academic and athletic distinctions, participated in civic government, and engaged with nationally influential Black business organizations. The automobile was an important accomplishment, but it was not the beginning of their success. It represented another stage in a family history characterized by skilled work, adaptability, leadership, and determination. Understanding the years before the automobile allows us to recognize the Patterson family not merely as automotive pioneers, but as participants in a much broader history of American enterprise and community development.
• Greenfield school litigation, 1886–1887, as documented in the manuscript's Chapter I.
• Ohio State University, Makio yearbooks, 1890–1893.
• Ohio State University, The Lantern, 1890–1895.
• Ohio State University Archives, early football and North Dorm photographs.
• Greenfield and Highland County contemporary newspaper accounts.
• National Negro Business League proceedings.
• Kathleen Patterson Buster, “Origin of the C.R. Patterson Carriage Business,” family manuscript.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter I.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
What nineteenth-century census and courthouse records reveal about a pioneering Black entrepreneur
Charles Richard Patterson is widely remembered as the founder of a Black-owned vehicle-manufacturing enterprise in Greenfield, Ohio. Less widely known is the extent of his economic success decades before the Patterson family entered automobile production. Contemporary census records, property deeds, and mortgage documents reveal that Patterson was not simply a skilled blacksmith who eventually owned a carriage shop. He became a substantial property owner whose reported wealth compared favorably with that of many white residents of his community. These records provide an important perspective on the opportunities Patterson pursued, the obstacles he confronted, and the financial foundations of his business.
Patterson learned the blacksmith trade within a family already associated with skilled metalworking. His father, Charles Patterson, was a blacksmith, and several of C.R.'s brothers followed the same occupation. C.R. developed a reputation for his craftsmanship and eventually became involved in carriage manufacturing. His first documented property purchase in Greenfield occurred in January 1862, before the end of the Civil War. Additional purchases followed in 1865 and 1869. The significance of these transactions becomes clearer when compared with the economic circumstances of other Greenfield residents.
The 1870 United States Census recorded both the value of real estate owned and the value of personal property. For C.R. Patterson, the figures were:
• Real estate: $3,500
• Personal property: $1,450
Research comparing Patterson's reported property values with those of other Greenfield residents found that his real estate holdings placed him among approximately the highest 22.6 percent of property owners, regardless of race. His reported personal property value placed him among approximately the highest 22.8 percent. These figures are especially significant because they demonstrate that Patterson had achieved a substantial degree of economic standing within the community by 1870. The comparisons also revealed that Patterson had the highest reported real estate and personal property values among the Black residents examined. His real estate valuation exceeded that of the next-highest Black property owner, whose reported holdings were valued at $2,000.
The results were notable even when compared with Greenfield residents working in blacksmithing, carriage making, and related trades. These findings do not mean Patterson faced no racial discrimination. They establish that he achieved measurable economic success despite the limitations imposed upon Black Americans during the period.
In 1873, Patterson entered a carriage-manufacturing partnership with James P. Lowe, a white carriage maker who previously worked with Patterson at Dines and Simpson Coach and Carriage Company, a local firm. The partnership combined Patterson's craftsmanship and business experience with an enterprise that developed a growing reputation in the community. In 1893, Lowe sold his interest to Patterson, who became the sole owner. This transaction is sometimes misunderstood in popular accounts. Lowe did not die and leave Patterson the business. He remained alive until 1928 and subsequently served as president of the local Home Building & Loan Company. The continued financial relationship between Lowe and the Pattersons is especially revealing.
Lowe and the financial institution with which he was associated later provided mortgages connected with the Patterson family's business activities. Their relationship demonstrates the importance of established commercial connections in the company's development.
An examination of courthouse records identified thirty property purchases made by the Patterson family and company in Greenfield between 1862 and 1938. These properties were not all owned simultaneously. The transactions nevertheless reveal a long-term pattern of acquiring, holding, mortgaging, and sometimes selling real estate. Property served more than one purpose. Some parcels accommodated the family's residence or manufacturing activities. Others could provide collateral when the company required additional capital.
The records suggest that the family made particularly substantial property investments during the period from approximately 1890 to 1910. The strategy also created financial obligations. As the business faced changing markets and declining profitability in later decades, borrowing against property could become more difficult to sustain. Thus, the same records that document the family's early economic strength also help explain the financial pressures confronting the company in its final years.
Access to capital was a major obstacle for many Black business owners during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Patterson family's history provides a particularly useful case study because surviving documents show that the business obtained mortgages and maintained financial relationships over many years. These records challenge any blanket assertion that the company was consistently unable to obtain credit solely because its owners were Black. At the same time, evidence of successful borrowing does not establish that racial discrimination never affected the family's financial opportunities.
The company's circumstances changed substantially over time, and its later financial difficulties require examination in the context of declining business revenues, accumulated obligations, and the Great Depression. A balanced interpretation must recognize both the family's demonstrated ability to secure capital and the possibility of discrimination within the broader financial system.
C.R. Patterson's success is often described in general terms, but the historical record allows it to be examined more precisely. By 1870, he had achieved a notable level of property ownership. By the 1890s, he controlled an established carriage-manufacturing enterprise. Over subsequent decades, the family acquired numerous properties and used financial relationships to support business operations. These accomplishments were significant for any entrepreneur of the period. For a Black businessman operating in nineteenth-century Ohio, they are especially deserving of recognition.
Patterson's story is not simply one of overcoming discrimination through determination. It is also a documented example of economic planning, skilled craftsmanship, commercial relationships, and the use of property to support a growing manufacturing enterprise. His achievements helped establish the foundation upon which later generations developed the Patterson Company's pioneering work in transportation.
• United States Federal Census, 1870, Greenfield, Ohio.
• Highland County, Ohio, Deed and Mortgage Records.
• Highland County property transactions, 1862–1938, compiled in the manuscript's Appendix C.
• J. W. Klise, The County of Highland (1902).
• Kathleen Patterson Buster, “Origin of the C.R. Patterson Carriage Business.”
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters I–II and Appendix C.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Greenfield carriage manufacturer became a leader in a national movement for Black business development
In the early twentieth century, Frederick Douglass Patterson was known not only as a successful carriage manufacturer in Greenfield, Ohio, but also as an influential participant in a national organization devoted to expanding opportunities for Black-owned businesses. That organization was the National Negro Business League, established in 1900 under the leadership of Booker T. Washington. Frederick's participation in the League provides an important but frequently overlooked dimension of the Patterson family's history. He was not simply a businessman who attended occasional meetings. He delivered speeches, advocated new approaches to commerce, served in national leadership positions, and participated in the organization's formal incorporation. His involvement placed him among prominent Black entrepreneurs and business advocates during an important period in American history.
Booker T. Washington established the National Negro Business League in 1900 to encourage commercial and financial development among Black Americans. The organization brought together entrepreneurs, professionals, and community leaders from across the country. Its activities included annual meetings where members shared business experiences, discussed economic challenges, promoted their enterprises, and developed professional relationships. The League reflected Washington's belief that business ownership, industrial education, and economic advancement were essential components of Black progress. These ideas were debated within the wider Black community, particularly in relation to political rights and racial equality. For Frederick Patterson, however, the League offered an opportunity to exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs while promoting a business that was already competing successfully beyond Greenfield.
Both Charles Richard Patterson and his son Frederick participated in the League's early activities. At the organization's 1900 meeting, C.R. discussed the carriage business and reported that the company was producing approximately 400 to 600 vehicles annually. His remarks demonstrated that the enterprise had developed well beyond its origins as a small blacksmithing operation. Frederick also spoke at League meetings and became increasingly involved in its activities. Their participation is particularly important because it places the Patterson enterprise within the national history of Black business development years before the company began manufacturing automobiles.
Frederick's business philosophy emphasized the importance of reaching customers beyond the Black community. At the League's 1905 annual meeting, he argued that Black-owned enterprises should conduct business in ways that attracted the general public and compete on the merits of their goods and services. This approach reflected the Patterson Company's own experience. Although the family advertised in publications serving Black readers and maintained relationships within Black business organizations, its carriages were marketed to a much broader customer base. The company's success depended upon craftsmanship, quality materials, reliable service, and its reputation among customers.
Frederick believed that Black entrepreneurs should be able to compete with other businesses rather than depend exclusively upon patronage from their own communities. He also encouraged greater interstate commerce among Black-owned enterprises. His proposals included improving cooperation in advertising and developing commercial relationships between businesses operating in different states. These ideas reveal a businessman thinking beyond local manufacturing toward larger questions of distribution, marketing, and national economic opportunity.
The relationship between Frederick Patterson and Booker T. Washington is documented in contemporary League proceedings. At the organization's 1905 meeting in New York, Washington introduced Frederick with a humorous acknowledgment of both his manufacturing reputation and his ability to deliver concise speeches. The exchange suggests that Frederick was already a familiar and respected participant in the organization. Frederick's speeches reflected an interest in practical business education and the importance of sharing experience among entrepreneurs. In 1907, he expressed approval that the League's meetings had become increasingly educational rather than simply opportunities for members to describe their accomplishments. His emphasis on exchanging useful knowledge was consistent with the practical approach to business development that characterized much of the organization's work.
Frederick's responsibilities extended well beyond public speaking. From 1904 through 1907, he served as one of the League's vice presidents. When the organization formally incorporated in New York on December 19, 1905, Frederick was identified as its fourth vice president. The incorporation records, located during research at the Tuskegee University Archives, provide documentary evidence of his leadership position. From 1908 through 1909, Frederick served on the League's Executive Committee, which helped organize meetings and oversee other organizational responsibilities.
He was also identified as a lifetime member. These positions demonstrate that Frederick was not merely associated with Booker T. Washington's organization. He participated in its leadership during the first decade of its existence.
Frederick's active involvement at the national level appears to have ended around 1909. The surviving research does not establish precisely why. His father died in 1910, leaving Frederick with responsibility for the family enterprise. The increased demands of managing the business may have contributed to his reduced national participation. Other explanations remain possible, but there is insufficient evidence to attribute his departure to a particular disagreement with Washington or the League. Frederick continued to have a connection with the organization's local chapter in Greenfield.
Frederick Patterson's participation in the National Negro Business League deserves recognition alongside his accomplishments in vehicle manufacturing. His leadership roles demonstrate that he was involved in national discussions about Black entrepreneurship, commercial competition, and economic advancement. He brought practical experience from a successful manufacturing enterprise to those discussions and used the organization to exchange ideas and build relationships. The Patterson Company was therefore more than an isolated Black-owned business in a small Ohio town. Its leaders participated in a national network of entrepreneurs seeking to expand commercial opportunities during an era when racial discrimination imposed substantial limitations upon Black Americans. Recognizing this involvement broadens the historical significance of the Patterson family and helps explain how its influence extended beyond Greenfield and the vehicles produced in its factory.
• National Negro Business League, published proceedings of annual meetings, 1900–1909.
• National Negro Business League incorporation records, December 19, 1905, Tuskegee University Archives.
• J. W. Klise, The County of Highland (1902).
• Contemporary speeches of Charles Richard and Frederick Douglass Patterson.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter I, pp. 52–59; related material in Chapter II.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The public-service career of one of Greenfield, Ohio's most accomplished early Black citizens
Frederick Douglass Patterson is best remembered as the businessman who guided the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company into automobile manufacturing. Yet long before the Patterson-Greenfield automobile appeared in 1915, Frederick had established himself as an active participant in politics, civic affairs, and community organizations. He served on Greenfield's City Council, participated in Republican Party activities, addressed public gatherings, and supported improvements intended to benefit the town's residents and businesses. His public involvement reflected a tradition of community leadership that extended back to his father, Charles Richard Patterson.
C.R. Patterson's political involvement began during the nineteenth century. In 1878, he was selected as a delegate representing Madison Township at the Republican County Convention and was subsequently named to the Highland County Republican Central Committee. He was again associated with the committee in 1879. These activities were significant during a period when Black political participation remained contested throughout much of the United States. C.R.'s willingness to participate in party affairs reflected his broader involvement in Greenfield's civic and commercial life. Frederick later followed a similar path.
Frederick's interest in public affairs was evident during his university years. In 1891, while participating in the Horton Literary Society at Ohio State University, he spoke in support of William McKinley and discussed issues involving tariffs and the free coinage of silver. These were major political and economic questions of the period. In 1892, Frederick was among five students selected to represent Ohio State's McKinley Club at an intercollegiate gathering of Republican clubs. Travel difficulties ultimately prevented the group from attending. His participation in these activities demonstrates that his political interests developed well before he returned to Greenfield to work in the family business.
Frederick served on Greenfield's City Council during 1902 and 1903. His service provides a particularly revealing example of how he approached public responsibility. Early in his council tenure, local manufacturer E. L. McClain requested an extension of Fourth Street to accommodate construction of twenty-five houses for families expected to work at the McClain factory. Frederick supported the proposed improvement. He argued that the benefits would extend beyond the manufacturer and the families occupying the new homes.
Additional residents would purchase food, fuel, household goods, and other necessities from local merchants. In his view, public investment that attracted new residents and supported employment could benefit the entire community. This argument illustrates an approach to municipal government informed by his business experience. Frederick recognized the relationship between infrastructure, employment, population growth, and commercial activity. His position was not simply an expression of support for another manufacturer. It reflected an understanding that the prosperity of individual businesses and the wider community were closely connected.
Frederick also developed a reputation as an effective public speaker. Contemporary newspaper accounts praised his command of language, knowledge of public issues, and ability to engage audiences. At a 1902 meeting of Greenfield's Foraker Club, which supported Ohio Republican Senator Joseph B. Foraker, Frederick addressed the relationship between the Republican Party and Black Americans. His remarks reflected the political circumstances of the period, when many Black voters continued to identify the Republican Party with emancipation and the constitutional changes following the Civil War. His speeches should be understood within their historical context rather than interpreted through modern political affiliations.
Frederick's reputation as a speaker extended beyond local party meetings. He addressed community celebrations, business gatherings, and other public events over many years.
Frederick's public involvement included additional responsibilities. In 1901, he was appointed as one of two special inspectors assigned to examine the Highland County Treasury's account books. He also participated in community activities that were not strictly political. Both Frederick and his father were active in Greenfield's Cedar Grove Lodge No. 17, Free and Accepted Masons. C.R. held several lodge offices between 1871 and 1899, including Worshipful Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Treasurer, and Secretary.
Frederick also served as Worshipful Master and was selected as Grand Orator at Masonic functions. He participated in Emancipation Day celebrations and other community gatherings. His wife, Bettie Estelline Patterson, also took part in community programs, including directing a children's operetta for the 1917 Emancipation Day celebration. These activities demonstrate that the family's public contributions extended beyond elected office.
Frederick's political involvement was not confined to Greenfield. A 1902 Highland County history identified him as a delegate to the Republican State Convention and described him as a promising figure within the party. His political reputation continued into the following decades. During the 1920 presidential campaign, Black political leaders in Ohio supported Frederick as a possible delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention. Among those advocating for him was Ralph W. Tyler, a prominent Black journalist from Cleveland.
The effort did not result in Frederick's selection, but the campaign illustrates the extent of his political connections and standing among Black leaders in Ohio. Some later accounts have claimed that Frederick was offered the presidency of Liberia by President Warren G. Harding. That claim is not supported by the documentary evidence reviewed in the historical research and should not be repeated as established fact. The actual record of Frederick's political involvement is substantial without relying upon such stories.
Frederick Patterson's political and civic career reveals a dimension of his life often omitted from popular histories. He participated in party politics, served in municipal government, advocated economic improvements, and developed a reputation as a public speaker. He also contributed to organizations that supported Black community development and commercial advancement. These activities help explain why Frederick became a respected figure both within Greenfield and beyond it. His accomplishments in public life deserve recognition alongside his achievements in manufacturing. Together, they reveal a businessman who understood that leadership involved more than operating a successful company. It also involved participating in the institutions and decisions that shaped the future of his community.
• Contemporary issues of the Greenfield Republican and other Highland County newspapers.
• J. W. Klise, The County of Highland (1902).
• Ohio State University, The Lantern and records of student political organizations.
• Greenfield municipal proceedings and newspaper accounts, 1902–1903.
• Records and historical accounts of Cedar Grove Lodge No. 17.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter I, pp. 47–64.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The overlooked contributions of women to one of America's pioneering Black-owned vehicle manufacturers
The history of the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company is most often told through the accomplishments of Charles Richard Patterson, his son Frederick Douglass Patterson, and the two grandsons who continued the family business into the 1930s. Their achievements were substantial. Across more than seven decades, the family developed a respected carriage-manufacturing business, entered the automobile industry, and became an important early manufacturer of commercial vehicle and school-bus bodies. Yet the company's history involved more than the men whose names appeared most prominently in its public accounts.
Women of the Patterson family contributed to the enterprise through office employment, property ownership, financial management, and business leadership. Some helped maintain its operations during periods of prosperity, while others assumed significant responsibilities as the company confronted increasingly difficult economic conditions. Among them, Bettie Estelline Patterson played a particularly important role in managing the company's finances during the 1920s and 1930s. Later, her daughter-in-law Kathleen Wilson Patterson became manager of the reorganized Patterson Body Company in an effort to restore the struggling business. Their contributions, along with those of several other women associated with the Patterson family, reveal an important dimension of the company's history that has received little attention.
Josephine Outz married Charles Richard Patterson in Greenfield, Ohio, on July 4, 1864. Born in Virginia in 1847, Josephine was of mixed ancestry, including German ancestry according to the family's genealogical research. Some popular accounts have incorrectly described Josephine as white and suggested that her marriage to C.R. caused considerable controversy within the community. The historical research does not substantiate that narrative. Josephine's life spanned nearly the entire history of the Patterson manufacturing enterprise.
She witnessed its development from the early carriage-making years through the period when C.R. became sole owner of the business in 1893. Following her husband's death in 1910, she remained part of the family as Frederick guided the company into automobile production and later commercial vehicle manufacturing. Josephine also appears in surviving property and mortgage records associated with the family and its business activities. These documents establish her involvement in important family financial transactions, although they do not necessarily demonstrate that she exercised direct management authority within the company. Josephine survived her husband by nearly twenty-eight years, dying in 1938, shortly before the business itself closed. Her long life connected the company's founding generation with the descendants who struggled to preserve it during the Great Depression.
One of the most valuable sources for reconstructing the company's early history is a handwritten account prepared by Charles Richard and Josephine Patterson's youngest daughter, Kathleen Patterson Buster, commonly known as Kate. Born in 1878, Kate grew up during a period when her father's carriage business was expanding and developing a reputation beyond Greenfield. According to her own recollections, she began working in the company office after completing high school in 1897. She remained employed there until her marriage to Greene B. Buster in 1913.
Her sixteen years of employment coincided with an important period in the company's development, including C.R.'s later years, Frederick's increasing involvement in management, and the transition in leadership following C.R.'s death in 1910. Although surviving records do not fully describe her daily responsibilities, her employment demonstrates that women participated directly in the administrative operations of the business.
Kate made another important contribution decades after leaving the company. Around 1965, she prepared a four-page handwritten history titled Origin of the C.R. Patterson Carriage Business. The document was preserved by Patterson descendants and later made available for historical research. Her recollections provide valuable information about the company's origins, its early development, and the family members involved in its operation. Among other details, Kate's account helps clarify the history of the partnership between C.R. Patterson and James P. Lowe, including Patterson's acquisition of Lowe's interest in 1893.
Because Kate wrote her account many decades after some of the events described, it must be evaluated alongside contemporary documents. Nevertheless, her firsthand experience and family knowledge make it an important historical source. Without her efforts, some details of the company's early years might have been lost. Kate's contributions therefore extended beyond her work in the office. She also helped preserve the history of the enterprise for later generations.
Kate's handwritten history also identifies another woman employed in the company's office: Ocie Pettiford. Kate remembered Ocie as an efficient employee and described her as a young woman from the local community. Ocie subsequently married Charles W. Napper, a grandson of C.R. and Josephine Patterson through their daughter Mary. Her employment provides additional evidence that women were involved in the administrative work required to operate the growing carriage-manufacturing business. Such work was an essential part of a manufacturing enterprise, which depended upon correspondence, recordkeeping, customer orders, and financial documentation.
However, the surviving account does not specify all of Ocie's individual duties. Recognizing her employment is important without attributing responsibilities that the available records do not establish.
Another member of the Patterson family with documented business connections was C.R. and Josephine's daughter Dollie Patterson Rudd. Dollie appears in surviving financial and ownership records associated with the enterprise. Her involvement became particularly significant during the transition from automobile manufacturing to commercial vehicle and school-bus bodies. In 1921, the family formally incorporated the Greenfield Bus Body Company with capital stock of $50,000. The individuals identified in the incorporation included Frederick Douglass Patterson, his sister Dollie Rudd, her husband John R. Rudd, longtime company employee John Simms, Alvah E. Bell, and Robert Nichells.
Dollie's inclusion demonstrates that women were represented in the formal organization of the company's commercial vehicle operations. She and her husband also appeared in mortgage transactions during a period when the company was seeking additional capital. These records document Dollie's financial and organizational connections to the business. They do not, by themselves, establish that she directed its daily operations, but they show that the family's women were not entirely removed from decisions and transactions affecting the company's future.
Among the women associated with the Patterson Company, Bettie Estelline Patterson assumed one of the most consequential responsibilities. Her involvement extended beyond the family and community activities usually mentioned in historical accounts. During the 1920s and 1930s, she became directly involved in the company's financial affairs and played an important role in its efforts to remain in operation.
Bettie Estelline Postell was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on July 20, 1873, to Peter and Pauline Buckner Postell. Her father, Peter Postell, had been born into slavery in South Carolina in 1841. After emancipation, he became an exceptionally successful businessman in Kentucky, accumulating considerable wealth by the beginning of the twentieth century. At the time of his death in 1901, newspaper accounts indicated that he was the wealthiest Black man in all of Kentucky. Estelline therefore came from a family with its own substantial history of entrepreneurship and economic advancement. She married Frederick Douglass Patterson on September 11, 1901. Their marriage connected two families whose experiences reflected different paths toward business success in the decades following the Civil War. Estelline and Frederick had two sons, Frederick Postell Patterson and Postell Patterson, both of whom eventually became involved in the family enterprise.
By the early 1920s, the Patterson Company was undergoing another major transformation. Its automobile-manufacturing efforts had ended, and the business was increasingly concentrating on commercial vehicle and school-bus bodies. This transition required substantial investment. The factory needed equipment, materials, and operating capital to meet the demands of its developing bus-manufacturing business. Obtaining financing had become increasingly difficult. The company's ability to secure mortgages had declined during the years preceding 1922, and additional financial support was necessary to maintain and expand operations.
Estelline's return to Greenfield, following a few years living in Philadelphia with her mother until her death, appears to have marked an important change. In October 1922 alone, the company obtained mortgages totaling approximately $13,000. The timing suggests that Estelline's inherited financial resources or involvement may have contributed to the company's renewed access to capital. The precise arrangements remain uncertain. The surviving research does not establish exactly when she began contributing personal funds, how much she committed, or whether those resources were provided directly or used as security for borrowing. Nevertheless, the manuscript documents that Estelline assumed a more active role in the company's finances during this period. Her involvement introduces an important and frequently overlooked element into the Patterson story.
The historical significance of Estelline's financial responsibilities becomes clearer when considered alongside the company's earlier accomplishments. By 1915, the Patterson enterprise had been described in a contemporary publication as the largest manufacturing plant owned by Black Americans in the United States. That description reflected the considerable reputation and scale the company had achieved. Although the available evidence does not establish that the Patterson Company retained this national ranking throughout the 1920s and 1930s, its earlier standing provides important context. Here was a manufacturing enterprise recognized nationally for its success under Black ownership, and a Black woman had assumed substantial responsibility for its financial affairs.
At a time when women, and particularly Black women, encountered significant obstacles to recognition and advancement in business, Estelline's position was an important accomplishment. Her contribution was not merely symbolic. Financial management was essential to the company's ability to purchase materials, maintain production, fulfill orders, and meet its obligations. The available records indicate that Estelline became directly involved in these matters during a particularly demanding period in the company's history.
Estelline's responsibilities became even more significant following the death of her husband in January 1932. Frederick had guided the business through its transition from carriages to automobiles and eventually to commercial vehicles. After his death, leadership passed to the couple's sons, Frederick Postell Patterson and Postell Patterson. Their mother, however, remained directly involved in the company's administration. The historical research identifies Estelline as being in charge of the firm's clerical and financial duties during this period.
This was no small responsibility. The company was struggling with the effects of the Great Depression, increasing competition, changing school-bus construction requirements, and substantial financial obligations. Maintaining operations required careful management of limited capital and the arrangements necessary to fulfill customer orders. Estelline's position placed her at the center of these challenges. Her sons were responsible for important aspects of the business, including engineering, production, and sales, while she continued overseeing its financial and clerical affairs. The company was therefore being operated through a combination of responsibilities shared among members of the family.
By 1935, the company's financial difficulties had become severe. Years of borrowing and declining profitability placed increasing pressure upon the business. Foreclosure proceedings threatened the family's manufacturing property, raising the possibility that operations would be forced to end. A contemporary newspaper account reported that Estelline intended to continue the business and was attempting to arrange a way forward. This is an especially revealing detail.
It demonstrates that Estelline was not simply performing routine clerical work. She was actively involved in efforts to preserve the enterprise during one of the most difficult periods in its history. The company subsequently resumed operations, although its financial problems remained unresolved. Estelline's efforts could not eliminate the economic pressures confronting the business, but the surviving records establish her continued involvement in attempting to sustain it.
Estelline Patterson's contributions deserve recognition alongside those of the men who directed the company's manufacturing operations. Her involvement in securing and managing financial resources, her responsibility for clerical and financial affairs following Frederick's death, and her efforts to continue the enterprise in 1935 demonstrate meaningful business leadership. The evidence does not support describing her as the sole executive directing every aspect of the company. Nor can the company's survival during these years be attributed exclusively to her efforts. It does, however, establish that she held substantial responsibility for the finances of a historically significant Black-owned manufacturing enterprise. That achievement deserves a far more prominent place in the Patterson story than it has traditionally received.
Another woman who assumed a significant leadership role was Kathleen Wilson Patterson, wife of Postell Patterson. Kathleen was a childhood acquaintance of the Patterson family from Greenfield. Before her marriage to Frederick’s son Postell in February 1935, she had lived in New York City and gained management experience at the Alhambra Theater and the Brooklyn branch of the Amsterdam News. That experience became important during the company's efforts to recover from its financial difficulties.
Following the foreclosure difficulties of 1935, the enterprise reopened on December 1 under the name Patterson Body Company. A contemporary account in the Greenfield Republican identified Kathleen Patterson as the new manager. Her appointment represented another significant development in the company's history. A Black woman with previous management experience was placed in charge of the reorganized business during an effort to restore its operations. The surviving evidence establishes her managerial position, although the precise division of responsibilities between Kathleen and other family members requires careful interpretation.
She entered the role at an exceptionally difficult time. The company faced financial limitations, strong competition from larger manufacturers, and changing standards for school-bus construction. Nevertheless, it continued to seek orders and manufacture commercial vehicle bodies.
As the decade progressed, the company's financial and operational difficulties became increasingly severe. School-bus orders required materials and labor before payment was received, often forcing the business to obtain short-term financing to complete its work. Problems with production schedules and labor further strained the company's resources. In 1938, the remaining business operations were moved from Greenfield to Gallipolis, Ohio, in another attempt to continue manufacturing. The move did not resolve the underlying difficulties.
Frederick Postell Patterson, his wife Bernice, and Estelline eventually left Gallipolis, leaving Postell and Kathleen to continue operating the enterprise. Despite their efforts, the company could not generate sufficient business to remain viable. Operations ended in 1939. Kathleen later preserved her experiences in an autobiography, providing an important personal perspective on the company's final years. Her recollections offer insight into the practical and emotional difficulties of attempting to maintain a family enterprise during the Great Depression. As with other family accounts, her memories are most useful when examined alongside contemporary financial records, newspapers, and business documents.
Bernice Coleman Patterson was another member of the family whose background reflected the importance placed upon education and professional achievement. Bernice grew up near Greenfield in the community of Lyndon. She attended Wilberforce University, where she earned an associate degree, and subsequently taught home economics at the Colored Normal, Industrial, and Mechanical College of South Carolina in Orangeburg, an institution that later became South Carolina State University. In 1928, she married Frederick Postell Patterson, grandson of C.R. Patterson. The couple returned to Greenfield, where Frederick Postell became involved in the company's engineering and manufacturing activities.
Bernice's education and teaching career are noteworthy accomplishments in their own right. Although the surviving research does not establish that she held a formal management position within the Patterson Company, she was part of the family during its final period of operation. Her experiences also form part of the broader history of the third generation of Pattersons.
The history of the Patterson Company demonstrates that the enterprise depended upon more than the abilities of its best-known male leaders. Josephine Outz Patterson participated in the family's financial and property affairs across much of the company's history. Kate Patterson Buster worked in its office for sixteen years and later preserved valuable firsthand information about its origins. Ocie Pettiford was another documented office employee. Dollie Patterson Rudd participated in the formal organization and financial activities associated with the company's commercial vehicle operations.
Bettie Estelline Patterson assumed substantial responsibility for its finances, including during the difficult years following her husband's death. Kathleen Wilson Patterson became manager of the reorganized Patterson Body Company in 1935 and continued working with her husband to preserve the enterprise during its final years. These women did not all perform the same work, and the surviving records do not document their responsibilities with equal detail. Their contributions should therefore be recognized individually, according to the evidence available. Taken together, however, their experiences demonstrate that women were important participants in the company's history, not merely observers of its accomplishments.
The financial leadership of Estelline Patterson and the managerial responsibilities of Kathleen Wilson Patterson are especially significant. Both held positions of responsibility within a pioneering Black-owned manufacturing enterprise at a time when women faced substantial obstacles to such opportunities. The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company is rightly remembered for its contributions to carriage manufacturing, automobile production, and the development of commercial vehicles and school buses. Its history also deserves recognition for the women who worked in its offices, participated in its financial affairs, helped manage its operations, and preserved its story. Their accomplishments add another important dimension to an already remarkable chapter of American industrial history.
1. Highland County, Ohio, Marriage, Property, and Mortgage Records.
2. Kathleen Patterson Buster, Origin of the C.R. Patterson Carriage Business, handwritten family history, circa 1965.
3. Ohio Secretary of State, records of incorporation for the Greenfield Bus Body Company, 1921.
4. Greenfield Republican, contemporary reporting on the Patterson Company's operations, financial difficulties, and reorganization, particularly 1932–1935.
5. Frank Lincoln Mather, Who's Who of the Colored Race (1915), for the contemporary description of the company's manufacturing standing.
6. Kathleen Wilson Patterson, autobiographical recollections concerning the company's final years.
7. Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters I–IV, particularly the discussion of Estelline's financial involvement in Chapter III and the company's final years in Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Greenfield carriage shop developed into a nationally recognized Black-owned manufacturing business
Long before the Patterson-Greenfield automobile appeared in 1915, the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company had established a successful manufacturing business in Greenfield, Ohio. Its growth reflected decades of skilled craftsmanship, changing business partnerships, factory expansion, and an ability to compete in a rapidly evolving carriage industry. The enterprise developed during a period when American carriage manufacturing was changing from traditional handcraft production to increasingly mechanized factory operations. Rather than attempting to compete directly with the largest mass producers, the Pattersons developed a reputation for quality, specialized products, and personal service.
Charles Richard Patterson came from a family of blacksmiths and developed his own skills in the trade. By 1870, he had become foreman at the Dines and Simpson Coach and Carriage Company in Greenfield. His position was noteworthy. Patterson supervised a workforce that included white craftsmen during a period when racial discrimination imposed substantial limitations upon Black workers and businessmen. Dines and Simpson was an established carriage manufacturer whose products were sold throughout southern Ohio and Kentucky. Patterson's experience there provided an opportunity to develop both technical knowledge and practical experience in managing carriage production.
In 1873, Patterson entered a partnership with James P. Lowe, establishing a carriage business known as Lowe and Patterson. The partnership was an important stage in the development of the later Patterson enterprise. The company became known for its craftsmanship, but its history was not one of uninterrupted growth. Like other manufacturers, it encountered fluctuations in demand and periods of economic difficulty. The partnership also underwent organizational changes. By 1883, the business was operating under the name J. P. Lowe and Company, with additional partners participating at various times.
C.R. Patterson and Lowe remained the principal figures throughout these changes. In 1893, Lowe sold his interest to Patterson, who became the sole owner. Contrary to some later historical accounts, Lowe did not die in 1893. He subsequently pursued other business interests and remained associated with financial institutions that had dealings with the Patterson family. Patterson's acquisition of the company marked the beginning of a period of substantial growth.
During the late nineteenth century, large American carriage manufacturers increasingly relied upon machinery and standardized components. Companies such as Studebaker could produce vehicles in quantities far beyond those possible in smaller workshops. Mechanization lowered production costs and made carriages more affordable. Yet smaller manufacturers continued to occupy an important place in the industry. Customers seeking particular designs, specialized features, or higher levels of craftsmanship could still turn to businesses that offered custom and limited-batch production.
The Patterson Company operated within this segment of the market. Rather than pursuing large-scale mechanization, it continued to rely heavily upon skilled craftsmen, hand tools, and eventually smaller powered equipment. Its reputation depended upon the quality of its products and its willingness to meet individual customer requirements. This approach allowed the company to maintain a successful business even as larger manufacturers transformed the industry.
The company's growth required additional manufacturing and storage space. Historical deeds, Sanborn fire insurance maps, and contemporary newspaper accounts document several periods of expansion. An 1890 deed described the original property on the west side of North Washington Street as containing approximately 18,562 square feet. By 1900, the company's facilities had expanded to approximately 30,000 square feet. A 1902 newspaper account described the factory and showrooms along Washington and Lafayette Streets as spacious and well arranged.
Further expansion followed. In 1907, The Carriage Monthly reported that the Patterson Company was enlarging its factory to accommodate increased business. The publication stated that the enterprise was producing more than 300 new vehicles annually. In 1912, the family constructed another three-story building, the last new building erected by the company. The growth of the facilities reflected the increasing demands of manufacturing, storage, and sales.
Although the company remained based in a relatively small Ohio community, its customers were not confined to the surrounding area. Patterson carriages were sold across multiple states. The company's reputation developed through a combination of advertising, repeat customers, product quality, and commercial relationships. By the early twentieth century, its name was familiar in carriage-industry publications. The company also responded to changes within the industry by purchasing the remaining stock and materials of competitors.
In 1910, the Pattersons acquired the stock of the Scioto Buggy Company of Columbus and the Troy Buggy Company of Troy, Ohio. These purchases allowed the company to obtain vehicles and materials at reduced costs during a period when many carriage manufacturers were struggling with the growing popularity of automobiles. The acquisitions demonstrate how the Pattersons sought opportunities even as their traditional industry began to decline.
By the time Charles Richard Patterson died in 1910, the business he had helped establish had become a respected manufacturing enterprise. It employed skilled workers, maintained substantial facilities, sold products beyond Ohio, and competed in an industry undergoing major technological change. Its success was not based upon mass production alone. The company developed through craftsmanship, specialized manufacturing, commercial relationships, and a willingness to adapt to changing conditions. Those qualities would become particularly important as Frederick Douglass Patterson guided the enterprise toward automobile production and, eventually, commercial vehicle manufacturing.
The Patterson-Greenfield automobile was therefore not the beginning of the family's manufacturing achievements. It was another stage in the development of an enterprise that had already spent decades building vehicles and establishing a reputation for quality.
• Highland Weekly News, May 12, 1870, and contemporary partnership notices.
• Highland County, Ohio, Partnership and Deed Records.
• Greenfield Republican, December 1902 and related factory reports.
• The Carriage Monthly, May 1907.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Greenfield, Ohio, 1893–1927.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter II.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Black-owned carriage manufacturer reached customers across racial, geographic, and professional boundaries
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company operated from Greenfield, Ohio, but its market extended far beyond the small community in which its vehicles were manufactured. By the early twentieth century, Patterson carriages were being sold across several states, supported by an advertising strategy that combined local newspapers, regional publications, national journals, and direct relationships with customers. The company's advertisements reveal much about how its owners approached business. Rather than depending exclusively upon customers who wished to support a Black-owned enterprise, the Pattersons emphasized craftsmanship, quality materials, fair prices, and customer satisfaction. Their strategy was to compete for business on the merits of their products while also recognizing the importance of commercial relationships within the Black community.
The Patterson Company advertised extensively during the carriage-manufacturing era. Its advertisements appeared in Greenfield and surrounding communities, as well as publications reaching customers across Ohio and beyond. These notices promoted individual carriage models, manufacturing quality, special features, and the advantages of purchasing directly from the company. The advertisements also reflected the changing nature of the carriage business. As customers became more familiar with factory-produced vehicles, manufacturers increasingly needed to explain why their products offered better value than those of competitors.
The Pattersons frequently emphasized the difference between carefully constructed custom vehicles and inexpensive mass-produced carriages. Their advertisements portrayed craftsmanship and durability as important reasons for choosing a Patterson product.
One important feature of the company's business strategy was its effort to eliminate unnecessary intermediaries. The Pattersons sold vehicles directly from their establishment and emphasized that customers could obtain quality products without paying additional dealer markups. They also offered credit to qualified purchasers. Contemporary advertisements described payment arrangements extending over four, six, or eight months, with interest charged at six percent. This approach allowed the company to reach customers who might not have been able to pay the entire purchase price immediately.
The company also advertised its commitment to uniform prices and customer service. Its business philosophy reflected the belief that reasonable profits, repeat customers, and a strong reputation could support continued sales.
Physicians became an especially important customer group. Doctors frequently traveled long distances to visit patients, often in difficult weather. They required vehicles that were durable, comfortable, and suited to professional use. The Patterson Company developed and advertised carriage models specifically for physicians. One of its most important advertising outlets was the Journal of the National Medical Association. The National Medical Association had been established by Black physicians who faced discrimination within the broader medical profession.
The Patterson Company was among the association's earliest advertisers and placed advertisements in its annual proceedings before the journal began publication. Once the journal appeared, Patterson advertisements continued regularly from 1909 into 1918. The company claimed that it manufactured numerous styles of physicians' buggies and served more doctors than competing manufacturers. Such statements were promotional claims rather than independently verified market statistics, but they demonstrate the importance the company placed upon this customer group. The relationship also provided opportunities for Black physicians to purchase vehicles from a Black-owned manufacturer.
The Patterson Company's advertising provides a revealing example of how a successful Black-owned business navigated racial identity and commercial competition. In publications directed primarily toward Black readers, the company frequently identified itself as Black-owned. Advertisements in the Journal of the National Medical Association and the NAACP's magazine The Crisis emphasized this distinction. Research into surviving advertisements found seventy-three examples from these two publications that identified the company as Black-owned. By contrast, advertisements in local newspapers generally emphasized the company's products without highlighting the race of its owners.
This difference was deliberate. The Pattersons recognized the importance of support from Black consumers, but they did not want their products to be purchased solely because of racial identification. A 1914 account explained that the company appreciated business received through racial preference but did not rely upon that preference as its only reason for attracting customers. Its owners wanted Patterson vehicles to compete successfully against those of other manufacturers.
The company's advertising strategy also reflected distinctions among prospective customers. The Journal of the National Medical Association reached physicians, a professional audience likely to need specialized vehicles. The Crisis reached a broader readership interested in Black achievement, education, politics, and economic opportunity. Local newspapers reached customers throughout the surrounding agricultural and commercial communities. By advertising in these different publications, the company could present its products to audiences with varying needs and interests.
The surviving advertisements therefore provide more than illustrations of old vehicles. They document a carefully developed effort to reach customers through multiple markets.
The company's advertising methods remained important as the carriage industry declined. When the Pattersons introduced the Patterson-Greenfield automobile in 1915, they continued using familiar publications and customer relationships. Some purchasers of Patterson carriages later bought Patterson automobiles. One documented example involved a Kentucky physician whose earlier testimonial concerned a Patterson Storm Buggy and who subsequently endorsed a Patterson-Greenfield automobile. This continuity illustrates the value of the reputation the company had developed during its carriage-manufacturing years.
The automobile did not require the Pattersons to begin building a customer base from nothing. They already possessed commercial relationships established through decades of vehicle manufacturing.
The Patterson Company's advertising history demonstrates that its owners understood the importance of marketing, customer relationships, and product reputation. They reached customers across state lines, developed vehicles for specialized professions, offered credit arrangements, and tailored advertisements to different audiences. They also navigated the challenges of operating a Black-owned enterprise in a predominantly white commercial environment without allowing racial identity to become the sole basis for their sales strategy. Their approach was straightforward: manufacture quality vehicles, explain their advantages, and compete for customers. The surviving advertisements offer important evidence of how that strategy helped a small-town Ohio manufacturer establish a reputation extending far beyond Greenfield.
• Journal of the National Medical Association, Patterson advertisements, 1909–1918.
• The Crisis, Patterson advertisements.
• Greenfield Republican and Hillsboro Dispatch, contemporary Patterson advertisements.
• C.R. Patterson and Sons carriage catalog, circa 1913.
• Journal of the National Medical Association, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1914).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter II; related automobile advertising in Chapter III.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Greenfield manufacturer developed a patented vehicle design adopted by competing carriage companies
When the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company began manufacturing automobiles in 1915, it already possessed considerable experience in developing specialized vehicles and improving their designs. One of its most important achievements was the Patterson Perfect Winter Buggy, a horse-drawn vehicle designed to provide greater comfort and protection during cold and severe weather. The buggy became an important commercial success and demonstrated the company's ability to identify practical transportation problems and develop innovative solutions. Its most significant feature was a patented door mechanism that addressed a persistent problem encountered by manufacturers of enclosed winter carriages. The invention attracted the attention of competing manufacturers and became the subject of royalty arrangements that extended the influence of Patterson engineering beyond the company's own products.
During the early twentieth century, horse-drawn vehicles remained essential for many Americans, particularly those living in rural communities. Physicians, mail carriers, farmers, and other travelers frequently needed to travel in rain, snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures. Enclosed winter buggies offered protection from the weather, but their designs presented several difficulties. The vehicles needed to be sturdy without becoming excessively heavy for the horses pulling them. Doors and windows had to protect occupants from wind and moisture while remaining easy to operate.
One particularly troublesome problem involved sliding doors. On some vehicles, the door tracks were exposed to mud, snow, and ice thrown up during travel. The tracks could become clogged or freeze, making the doors difficult or impossible to open. Beyond the inconvenience, a jammed door could create a safety concern if occupants needed to leave the vehicle quickly. The Pattersons sought to overcome these problems.
The Patterson Perfect Winter Buggy was designed to combine durability, weather protection, and passenger comfort. The company used carefully fitted windows, including glass mounted within rubber grooves to reduce rattling and moisture penetration. Attention was also given to the vehicle's weight, suspension, construction materials, and interior arrangements. The goal was to provide a well-built enclosed carriage at a price customers could afford. The company's advertising emphasized that its winter buggy was a carefully constructed vehicle rather than an inexpensive product assembled without attention to quality. But the feature that most clearly distinguished the Patterson design was its door mechanism.
The company's efforts to improve the winter buggy involved several stages of development. By 1909, the Pattersons were advertising a door design for which patent protection was being sought. On February 14, 1911, the United States Patent Office issued Patent No. 983,992 for a door mechanism that pivoted on a rod and sealed against the doorframe. The company continued developing the design. On June 11, 1912, another patent, No. 1,029,288, was issued for an improved sliding door.
The later mechanism allowed the door to slide into position and fit securely within the opening. Importantly, its operating tracks were located inside the vehicle rather than exposed to the weather. This arrangement helped prevent mud, snow, and ice from obstructing the door's movement. The result was a practical improvement in the safety and convenience of enclosed horse-drawn vehicles.
The significance of the Patterson design extended beyond vehicles manufactured in Greenfield. Other carriage companies recognized the advantages of the door mechanism. An October 1911 advertisement identified twenty-one manufacturers associated with the company's patented door arrangements and suggested that additional companies had also adopted the technology. The Patterson Company arranged for competing manufacturers to use its patented design through royalty agreements. The research also describes an initial period during which Patterson retained exclusive use of the improved mechanism before broader adoption by competitors.
These arrangements demonstrate that the company's innovation possessed commercial value beyond the sale of its own carriages. The Pattersons were not simply following developments elsewhere in the industry. They had created a practical improvement that other manufacturers wanted to incorporate into their products.
In December 1911, Charles W. Napper, a member of the extended Patterson family, wrote to Ohio State University President William Oxley Thompson about the company's achievements. Napper emphasized the comfort and convenience provided by the winter buggy and pointed to the adoption of the design by other manufacturers as evidence of its value. The correspondence provides an important contemporary account of how the company understood the significance of its work. It also illustrates the pride the Patterson family took in developing products that improved everyday transportation.
The company's winter buggy competed with similar vehicles produced by manufacturers in Columbus, Ohio, and elsewhere. Contemporary catalogs and advertisements allow comparisons of construction, equipment, and prices. The Patterson model was comparable in size and general construction to competing enclosed buggies. Some competitors used the patented Patterson door arrangement, while others continued relying upon less convenient methods of enclosing their vehicles. The company's research identified competing winter buggies priced near the Patterson model's approximately $85–$87.50 range, while another enclosed buggy was advertised at $140.
Such comparisons cannot establish that the Patterson vehicle was universally superior, but they demonstrate that its patented features were offered within a competitive price range. The combination of practical innovation, craftsmanship, and affordability helped distinguish the product.
The Patterson Perfect Winter Buggy illustrates an important aspect of the company's history that is often overlooked. The Pattersons were involved in improving transportation technology before they entered automobile manufacturing. Their achievements included identifying problems encountered by travelers, developing mechanical solutions, obtaining patent protection, and arranging for other manufacturers to use their designs. The company's patented winter-buggy doors are particularly significant because their adoption extended beyond its own factory. This history complicates the familiar narrative that the Patterson family's principal contribution to transportation began with the automobile.
By 1915, the company had already demonstrated its ability to innovate within the established carriage industry. The Patterson-Greenfield automobile was another development in a much longer tradition of manufacturing, experimentation, and practical engineering.
• United States Patent No. 983,992, issued February 14, 1911.
• United States Patent No. 1,029,288, issued June 11, 1912.
• C.R. Patterson and Sons advertisements, 1909–1913.
• C.R. Patterson and Sons carriage catalog, circa 1913.
• Charles W. Napper correspondence with Ohio State University President William Oxley Thompson, December 6, 1911.
• Contemporary carriage catalogs and manufacturers' advertisements.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter II, particularly the discussion of the Patterson Perfect Winter Buggy.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Black-owned Ohio manufacturer helped improve pupil transportation before the motorized school bus
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company is remembered for its automobile production and later manufacture of school buses. Yet its involvement in transporting schoolchildren began considerably earlier. During the first years of the twentieth century, the company developed horse-drawn school wagons designed to address the practical difficulties faced by rural school districts. These vehicles provided a foundation of experience that later helped the Pattersons enter the motorized school-bus industry. Their early work in pupil transportation represents an important and frequently overlooked contribution to American transportation history.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many rural communities began consolidating small schools into larger facilities. Consolidation could provide educational advantages, but it also created transportation problems. Students who had previously attended nearby schools sometimes needed to travel several miles to reach their new classrooms. Walking long distances was particularly difficult during winter or severe weather. School districts increasingly required vehicles capable of transporting groups of children safely and comfortably.
Early horse-drawn school wagons were not always well suited to this task. Some were excessively heavy, making them difficult for horses to pull. Others offered inadequate protection from rain, snow, and cold temperatures. Vehicle construction and passenger access also presented safety concerns. The Patterson Company recognized these problems and sought to develop improved designs.
By 1906, the company had developed a school wagon that attracted favorable attention. Its design emphasized strength, durability, passenger protection, and convenience. Contemporary descriptions identify a twelve-foot body with roll-up curtains along the sides. The vehicle featured a sliding front door arranged to avoid interference with the horses. Unlike some earlier designs, the driver's position was enclosed, allowing the driver to remain protected from the weather while supervising the children.
The wagon could accommodate approximately twenty to twenty-eight pupils. Particular attention was given to passenger access. Steps and a handrail helped smaller children enter and leave the vehicle. The construction also emphasized adequate lighting and protection from severe weather. These features were important because school transportation involved more than moving passengers from one location to another. Children needed to arrive safely and in a condition that allowed them to participate effectively in classroom activities.
The company's school wagons received favorable attention from Ohio educational officials. After examining Patterson-built vehicles, Ohio State School Commissioner E. A. Jones praised their strength, durability, safety, convenience, and protection of pupils. His assessment provides valuable contemporary evidence of how the vehicles were received by someone concerned with school transportation. Other published accounts also praised the company's ability to compete successfully for school-wagon contracts. Such endorsements helped establish the Patterson name within a specialized transportation market. The company sold school wagons beyond Ohio, reaching school districts in several states.
The Pattersons also recognized that improved transportation could affect students' educational experience. In correspondence with Ohio State University President William Oxley Thompson, Charles W. Napper discussed the disadvantages of children arriving at school after long journeys exposed to cold weather. He argued that providing proper protection during transportation could help students arrive better prepared for classroom work. The observation connected vehicle design with a broader educational purpose. A school wagon was not simply another type of carriage. It was equipment intended to support the operation of public schools and improve the daily experience of children.
The company's early experience with school wagons became increasingly important as motor vehicles began replacing horse-drawn transportation. When school districts adopted motorized buses, many of their basic requirements remained unchanged. Vehicles still needed to accommodate groups of children, protect passengers from weather, provide safe entry and exit, and operate reliably on rural roads. The Pattersons already understood these needs. Their experience designing and selling school wagons also gave them established relationships with school districts and familiarity with the purchasing process.
When the company later shifted toward manufacturing motorized school-bus bodies, it was entering a market in which it already possessed substantial experience. Early motorized school buses often consisted of specialized passenger bodies mounted upon commercially manufactured truck chassis. This arrangement was compatible with the company's existing skills in constructing wooden vehicle bodies. The transition therefore represented an adaptation of earlier manufacturing experience rather than an entirely new undertaking.
The Patterson Company's school wagons are important because they extend the family's contributions to pupil transportation back to the early twentieth century. The company had begun developing vehicles specifically for schoolchildren years before motorized school buses became widespread. Its work addressed practical concerns involving safety, weather protection, durability, and passenger comfort. These were the same broad concerns that later influenced the development of motorized school transportation. The company's subsequent success in manufacturing school-bus bodies should therefore be understood as part of a continuing effort to serve the transportation needs of schools.
The Pattersons did not simply move from carriages to automobiles and then unexpectedly discover the school-bus market. They had already helped develop and supply vehicles for transporting pupils. That experience became one of the foundations of their later work in commercial vehicle manufacturing.
• Contemporary Patterson school-wagon advertisements and descriptions, circa 1906–1913.
• Statements of Ohio State School Commissioner E. A. Jones.
• Charles W. Napper correspondence with Ohio State University President William Oxley Thompson.
• C.R. Patterson and Sons carriage catalog, circa 1913.
• Contemporary newspaper accounts of school-wagon contracts and designs.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter II; related motorized school-bus history in Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The people and manufacturing methods behind the success of C.R. Patterson and Sons
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company developed a reputation for producing high-quality vehicles, but that reputation depended upon more than the abilities of its owners. It required skilled craftsmen, specialized equipment, organized manufacturing departments, and a workforce capable of producing vehicles to meet the expectations of demanding customers. The company's manufacturing history also offers an important perspective on race and employment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although Black-owned, the Patterson enterprise employed both Black and white workers. Its leaders emphasized the importance of skill and competence while also seeking opportunities to train Black craftsmen. The surviving records reveal a manufacturing business that combined traditional craftsmanship with changing production methods and a distinctive approach to employment.
Carriage manufacturing involved numerous specialized trades. A finished vehicle required a strong wooden structure, carefully fitted wheels, metal components, suspension systems, upholstery, painting, and decorative finishing. Blacksmiths produced and repaired metal parts. Woodworkers shaped the body, frame, and other structural components. Wheelwrights constructed wheels that had to withstand considerable wear.
Painters and trimmers completed the vehicles with finishes, upholstery, and fittings. The quality of the finished product depended upon how well these different elements were manufactured and assembled. The Patterson Company maintained the traditional emphasis upon skilled workmanship even as larger manufacturers increasingly relied upon mechanized production.
Historical fire insurance maps and contemporary descriptions provide evidence of the company's manufacturing facilities. The buildings accommodated work associated with blacksmithing, woodworking, painting, trimming, and the storage of materials and completed vehicles. The blacksmith shop required forges, anvils, and equipment for shaping metal. Woodworking operations involved saws, planes, chisels, and other specialized tools. Painting and trimming required separate areas where finished bodies could receive paint, varnish, upholstery, and decorative details.
Not every piece of equipment used by the Patterson Company has been identified. Some descriptions of likely tools are based upon standard carriage-manufacturing practices rather than surviving company inventories. Nevertheless, the evidence establishes that the enterprise maintained facilities capable of producing a wide variety of vehicles and specialized components. The company did not develop into a fully mechanized mass-production factory comparable to the largest American carriage manufacturers. Instead, it continued emphasizing custom and limited-batch production, relying heavily upon skilled workers and smaller-scale equipment. This approach gave the company flexibility in meeting individual customer requirements.
One of the more notable aspects of the Patterson Company's history was its employment of workers from both racial groups. Charles Richard Patterson had already supervised white workers while serving as foreman at the Dines and Simpson carriage factory in 1870. That experience continued to influence the operation of his own enterprise. The Patterson Company employed both Black and white craftsmen during a period when racial discrimination frequently restricted employment opportunities. Frederick Douglass Patterson later discussed the company's employment philosophy in a published statement.
He explained that the firm preferred to employ Black artisans whenever possible but placed a high priority upon competence and skilled labor. He also observed that interracial employment was accepted more readily in some parts of the country than in others. His comments reveal an approach that balanced a commitment to expanding opportunities for Black workers with the practical demands of operating a competitive manufacturing business.
Frederick believed that established Black-owned businesses had a responsibility to help develop the skills of younger workers. He encouraged entrepreneurs to provide opportunities for Black apprentices to learn trades and gain experience. This belief was consistent with his broader involvement in organizations promoting Black business development. The Patterson Company's own advertisements demonstrate that its employment requirements could vary according to circumstances. Advertisements published in The Crisis during 1919 and 1920 sometimes sought skilled workers without specifying race.
Other advertisements expressed a preference for Black applicants or limited recruitment to Black workers. The changing language suggests that the company adjusted its hiring efforts according to its immediate needs. Across these advertisements, however, a recurring emphasis was placed upon ability, good habits, education, and the willingness to become a skilled craftsman. How Large Was the Workforce? The number of Patterson employees changed considerably over time.
When the enterprise was operating as J. P. Lowe and Company in 1888, it reportedly employed approximately ten workers. Following C.R. Patterson's acquisition of sole ownership, the business expanded. By 1900, employment generally ranged from approximately thirty-five to fifty workers. Contemporary reports identified thirty employees in 1910 and thirty-five in 1913. A 1914 publication described a substantial annual payroll and reported that the company was struggling to meet customer demand promptly.
Employment declined during the transition from carriage manufacturing to automobiles. By 1918, the company reportedly employed eighteen men and one woman. Although considerably smaller than the workforce of major manufacturers, the enterprise remained significant within the Ohio carriage industry. Research comparing Ohio manufacturers in 1918 found that the Patterson Company employed more workers than approximately 71.8 percent of the carriage, wagon, and carriage-material manufacturers listed that year. This comparison provides a useful measure of the company's standing without suggesting that it approached the production scale of the largest national manufacturers.
The Patterson Company's reputation depended upon its workers' ability to produce durable and carefully finished vehicles. The company emphasized quality materials, attention to detail, and customer satisfaction. Its manufacturing methods allowed the production of specialized vehicles, including physicians' buggies, winter buggies, mail vehicles, and school wagons. Such products often required features that were not found on ordinary carriages. Producing them demanded flexibility and practical experience.
The company also developed patented improvements that reflected its ability to identify problems and devise workable solutions. These achievements were the result of both business leadership and the efforts of skilled employees.
The Patterson Company's employment history provides an important perspective on the enterprise's broader significance. It was a Black-owned manufacturing business operating in a competitive industry during a period of widespread racial discrimination. Its workforce included Black and white craftsmen, and its leaders sought to provide opportunities for Black workers while maintaining demanding standards of production. The company also demonstrated that traditional craftsmanship and specialized manufacturing could remain commercially viable alongside larger mechanized factories. The skills developed within its workshops helped support later transitions into automobile production and commercial vehicle manufacturing.
The Patterson family's leadership deserves recognition, but so do the workers whose craftsmanship made its products possible. Together, they contributed to a manufacturing enterprise that remained active across several generations and played a distinctive role in American transportation history.
• United States Census and Ohio manufacturing statistics, 1888–1918.
• Journal of the National Medical Association, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1914).
• The Crisis, Patterson employment advertisements, 1919–1920.
• Contemporary Greenfield and Highland County newspaper accounts.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Greenfield, Ohio.
• C.R. Patterson and Sons carriage catalog, circa 1913.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter II; related employment and manufacturing discussions in later chapters.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a successful Ohio carriage manufacturer prepared for the arrival of the automobile
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the American transportation industry was undergoing a transformation that threatened the existence of thousands of established businesses. Horse-drawn vehicles had dominated personal transportation for generations. Carriage manufacturers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and related craftsmen had developed specialized trades to serve that market. The automobile challenged nearly every aspect of this industry. For the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company of Greenfield, Ohio, the change presented both a serious threat and a new opportunity.
Frederick Douglass Patterson recognized that the growing popularity of automobiles would eventually undermine the company's established carriage business. Rather than immediately abandoning that business, he began developing new services that would allow the enterprise to participate in the emerging automobile industry. His approach was gradual, practical, and rooted in the manufacturing experience the company had accumulated over several decades.
Automobiles began appearing in the United States during the 1890s, but their early cost and mechanical limitations restricted widespread ownership. By the first decade of the twentieth century, improvements in design, reliability, and manufacturing methods were making automobiles increasingly practical. Their popularity grew rapidly. Ohio had approximately 65,000 registered automobiles in 1912. By 1915, that number had increased to approximately 168,000. Highland County, where the Patterson Company operated, had 716 automobiles by 1915.
These figures illustrate how quickly the new technology was becoming part of everyday life. For a carriage manufacturer whose customers were increasingly purchasing automobiles, the implications were difficult to ignore. The demand for horse-drawn vehicles was declining, and companies that depended entirely upon carriage production faced an uncertain future.
One of the first opportunities created by the automobile was the need for maintenance and repair. Early automobiles required frequent mechanical attention. Engines, transmissions, electrical components, steering systems, and other equipment introduced problems unfamiliar to many traditional carriage craftsmen. Yet existing blacksmith shops and carriage factories possessed useful skills. Their employees already understood metalworking, woodworking, vehicle construction, painting, and mechanical repair. These abilities provided a foundation for learning automobile maintenance.
The Patterson Company began offering automobile repair services several years before manufacturing its own cars. A September 1909 article in The Horseless Age reported that the company was preparing to construct a modern garage in Greenfield. Representatives had visited Columbus and Cincinnati to examine garage facilities and obtain ideas for the project. This account establishes that the company was actively considering its place in the automobile industry well before the Patterson-Greenfield automobile appeared.
Automobile repair required the Patterson workforce to develop new skills. Traditional carriage manufacturing did not involve gasoline engines, electrical ignition systems, or automotive transmissions. The company's craftsmen therefore had to expand their technical knowledge. Frederick's decision to add automobile repair was an important step in this process. The repair business provided an opportunity to become familiar with automobile construction while also generating revenue from the growing number of vehicles on local roads.
It allowed the company to participate in the automobile industry without immediately assuming the substantial financial risks associated with manufacturing complete cars. The first identified Patterson advertisement specifically promoting automobile repair appeared in the Hillsboro Dispatch on February 11, 1913. A similar advertisement appeared in the Ohio State University Monthly. The company had evidently been performing such work before these advertisements appeared. A later Patterson advertisement claimed that the firm had specialized in automobile work for fifteen years, suggesting an even earlier beginning. That promotional statement cannot establish the precise date when regular automobile repair operations began, but it indicates how the company represented its experience to customers.
Frederick did not regard the automobile's arrival as a reason to immediately discontinue carriage manufacturing. The company continued building and selling horse-drawn vehicles while developing its automotive services. This decision was economically sensible. Many rural residents continued using horses long after automobiles became common in larger cities. Certain professions and commercial activities also continued to depend upon specialized horse-drawn vehicles.
The Patterson Company already possessed the equipment, skilled workforce, and customer relationships necessary to serve these markets. Maintaining both businesses allowed Frederick to respond to changing demand without depending entirely upon a new and uncertain technology. This flexibility became an important characteristic of the company's operations.
Automobile repair ultimately became only one part of Frederick's plans. By 1915, the company had accumulated experience working with automobile bodies and mechanical systems. Its established carriage-manufacturing facilities could produce much of the bodywork required for a motor vehicle. Like many early automobile manufacturers, the Pattersons could purchase specialized mechanical components from established suppliers rather than manufacture every part themselves. This method of assembling automobiles from purchased components was common during the industry's early decades.
It offered smaller companies an opportunity to enter automobile manufacturing without constructing the extensive facilities required to produce engines, transmissions, and other major components. Frederick recognized that the company's existing skills could be applied to this new form of transportation. In September 1915, he introduced the Patterson-Greenfield automobile.
The company's transition into automobile manufacturing did not begin with the construction of its first car. It began years earlier, when Frederick recognized the growing demand for automobile maintenance and began adapting the company's facilities and workforce. The decision reflected the same flexibility that had allowed the Pattersons to compete successfully in the carriage industry. Although automobile manufacturing ultimately proved difficult to sustain, the skills developed during this period remained valuable. The company continued operating an automobile repair department and later used its experience in vehicle-body construction to enter the commercial vehicle and school-bus industries.
The Patterson-Greenfield automobile was therefore part of a broader technological transition. Frederick Patterson's significance lies not only in becoming a pioneering Black automobile manufacturer, but also in recognizing that the future of the family enterprise depended upon its ability to adapt to a changing transportation industry.
• The Horseless Age, September 1909.
• Hillsboro Dispatch, February 11, 1913.
• Ohio State University Monthly, 1913.
• Ohio automobile registration statistics, 1912–1915.
• Contemporary Patterson advertisements, 1909–1915.
• Kevin L. Borg, Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter III.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The design, introduction, and historical significance of the automobile manufactured by C.R. Patterson and Sons
On September 23, 1915, the Greenfield Republican announced the introduction of a new automobile manufactured by the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company. The vehicle was called the Patterson-Greenfield. Its appearance marked an important development in the history of the company and in American automobile manufacturing. Frederick Douglass Patterson had guided the family enterprise from carriage manufacturing into automobile repair and had now taken the additional step of producing a complete automobile. The Patterson-Greenfield is widely recognized as the first documented commercially manufactured automobile produced by a Black-owned American company. Although its production lasted only a few years, the vehicle represents a remarkable achievement by a small manufacturer competing during a period of rapid industrial change.
The September 23, 1915, announcement provided Greenfield residents with their first detailed introduction to the new automobile. Rather than relying entirely upon a newspaper reporter to describe the vehicle, the Greenfield Republican allowed Frederick Patterson to explain its design and intended market. Frederick presented the automobile as a carefully constructed, reasonably priced vehicle that offered the conveniences customers expected from more expensive models. He did not intend to manufacture a large automobile. Instead, the Patterson-Greenfield was designed to fill a role comparable to the traditional family surrey.
It would provide comfortable transportation for a family without requiring the expense of a larger luxury vehicle. The company emphasized that affordability should not require sacrificing quality. Frederick described the vehicle as sensibly priced while maintaining the standards of craftsmanship associated with Patterson carriages.
The company introduced the Patterson-Greenfield in touring-car and roadster configurations. The touring car was intended to accommodate five passengers, making it suitable for family transportation. The roadster provided a smaller alternative for customers who preferred a more compact automobile. The surviving photographs show vehicles that were consistent with the appearance of other American automobiles of the period. Their significance was not based upon a radically different body style.
Instead, the Patterson-Greenfield combined established automotive technology with the company's experience in producing carefully finished vehicle bodies. A well-known photograph shows Frederick's young son Postell standing on the running board of a Patterson-Greenfield roadster. Another surviving image depicts the touring-car model. These photographs are among the most important visual records of the company's automobile-manufacturing period.
The Patterson-Greenfield used a four-cylinder gasoline engine and incorporated many features found on contemporary automobiles. A Patterson advertisement published in the Journal of the National Medical Association in April 1917 specifically identified the G. B. & S. (Golden, Belknap & Swartz) motor. The company's advertising also described equipment that included electric starting and lighting, a full-floating rear axle, and other modern conveniences. The automobile also incorporated a split windshield for ventilation. Its suspension, steering, and other mechanical arrangements were broadly consistent with accepted automotive designs of the period. Research comparing the Patterson-Greenfield with other automobiles manufactured in 1916 found that it possessed many of the features commonly used by competing manufacturers.
It employed left-hand steering, an electric starter, wooden wheels, and a full-floating rear axle. Its cooling system relied upon thermosiphon circulation rather than the pump-driven system used by some competing automobiles. The engine employed a combination of splash and pressure lubrication. These specifications do not establish that the Patterson-Greenfield was mechanically superior to its competitors. They do demonstrate that it was a conventional and reasonably well-equipped automobile rather than an experimental novelty.
The company's challenge was not simply whether it could build a functioning automobile. It was whether the vehicle could be manufactured and sold profitably in competition with larger companies.
The Patterson-Greenfield occupied a middle range of the automobile market. Its advertised price varied by model and year. The original touring car was offered for approximately $685 in 1915. A January 1916 advertisement listed the touring car at $775. By October 1916, roadster models were advertised at $650 and $750.
The 1917 touring car was offered at approximately $810. These prices reflected differences in model, equipment, and changing market conditions. Although the Patterson-Greenfield was less expensive than some luxury automobiles, it was substantially more costly than the least expensive mass-produced cars. Ford's Model T, for example, could be purchased for approximately $360 during 1916. The difference presented a serious competitive problem for smaller manufacturers. Customers considering an automobile had to weigh the appeal of craftsmanship and equipment against the lower prices and established reputations of larger companies.
The Patterson-Greenfield attracted favorable attention when introduced. Contemporary accounts described interest in the automobile at a local fair. One report stated that a prospective purchaser canceled an order for a Dodge after examining the Patterson vehicle and placed an order with the Greenfield manufacturer. Such accounts indicate that the automobile was capable of attracting customers who were also considering established brands. The company also benefited from relationships developed during its carriage-manufacturing years.
One particularly revealing example involved Dr. John E. Hunter of Lexington, Kentucky. Hunter had previously purchased a Patterson Storm Buggy and provided a testimonial that appeared in a 1911 advertisement. In 1916, another advertisement featured his endorsement of a Patterson-Greenfield automobile. The example demonstrates that at least some customers who had purchased Patterson carriages were willing to buy automobiles from the same manufacturer.
The Patterson-Greenfield was manufactured during an era when Black Americans faced extensive discrimination in employment, finance, and commercial opportunity. The automobile industry required considerable technical knowledge, access to specialized components, and substantial capital. Even for established white-owned carriage companies, entering automobile manufacturing was a difficult undertaking. Frederick Patterson nevertheless directed a Black-owned enterprise that successfully introduced and sold its own automobile. The company's achievement should be understood within the broader history of early automobile manufacturing.
Many manufacturers of the period assembled vehicles using engines, transmissions, and other components obtained from suppliers. The Patterson-Greenfield followed this established approach. Its use of purchased mechanical components does not diminish its standing as a manufactured automobile. The company developed and marketed a complete vehicle under its own name.
The Patterson-Greenfield remained in production for only a few years. The surviving evidence places its principal manufacturing period between 1915 and 1917. Production totals are uncertain, with estimates generally ranging from approximately thirty to 150 automobiles. No surviving Patterson-Greenfield automobile has been conclusively identified. Nevertheless, contemporary advertisements, photographs, newspaper accounts, and family recollections establish that the company manufactured and sold automobiles.
Its historical importance does not depend upon a large production total. The Patterson-Greenfield demonstrates that a Black-owned manufacturing enterprise successfully entered the early American automobile industry at a time when relatively few Black entrepreneurs possessed the resources or opportunities to attempt such a venture. It remains one of the most distinctive achievements in the history of the Patterson family and an important chapter in American industrial history.
• Greenfield Republican, September 23, 1915.
• Journal of the National Medical Association, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1916).
• Patterson-Greenfield automobile advertisements, 1915–1917.
• Contemporary automobile specifications and manufacturers' catalogs, 1915–1917.
• Patterson family photographs preserved by descendants and the Historical Society of Greenfield.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter III.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
Why a pioneering Black-owned automobile manufacturer stopped building cars—and how the business continued
The Patterson-Greenfield automobile occupies a distinctive place in American automotive history. Introduced in 1915 by the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company of Greenfield, Ohio, it represented the culmination of decades of vehicle-manufacturing experience. Yet the company's automobile production lasted only a few years. By 1917, the Patterson-Greenfield had disappeared from the company's advertising, and Frederick Douglass Patterson was concentrating increasingly upon other business activities. Why did an established carriage manufacturer, capable of building a competitive automobile, find it so difficult to remain in the automotive market? The answer involves several interconnected factors: the rapid growth of mass production, the cost of purchased components, limited capital, changing consumer expectations, and the economic pressures created by the First World War.
The early American automobile industry attracted hundreds of entrepreneurs. During the 1890s and early 1900s, many small companies attempted to manufacture automobiles using a combination of purchased mechanical components and locally produced bodies. Some were successful for a time. Others produced only a few vehicles before disappearing. The industry was highly competitive, and the advantages enjoyed by larger manufacturers increased rapidly.
By 1915, when the Patterson-Greenfield was introduced, companies such as Ford and General Motors had already developed substantial manufacturing and distribution operations. Ford's use of moving assembly-line production had dramatically reduced the time required to manufacture automobiles. Large companies could purchase components and raw materials in quantities unavailable to smaller competitors. They could also distribute manufacturing costs across thousands of vehicles. These advantages allowed them to sell automobiles at prices that smaller manufacturers struggled to match.
The contrast between Patterson and the major Detroit manufacturers was enormous. In 1915, the same year Frederick Patterson introduced his automobile, Ford sold its millionth Model T. A contemporary article in The Automobile reported that sixteen Detroit factories were producing approximately 1,800 gasoline automobiles daily during October 1915. Including Ford's factories outside Detroit increased the estimated daily total considerably. The Patterson Company, by contrast, may have produced only thirty to 150 automobiles during its entire automobile-manufacturing period.
The precise number remains uncertain. The difference illustrates the economic challenge confronting the company. Large manufacturers could reduce the cost of individual vehicles through standardized production and volume purchasing. The Pattersons continued relying upon a smaller manufacturing operation that required considerably more individual labor and could not obtain the same purchasing advantages.
The Patterson-Greenfield was not an unusually expensive automobile by the standards of the period. Its advertised prices ranged from approximately $650 to more than $800, depending upon the model and year. However, it competed against less expensive automobiles produced by much larger manufacturers. During 1916, a Ford Model T could be purchased for approximately $360. A customer choosing between the two vehicles had to consider more than craftsmanship and equipment.
Price, familiarity with the manufacturer, access to service, and the availability of replacement parts were all important factors. The Patterson-Greenfield offered quality construction and useful features, but it could not compete with the lowest-priced mass-produced automobiles on price alone.
Like many early automobile manufacturers, the Patterson Company purchased major mechanical components from outside suppliers. This approach made it possible to enter automobile manufacturing without constructing factories capable of producing engines, transmissions, and other specialized equipment. It also created vulnerabilities. The company had less control over component prices and availability. These difficulties increased as the First World War affected American manufacturing.
Suppliers increasingly devoted resources to military-related production, while shortages and rising demand increased the cost of materials and components. For a manufacturer producing automobiles in small quantities, these changes could substantially reduce already limited profit margins. The company lacked the purchasing power and financial resources available to major automobile manufacturers.
The automobile business was not the only part of the Patterson enterprise facing difficulties. The company's established carriage market was also declining. As automobiles became more affordable and practical, fewer customers purchased new horse-drawn vehicles. The Pattersons had continued manufacturing carriages while developing their automobile business, allowing the two operations to support one another. By the late 1910s, however, both faced pressure.
The carriage business was losing customers, while the automobile business required investment that was difficult to recover through limited sales. This combination created a particularly challenging situation.
The final identified advertisement for the Patterson-Greenfield automobile appeared in the Greenfield Republican on July 12, 1917. The company had made a substantial advertising effort earlier that year, suggesting that Frederick was still attempting to attract enough customers to sustain production. The surviving record indicates that automobile manufacturing ended around this period. Later historical accounts sometimes give 1918 as the final year, but the documentary evidence for continued production beyond 1917 is less clear. The distinction between the last advertisement, the last completed automobile, and the formal end of a product line is important.
No surviving company production ledger has been identified that establishes the exact date or total number of automobiles manufactured. Estimates range from approximately thirty to 150 vehicles. In a 1976 interview, Frederick's son Postell recalled that approximately 150 had been built. His recollection is valuable family testimony, but it does not independently resolve the production total. Was Racial Discrimination Responsible?
The Patterson Company operated in a society where racial discrimination affected business opportunities, employment, credit, and commercial relationships. Those conditions formed part of the environment in which Frederick attempted to manufacture automobiles. However, the surviving evidence does not establish that a particular discriminatory action directly caused the discontinuation of the Patterson-Greenfield. The economic difficulties confronting the company were also experienced by numerous white-owned automobile manufacturers. Many small companies failed because they could not obtain sufficient capital, reduce production costs, or compete with established manufacturers.
The Patterson experience should therefore be understood within both contexts. Racial discrimination created additional barriers for Black entrepreneurs, while the structure of the automobile industry made survival difficult for small manufacturers generally. The documentary record supports the importance of industrial competition and financial limitations, but it does not allow every possible influence to be measured precisely.
One of the most important distinctions in the Patterson story is that the end of automobile manufacturing did not mean the failure of the entire enterprise. Frederick continued operating the company's automobile repair business. The factory also manufactured and installed specialized automobile bodies and continued offering other forms of repair and metalworking. These activities provided revenue while the company developed new opportunities in commercial vehicle construction. During the following decade, the Pattersons increasingly concentrated upon truck bodies and motorized school buses.
The company's later history demonstrates that Frederick's decision to discontinue automobile production was not simply a defeat. It was part of another adjustment to changing market conditions.
The Patterson-Greenfield disappeared because the company could not sustain automobile production in a market increasingly dominated by larger, better-capitalized manufacturers. The cost of components, limited production volume, competitive pricing, and the decline of carriage sales all contributed to the problem. Yet the company survived the end of its automobile-manufacturing venture. Its experience with automotive technology and vehicle construction helped prepare it for later opportunities. The Patterson-Greenfield therefore represents both a pioneering achievement and an instructive example of the challenges confronting small manufacturers during the formative years of the American automobile industry.
Its limited production does not diminish its historical importance. Nor should its disappearance obscure the fact that the Patterson family continued manufacturing vehicles for more than two decades afterward.
• Greenfield Republican, Patterson-Greenfield advertisements, 1915–1917, particularly July 12, 1917.
• The Automobile, October 1915, reporting on Detroit automobile production.
• Contemporary Ford Motor Company prices and production statistics.
• Larry Freeman, The Merry Old Mobiles (1949).
• Dayton Daily News, 1976 interview with Postell Patterson.
• Contemporary automobile-industry publications concerning component shortages and manufacturing competition.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter III; related discussion in Chapter V.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a pioneering manufacturer continued serving automobile owners after ending production of its own cars
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company is remembered primarily for the Patterson-Greenfield automobile, manufactured beginning in 1915. Yet the company's involvement in the automobile industry extended far beyond the production of that vehicle. For years before introducing its own automobile, the Pattersons repaired motor vehicles. After automobile manufacturing ended, they continued expanding their repair services while producing specialized bodies and accessories for automobiles built by other manufacturers. These activities became an important source of revenue and demonstrate the company's ability to adapt to changing customer needs.
The company began preparing for automobile repair work during the first decade of the twentieth century. By 1909, contemporary trade publications reported plans for a modern garage at the Greenfield factory. The company's first identified newspaper advertisement specifically promoting automobile repair appeared in February 1913. During the following years, the repair department became an increasingly important part of the business. Automobiles required frequent maintenance, and the company possessed skilled craftsmen capable of adapting their knowledge to the new technology. The shop offered a broad range of mechanical and bodywork services.
By the late 1910s, Patterson advertisements promoted an extensive range of services. The company offered engine and mechanical repairs, radiator work, battery service, automobile painting, and body repairs. It also maintained the ability to produce replacement metal components. Advertisements emphasized prompt service, including the possibility of completing many repairs within a single day. By 1919, the company claimed to maintain a complete machine shop.
This equipment allowed mechanics to perform repairs that required fabrication or modification of parts rather than simply replacing components obtained from suppliers. The repair department therefore combined traditional blacksmithing skills with increasingly specialized automotive knowledge.
One of the company's most interesting activities involved manufacturing and installing specialized automobile bodies. During the early automobile era, many vehicles were open to the weather. Owners seeking greater comfort could purchase enclosed tops or replacement bodies. The Patterson Company recognized this opportunity. A 1916 advertisement offered removable enclosed tops for automobiles at prices ranging from approximately $62.50 to $125.
The company also offered sedan tops for Ford automobiles, priced at approximately $90 to $115. These could reportedly be manufactured with only a few days' notice. Such products were a natural extension of the company's carriage-building experience. Its workers already possessed the skills required to construct wooden bodies, install windows, apply upholstery, and produce carefully finished vehicle interiors. The company could therefore participate in the automobile industry without manufacturing complete automobiles.
Beginning around 1918, the company advertised a special De Luxe body designed for Ford automobiles. The conversion allowed customers to transform the appearance of an ordinary Ford into a more distinctive vehicle. A 1919 advertisement described the equipment as including a streamlined body, modified hood and radiator cover, ventilating windshield, special fenders, extended running boards, and other features. The company promoted the conversion as a way to give a relatively inexpensive automobile the appearance and conveniences of a more costly model. The idea was commercially practical.
Ford automobiles were widely available, but their standardized appearance created a market for owners who wanted something more individual. The Patterson Company could use its experience in custom body construction to serve those customers.
The company's customization business also included a sportier body style known as the Red Devil. This design was intended to appeal to customers interested in a more fashionable and distinctive automobile. Advertisements used increasingly imaginative promotional methods, including illustrations and language suggesting that a customized automobile could make its owner appear younger or more adventurous. The Red Devil and De Luxe bodies demonstrate the company's willingness to adjust its marketing to changing consumer tastes. They also reveal a continuation of the custom-manufacturing philosophy that had characterized Patterson carriages.
As automobiles became more complex, repair work increasingly required specialized knowledge. Electrical ignition systems were a particular concern. The Patterson Company responded by employing mechanics with experience in automotive electrical systems. In 1920, Harry McCarter, an ignition specialist and master mechanic trained at Ohio University, became manager of the automobile repair department. Contemporary newspaper accounts reported improvements in the department's business following his appointment.
A later Hillsboro Dispatch article praised the skill of the company's mechanics and the wide range of repairs performed. The shop was not limited to automobile work. It also repaired farm equipment and other machinery, continuing the tradition of general mechanical service established during the carriage-manufacturing era.
The company's involvement in automobile commerce extended into sales. Beginning in 1917, Patterson advertisements included used automobiles, sometimes describing rebuilt engines or fresh paint. The business apparently purchased or accepted vehicles, performed necessary repairs, and offered them for resale. In 1919, the company announced that it had become a dealer for Briscoe automobiles. This dealership arrangement appears to have been relatively brief, judging from the limited surviving advertising. Nevertheless, it demonstrates another attempt to participate in the changing automobile market.
The Patterson Company's automotive repair and body-building operations illustrate an important characteristic of its history. The family did not depend upon a single product or service. When carriage sales declined, the company developed automobile repair. When manufacturing complete automobiles became uneconomical, it continued servicing vehicles and producing specialized bodies. Its workforce could perform work ranging from routine maintenance to substantial body modifications and custom metal fabrication. These activities allowed the company to remain involved in transportation while reducing its dependence upon the difficult business of manufacturing complete passenger automobiles.
The company's experience with automotive bodies became especially important during the 1920s. The skills required to construct an enclosed automobile body were closely related to those needed to manufacture commercial vehicle and school-bus bodies. Woodworking, metal fabrication, upholstery, glazing, painting, and the installation of bodies upon existing chassis were all part of the company's established capabilities. The Pattersons were therefore well positioned to enter another specialized market. Their later commercial vehicle business was not an abrupt departure from their previous work.
It was a continuation of the manufacturing skills and adaptability developed over several decades. The company's repair and customization activities deserve recognition because they explain how the Patterson enterprise survived beyond the short production history of its famous automobile.
• Hillsboro Dispatch, February 11, 1913, and later automobile-repair reporting.
• Greenfield Republican, Patterson repair advertisements, 1916–1921.
• Patterson De Luxe and Red Devil body advertisements, 1918–1920.
• The Horseless Age, September 1909.
• Contemporary advertisements concerning Briscoe automobile sales, 1919.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter III; related commercial-body manufacturing in Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
What remains of America's pioneering Black-owned automobile manufacturer—and why identifying an original vehicle has proven so difficult
The Patterson-Greenfield automobile is one of the most historically significant vehicles produced during the early years of the American automobile industry. Manufactured by the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company of Greenfield, Ohio, beginning in 1915, it represents the achievement of a Black-owned enterprise that successfully entered a highly competitive manufacturing field. Yet despite its historical importance, no Patterson-Greenfield automobile has been conclusively identified as surviving today. The vehicles themselves appear to have disappeared. What remains are photographs, advertisements, newspaper accounts, family recollections, and other documentary evidence.
These materials allow researchers to reconstruct much of the automobile's history, but they also demonstrate the difficulty of locating a rare vehicle produced more than a century ago. How Many Patterson-Greenfield Automobiles Were Built? The exact number of Patterson-Greenfield automobiles manufactured remains uncertain. Published estimates generally range from approximately thirty to 150 vehicles. The company's automobile-manufacturing period extended from 1915 through approximately 1917, although some later accounts identify 1918 as the final year.
The last identified Patterson-Greenfield advertisement appeared in July 1917. No surviving production ledger has been identified that establishes the total number of completed automobiles. In a 1976 interview with the Dayton Daily News, Postell Patterson, son of Frederick Douglass Patterson, recalled that approximately 150 automobiles had been manufactured. Postell was nine years old when the automobile was introduced and had firsthand knowledge of the family business during his childhood. His recollection is an important historical source.
However, it was recorded decades after the events described and cannot independently establish an exact production total. The number remains an estimate rather than a verified manufacturing figure. Why Are None Known to Survive? The absence of a surviving Patterson-Greenfield is not particularly surprising when considered in the context of early automobile history. Many manufacturers produced relatively small numbers of vehicles.
Automobiles were used, repaired, modified, and eventually discarded as newer models became available. Vehicles manufactured in limited quantities were particularly vulnerable to disappearance because replacement parts and specialized service became increasingly difficult to obtain. The Patterson-Greenfield also lacked the large production numbers that helped preserve examples of more common automobiles. Even if the higher estimate of 150 vehicles is correct, the number was extremely small compared with the production of major manufacturers. The passage of more than a century makes the survival of an unidentified example increasingly uncertain. Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be completely dismissed.
In 1980, writer Bill Naughton and representatives of Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio, attempted to locate surviving vehicles manufactured by the Patterson Company. The park hoped to acquire an original automobile, truck, or bus for exhibition. The search included publicity in Highland County and surrounding areas, where surviving Patterson vehicles were considered most likely to be found. The effort did not produce a surviving automobile. It nevertheless demonstrated growing interest in preserving the company's transportation history.
A second search occurred in 1982. The D. P. N. Company of Washington, D.C., was preparing a short film concerning the Patterson Company's accomplishments for Black History Month. The filmmakers sought surviving vehicles and additional historical information. Their search was broader than the earlier local effort but likewise failed to locate an original Patterson automobile. These unsuccessful searches illustrate how difficult it had become to identify surviving examples even several decades ago.
Although no original automobile has been found, several photographs provide valuable evidence of the Patterson-Greenfield's appearance. One image shows the roadster model with Frederick Patterson's young son Postell standing on its running board. Another depicts the touring car. Additional photographs show Patterson automobiles outside the company's Greenfield facilities. These images are particularly valuable because they provide contemporary visual evidence of the vehicles.
They also allow comparisons with descriptions appearing in advertisements and newspaper articles. Such comparisons can help identify differences between models and establish which features were actually used.
One frequently reproduced photograph shows Frederick Patterson seated in an early automobile. Some accounts have identified the vehicle as the first Patterson-Greenfield or an experimental automobile manufactured by the company. However, research into the vehicle's appearance indicates that it was most likely a Maxwell automobile manufactured around 1910 or 1911. This distinction matters. The photograph demonstrates Frederick's involvement with automobiles before the introduction of the Patterson-Greenfield, but it should not be presented as proof that the company manufactured its own automobile several years before 1915.
Identifying historical automobiles requires careful attention to body style, mechanical features, manufacturing dates, and contemporary documentation. An incorrect caption can easily become an accepted historical claim when repeated in later publications.
The surviving advertisements and newspaper reports provide important information about the Patterson-Greenfield's construction. They identify the available body styles, advertised prices, mechanical features, and intended market. The company's advertisements also describe its emphasis upon quality materials and passenger comfort. Contemporary photographs support many of these descriptions. Together, these sources allow researchers to reconstruct the general appearance and specifications of the vehicle.
However, they do not provide a complete manufacturing record. Questions remain concerning production changes, the precise number of vehicles built, and the identities of many purchasers. Additional discoveries in family collections, historical archives, or old business records could help resolve some of these questions. What Would Establish an Authentic Survivor? If a vehicle believed to be a Patterson-Greenfield were discovered, its identification would require careful investigation.
Its appearance alone would not be sufficient. Many early automobiles shared similar body styles and purchased mechanical components. Researchers would need to examine the vehicle's construction, surviving identifying marks, components, and any associated ownership documentation. Period photographs, sales records, correspondence, or other contemporary evidence could provide important confirmation. Because the Patterson Company used components supplied by other manufacturers, identifying an original vehicle would require more than locating an automobile with a G. B. & S. motor or a body resembling those shown in Patterson advertisements. The strongest evidence would connect a specific surviving vehicle directly to the Greenfield manufacturer.
Even without a surviving automobile, the Patterson-Greenfield's history is firmly established through contemporary records. The surviving advertisements, photographs, and newspaper accounts demonstrate that the company manufactured and marketed its own automobiles. The absence of an original vehicle should not diminish the importance of that achievement. Instead, it makes the preservation of surviving documentary materials even more important. Family photographs, correspondence, advertisements, and manufacturing records may contain information that has not yet been recognized or fully examined.
The Patterson-Greenfield remains an important subject for historical research precisely because some questions remain unanswered. Its story is not dependent upon the survival of a single automobile. It is preserved through the historical evidence documenting the people, company, and manufacturing achievement behind the vehicle.
• Greenfield Republican, Patterson-Greenfield advertisements, 1915–1917.
• Dayton Daily News, 1976 interview with Postell Patterson.
• Bill Naughton, reporting concerning the Patterson Company and the search for surviving vehicles, 1980.
• D. P. N. Company research and publicity concerning the proposed Patterson documentary, 1982.
• Patterson family photographs and historical collections maintained by the Historical Society of Greenfield.
• Contemporary Maxwell automobile catalogs and photographs, circa 1910–1911.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter III.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a pioneering automobile manufacturer found renewed success building bodies for buses and commercial vehicles
When Frederick Douglass Patterson discontinued production of the Patterson-Greenfield automobile around 1917, the family business faced an uncertain future. The automobile industry was becoming dominated by large manufacturers, while the market for horse-drawn carriages was steadily declining. The company needed another product that could make use of its established manufacturing skills without requiring the enormous investment necessary to compete with Ford and other automobile producers. Frederick found that opportunity in commercial vehicle bodies, particularly those designed for transporting schoolchildren. The decision led to one of the most successful periods in the company's history.
The Patterson Company had spent decades manufacturing horse-drawn vehicles, including specialized school wagons. It had also developed considerable experience repairing automobiles and constructing custom automobile bodies. These skills provided a foundation for manufacturing motorized buses. During the early years of commercial motor transportation, many manufacturers concentrated on producing truck chassis and mechanical components. Separate companies constructed the passenger or cargo bodies that were installed upon those chassis. This division of manufacturing responsibilities offered an opportunity for smaller businesses.
The Pattersons did not need to manufacture engines or transmissions to participate in the growing bus industry. They could concentrate upon the type of work they already knew: designing and constructing vehicle bodies.
The precise date when the Patterson Company built its first motorized bus has not been established. The surviving evidence suggests that bus-body manufacturing may have begun around 1917 or 1918, overlapping with the end of Patterson-Greenfield automobile production. By 1921, however, the company's bus-building activities were sufficiently established to receive substantial newspaper attention. A June 23, 1921, article in the Greenfield Republican praised the company's efforts to develop comfortable and practical school buses. The article also reported shipments to Michigan, Iowa, and Mississippi, demonstrating that the company was already serving customers far beyond southern Ohio. Repeat orders suggested that the business was developing a favorable reputation.
The new enterprise was formally incorporated in 1921 under the name Greenfield Bus Body Company. Ohio Secretary of State records identify a corporation with capital stock of $50,000. Its organizers included Frederick Douglass Patterson, his sister Dollie Patterson Rudd, brother-in-law John R. Rudd, longtime employee John Simms, Alvah E. Bell, and Robert Nichells. The incorporation represented a significant organizational development. It also demonstrated that the new venture involved family members and business associates who had supported the enterprise during earlier periods.
The company's reorganization had apparently been under consideration during the preceding year. In November 1920, Frederick wrote to W.E.B. Du Bois explaining that a possible reorganization was occupying his attention and had delayed his response to a request for information concerning the business. The timing suggests that the correspondence referred to the changes leading to the creation of the Greenfield Bus Body Company, although the surviving letter does not conclusively establish that connection.
Much of the commercial body work took place in the company's building at the southeast corner of North Washington and Lafayette Streets. A 1928 newspaper account described the building as containing approximately 12,000 square feet of floor space. Kathleen Wilson Patterson later recalled the arrangement of the manufacturing departments. Bus bodies were constructed on the first floor, which also contained areas for glass cutting and blacksmithing. The second floor housed offices and facilities for constructing bus seats.
The third floor provided storage space. This arrangement reflected the specialized operations required to manufacture passenger bodies. Woodworking, metal fabrication, glazing, seating, and finishing all contributed to the completed product.
The company did not immediately abandon its earlier businesses. During the transition, it continued producing horse-drawn vehicles when customers requested them. Automobile repair and battery service also remained part of its operations. These activities helped provide revenue while the bus business developed. The approach was consistent with the company's long-established willingness to serve multiple markets rather than depend entirely upon a single product.
The Greenfield Bus Body Company offered customers considerable flexibility. A school district or commercial operator could supply its own truck chassis and have a Patterson body installed upon it. Alternatively, the company could provide both the chassis and completed body. The Pattersons worked with chassis produced by several manufacturers, including Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Reo, International, Commerce, Gramm-Bernstein, Biederman, and Graham. Some older truck chassis were modified or lengthened to accommodate passenger bodies. This flexibility allowed the company to serve customers with different budgets, transportation requirements, and existing equipment.
The company's decision to concentrate on commercial vehicle bodies proved important. During the 1920s, the Greenfield Bus Body Company developed a substantial market for school buses, transit buses, and specialized truck bodies. Its products were sold across several states, and its manufacturing operations provided employment for a growing workforce. The company's success demonstrated that the end of Patterson-Greenfield automobile production had not ended the family's role in American vehicle manufacturing. Instead, Frederick had identified another opportunity that made effective use of the company's existing knowledge and equipment. The Greenfield Bus Body Company became a significant chapter in the history of the Patterson enterprise and helped establish its reputation as a pioneering manufacturer of commercial transportation equipment.
• Ohio Secretary of State, Greenfield Bus Body Company incorporation records, 1921.
• Frederick D. Patterson correspondence with W.E.B. Du Bois, November 1920.
• Greenfield Republican, June 23, 1921, and January 12, 1928.
• Commercial Car Journal, April 1922.
• Kathleen Wilson Patterson, It's Been a Wonderful Life: One Day at a Time (2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The design, construction, and growing importance of motorized school buses during the 1920s
During the early twentieth century, American public education underwent a major transformation. Thousands of small rural schools were consolidated into larger districts, creating new opportunities for students but also presenting an important practical problem. Children who had once attended nearby schools now needed transportation over greater distances. The motorized school bus emerged as an increasingly important solution. The Greenfield Bus Body Company became an early participant in this developing industry, applying decades of vehicle-manufacturing experience to the transportation needs of school districts.
School consolidation was intended to provide rural students with educational opportunities comparable to those available in larger communities. Larger schools could offer additional teachers, improved facilities, and more extensive instruction. However, consolidation increased the distance many children traveled to school. Ohio legislation during the early twentieth century established transportation responsibilities for school districts. Under Section 7731 of the Ohio General Code, pupils living more than two miles from school were entitled to transportation provided at public expense.
The requirement created a growing market for school transportation equipment. Horse-drawn school wagons remained common during the early years, but motorized vehicles offered important advantages. They could travel greater distances more quickly, transport larger groups of pupils, and operate without the limitations associated with maintaining teams of horses.
The number of motorized school buses increased substantially during the 1920s. By 1926, approximately 26,685 school buses were operating in the United States. Five years later, in 1931, the number had grown to approximately 48,775. This expansion created opportunities for manufacturers capable of producing practical, reliable, and affordable bus bodies. The Patterson Company entered the market with a particular advantage.
It had already manufactured horse-drawn school wagons and understood many of the requirements of school districts. The transition to motorized transportation involved adapting those established designs to truck chassis rather than developing an entirely unfamiliar product.
Early motorized school buses varied considerably in design. Some were little more than passenger compartments constructed upon ordinary truck chassis. Others incorporated features intended to improve comfort, convenience, and safety. The Pattersons sought to provide vehicles suited to the particular needs of schools. The company offered different body sizes and configurations, allowing school districts to select vehicles appropriate for their routes and pupil populations.
Early bus bodies were constructed primarily with wooden framing, reflecting the manufacturing methods the company had used for decades. Windows, doors, seating, and other components were arranged according to customer requirements. Because uniform school-bus construction standards had not yet been widely established, manufacturers often built vehicles to individual specifications.
The Patterson Company could install a bus body upon a chassis supplied by the customer or furnish a completed vehicle. This arrangement allowed school districts to reuse existing equipment when practical. In some cases, the company modified or lengthened truck chassis to accommodate larger bodies. The flexibility was particularly useful to districts attempting to provide transportation at the lowest reasonable cost. The company worked with several major chassis manufacturers rather than limiting its products to a single brand.
One especially interesting manufacturing method involved shipping bus bodies in sections for assembly elsewhere. A 1923 article in Motor Coach Transportation described the company's use of knock-down construction. The method allowed completed body components to be crated and shipped without first being installed upon a chassis. According to the article, the company claimed that this approach could reduce freight charges by approximately one-third. The bodies were designed to be assembled after delivery.
This method expanded the company's ability to serve distant customers and reduced the transportation costs associated with shipping large completed vehicles. It also demonstrated an understanding of the commercial advantages of adapting manufacturing methods to the needs of customers.
The company manufactured buses for its home community. Patterson-built vehicles formed an important part of the Greenfield school transportation fleet. Kathleen Wilson Patterson later recalled that E. L. McClain wanted the district's buses painted green, with gold lettering. The local fleet was expanding by 1921, when the Greenfield Republican reported that additional buses were needed because existing vehicles had become overcrowded. By January 1922, the school district's buses were being housed in a building rented from the Patterson family. These arrangements illustrate the close relationship between the company and local school transportation.
During the 1920s, many school districts relied upon locally constructed or homemade bus bodies. These vehicles were often less expensive than professionally manufactured alternatives. However, contemporary transportation studies raised concerns about the comfort, convenience, and safety of some homemade designs. Factory-built bodies generally offered more consistent construction and specialized features. The Greenfield Bus Body Company operated within this professional manufacturing market. Its experience and established facilities allowed it to offer a variety of body designs while competing with both small local builders and larger manufacturers.
The Patterson Company's role in school transportation extended across the transition from horse-drawn wagons to motorized buses. Its experience in both forms of transportation gave it an unusually long association with the practical problems of moving children safely and efficiently. The company developed flexible manufacturing arrangements, served school districts in multiple states, and became a recognized participant in the growing bus-body industry. Its accomplishments deserve recognition as part of the broader history of American public education and transportation. The school bus was not simply another vehicle manufactured by the Pattersons. It was equipment that helped make the consolidation of rural schools possible and connected students with educational opportunities that might otherwise have remained difficult to reach.
• Ohio General Code, Section 7731, concerning school transportation.
• Albert McGee Callon, A Score Card and Typical Standards for School Bus Bodies (1930).
• Joseph Calvin Copeland, Costs and the Measurements Applied in School Transportation (1931).
• Clayton M. Barden, School Bus Standards (1932).
• Motor Coach Transportation, 1923, discussion of Patterson knock-down body construction.
• Greenfield Republican, school transportation reports, 1921–1923.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
The wide range of specialized vehicles manufactured by the Greenfield Bus Body Company
Although school buses became the best-known products of the Greenfield Bus Body Company, the Patterson enterprise manufactured a much wider variety of commercial vehicle bodies. During the 1920s, the company supplied transit coaches, delivery trucks, moving vans, and other specialized vehicles to customers across several states. These products reflected the manufacturing flexibility that had characterized the Patterson business since its carriage-making years. The company did not manufacture a single standardized vehicle for every customer. Instead, it adapted its designs to the particular requirements of transportation companies, commercial businesses, and public institutions.
The rapid growth of motorized transportation created new opportunities for companies operating passenger services between cities and within urban areas. During the early twentieth century, many transit operators purchased truck chassis and had passenger bodies constructed by specialized manufacturers. The Patterson Company participated in this developing market. Surviving photographs and contemporary newspaper reports document the construction of transit-style buses for several Ohio communities. Among the company's customers was the Cincinnati Motor Bus Company, established around 1918 or 1919.
A surviving photograph shows early Patterson-built buses bearing the company's name. Family recollections later suggested that Patterson vehicles were the first buses to carry passengers through Cincinnati. The available documentation does not conclusively establish that distinction, but it demonstrates that the Pattersons supplied vehicles to an early Cincinnati transit operator.
Contemporary newspaper accounts document several important transit bus orders. In 1921, the company shipped two large passenger buses to Cleveland. The same reporting described three buses sent to Dayton and two delivered to Toledo. These sales demonstrate that the Greenfield manufacturer was serving transportation operators beyond its immediate region. In December 1921, Homer and Will Ray of Sabina, Ohio, began a local passenger service using Patterson-built buses.
Their operation was initially associated with the Red Star Bus Line and later became part of the White Star Bus Line. Smaller transportation businesses such as these provided an important market for specialized bus manufacturers.
One example of the company's custom work appeared in October 1922. A Cincinnati customer identified as Mr. Dreese ordered a passenger bus mounted upon a Biederman chassis. The Patterson Company obtained materials for the body from the American Wagon Works. The completed vehicle attracted favorable attention in the Greenfield Republican, which praised its appearance and practical construction. This example illustrates the company's approach to manufacturing. Rather than producing only one standard model, the Pattersons could combine a customer's preferred chassis with a specially constructed body.
The company's manufacturing activities also included vehicles designed to carry merchandise and equipment. In 1921, newspaper reports described two trucks shipped to Greenfield, Indiana, and a substantial order of truck bodies sent to Hennessey, Oklahoma. By 1927, the company was producing increasingly specialized commercial vehicles. One notable example was a moving van built for Bert Rich of Covington, Kentucky. The vehicle used a Biederman Six chassis producing approximately 110 horsepower.
Its completed length was twenty-five feet, with eighteen feet of cargo space. The cargo compartment was approximately seven feet wide and seven feet high, with padded interior walls to protect furniture and other goods. The design demonstrates the company's ability to construct large commercial bodies for demanding applications.
Another 1927 project involved a delivery truck for Morris & Company, a meatpacking business in Columbus, Ohio. The vehicle was constructed upon an International chassis and designed to withstand heavy commercial use. The Greenfield Furniture Company also purchased a specially designed truck body. Its construction accommodated furniture deliveries and provided storage for protective padding and packing materials. The company's manager was sufficiently pleased with the vehicle to order three additional trucks for other stores. These projects demonstrate that Patterson commercial bodies were used in a variety of industries.
One of the company's more significant business relationships involved International Harvester. A 1929 account in The Journal of Negro History identified a contract under which the Patterson Company constructed special-purpose truck bodies for International Harvester chassis. The completed vehicles carried the International Harvester nameplate. A surviving photograph shows a group of fifteen International trucks fitted with Patterson bodies. The arrangement was an important example of contract manufacturing.
The Greenfield company supplied specialized body-building expertise to a larger manufacturer that marketed the completed vehicles under its own name. The surviving evidence establishes that the relationship existed in 1929, although its beginning and ending dates remain uncertain.
The Pattersons also pursued government contracts. In 1926, The Automotive Manufacturer reported bids for thirty-five parcel-delivery bodies for the United States Postal Service. The Patterson Company submitted a bid of $400 per body. Other manufacturers submitted lower bids, and the available evidence does not establish that Patterson received the contract. Nevertheless, its participation demonstrates that the company sought business within a national market extending beyond its established customers.
The range of Patterson products illustrates the company's position within the commercial vehicle industry. Its work included school buses, urban and intercity passenger coaches, moving vans, delivery vehicles, and special-purpose truck bodies. These products required different arrangements of seating, cargo space, windows, doors, structural supports, and finishing materials. The company's ability to adapt its manufacturing methods to different purposes was one of its principal strengths. Although the Patterson-Greenfield automobile remains the family's most famous product, the commercial vehicle bodies manufactured during the 1920s were an equally important part of the enterprise's history. They demonstrate that the company developed beyond the production of private passenger vehicles and became a supplier of transportation equipment serving businesses, schools, and communities across a broad geographic area.
• Greenfield Republican, commercial vehicle reports, 1921–1927.
• The Automotive Manufacturer, 1926, United States Postal Service body bids.
• J. H. Harmon, article concerning the Greenfield Bus Body Company, The Journal of Negro History (1929).
• Dayton Daily News, 1976 interview with Postell Patterson.
• Historical Society of Greenfield, photographs of Patterson transit and commercial vehicles.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter IV.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a small-town Black-owned manufacturer became a major supplier of Ohio school buses
By the late 1920s, the Greenfield Bus Body Company had developed into a successful commercial vehicle manufacturer. Its products were sold across multiple states, its workforce had expanded, and its school buses were used by a substantial number of Ohio school districts. This period represents one of the company's most important commercial achievements. The available historical evidence also allows the scale of its success to be examined more precisely than is possible for many earlier periods. Contemporary newspaper reports, manufacturing accounts, and school transportation studies provide valuable information concerning production, employment, and market share.
The company's early bus orders demonstrate how rapidly its business developed. In 1921, the Greenfield Republican reported that the Gramm-Bernstein Motor Car Company of Lima, Ohio, had ordered twenty-two bus bodies. The same report stated that the Patterson Company was already working through an order for 210 bodies from another customer. According to the newspaper, the factory was completing approximately one body per day. These reports indicate a substantial workload for a manufacturer operating from a relatively small facility. They also demonstrate that the company was capable of handling orders extending well beyond individual custom vehicles.
A 1929 article by J. H. Harmon in The Journal of Negro History reported that the Greenfield Bus Body Company produced approximately 500 bodies annually. The article also described annual income exceeding $150,000. These figures are important indicators of the company's commercial standing. The reported $150,000 represented annual business income or receipts, not necessarily net profit. Likewise, the figure of 500 bodies should be understood as a contemporary reported production rate rather than a verified count derived from surviving factory ledgers. Nevertheless, the account demonstrates that the Patterson enterprise had developed a manufacturing operation substantially larger than the limited automobile business of 1915–1917.
The company's workforce also expanded during the decade. A 1928 newspaper report identified approximately thirty-five employees and described plans to increase production and employment. By 1929, another Greenfield Republican account reported that employment had reached as many as seventy men, with a weekly payroll of approximately $1,900. Harmon's article provided a somewhat different payroll figure, identifying a maximum monthly payroll of approximately $5,000. The differences may reflect changing employment levels or different periods of measurement.
They should not be treated as identical figures. Both accounts, however, demonstrate that the company was providing substantial employment in Greenfield.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of the company's success comes from a study of Ohio school transportation conducted during the 1929–1930 school year. M. D. Hartsook's master's thesis, A Survey of Bus Transportation to and from Ohio Schools, 1929–1930, examined the manufacturers of chassis and bodies used by Ohio school districts. The study distinguished between county and city school systems. The results were remarkable. The study found Patterson bodies on 35.8 percent of buses in the city school systems examined and 15.5 percent in county school systems. These are separate categories and should not be combined into a statewide market-share figure.
Several factors contributed to the company's success. The Pattersons possessed extensive experience manufacturing vehicle bodies and understood the requirements of school transportation. Their products could be installed upon a variety of truck chassis, allowing customers to select equipment suited to their budgets and needs. The company also offered custom designs and could ship bodies to distant customers. Its established relationships with school districts provided another advantage.
During the early years of motorized school transportation, larger manufacturers had not yet established the level of dominance they would achieve during the 1930s. This allowed smaller manufacturers with specialized expertise to compete successfully.
The Patterson Company did not operate without significant competition. By 1929, Ohio had numerous businesses involved in manufacturing buses, bus bodies, and related components. Larger companies included Bender, Anderson, Superior, Lang, and Fremont. The Wayne Body Corporation of Indiana also became an important competitor. Wayne's history shared several similarities with the Patterson enterprise.
It began in the carriage industry, manufactured horse-drawn school wagons, and later entered motorized vehicle production. However, Wayne possessed greater access to the capital necessary for expansion and technological change. The growing importance of larger manufacturers would eventually create serious challenges for the Greenfield company.
In 1928, Frederick Patterson attempted to address the company's growing demand for manufacturing space. He purchased the former South Side School building in Greenfield, together with adjoining property. Contemporary reporting described plans to convert the building into an expanded bus-manufacturing facility. The newspaper stated that the company had received offers to relocate to a larger city, but Frederick preferred to remain in Greenfield. The surviving research does not establish whether the former school building was actually converted into an operating factory. The purchase nevertheless demonstrates Frederick's intention to expand production.
The company's success during the 1920s deserves recognition independent of its earlier automobile-manufacturing achievement. The Greenfield Bus Body Company was not merely a small workshop producing occasional vehicles. Contemporary evidence describes substantial orders, a growing workforce, annual production reportedly reaching hundreds of bodies, and a significant presence in Ohio school transportation. Its products were sold across state lines, and its reputation extended into commercial vehicle markets beyond school buses. For a Black-owned manufacturer operating during an era of widespread discrimination, these accomplishments were especially significant.
The company's later financial difficulties should not obscure the success it achieved during this period. The 1920s represented a genuine high point in the Patterson family's manufacturing history.
• J. H. Harmon, The Journal of Negro History (1929).
• M. D. Hartsook, A Survey of Bus Transportation to and from Ohio Schools, 1929–1930 (master's thesis, 1930).
• Greenfield Republican, 1921, 1928, and 1929 manufacturing and employment reports.
• Craig Robert Semsel, Built to Move Millions: Transit Vehicle Manufacture in Ohio, 1880–1938 (PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter IV, particularly pp. 229–236.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How a Black-owned American manufacturer secured a contract to build buses for the Republic of Haiti
In January 1935, representatives of the Republic of Haiti visited a manufacturing plant in Greenfield, Ohio. Their purpose was to examine buses produced by the Patterson Company and discuss the possibility of purchasing vehicles for a new public transportation system. The visit was remarkable. A small Black-owned manufacturing enterprise in southern Ohio had attracted the attention of representatives from a Caribbean nation seeking to develop motorized public transportation. The resulting contract became one of the most distinctive accomplishments of the company's later years.
By the 1930s, the Patterson Company had accumulated considerable experience manufacturing school buses, transit coaches, and specialized commercial vehicle bodies. Its products were already known across several American states. The Haitian inquiry represented an opportunity to extend that market beyond the United States. The Greenfield Republican reported the visit on January 17, 1935. According to the newspaper, Haiti was considering the introduction of a public bus system in Port-au-Prince, with the possibility of expanding service to other cities. Representatives traveled to Greenfield to examine the company's manufacturing capabilities and discuss the construction of vehicles suited to Haitian conditions.
The proposed buses required special consideration. Unlike vehicles designed primarily for Ohio's climate, the Haitian buses would operate in a tropical environment. Contemporary reporting indicated that the bodies would incorporate construction intended to reduce the effects of intense heat. The requirement was consistent with the Patterson Company's long-established approach to custom manufacturing. Rather than producing identical vehicles for every customer, it adjusted body construction and equipment according to particular needs. The Haitian project therefore drew upon the same manufacturing flexibility that had supported the company's earlier commercial success.
In April 1935, the Greenfield Republican reported that the Haitian order had been confirmed. The agreement called for six buses. Three were to be constructed as soon as possible, with another three scheduled for completion during the summer. The vehicles were to use extended Ford V-8 chassis. The order represented an important commercial opportunity during a period when the company was struggling financially.
It also demonstrated that the Pattersons could attract customers beyond the American domestic market. The newspaper accounts establish the order and its proposed construction schedule. Without complete shipping and acceptance records, however, the precise delivery history of all six vehicles should not be assumed.
The historical context makes the Haitian contract especially interesting. Haiti became independent in 1804 following a revolution against French colonial rule and slavery. It emerged as the first independent Black republic of the modern era. After a period of United States military occupation beginning in 1915, Haiti regained greater control of its affairs following the withdrawal of American forces in 1934. The Patterson contract developed shortly afterward.
It is possible that the company's identity as a Black-owned American manufacturer influenced the Haitian representatives' interest. However, the surviving records do not establish why the Haitian government selected the company or whether racial identity played a direct role in the decision. The documented facts are significant without requiring that interpretation. Representatives of Haiti visited the Greenfield factory, evaluated its products, and entered into an agreement for specially constructed passenger buses.
The Haitian contract occurred at a challenging time for the Patterson enterprise. The Great Depression had weakened demand and limited the company's access to capital. Manufacturing increasingly required investments that smaller businesses struggled to afford. Nevertheless, the company continued seeking new customers and specialized projects. The Haitian order demonstrates that its manufacturing reputation had not disappeared. Even during its financially difficult final decade, the company was capable of attracting international attention.
The Patterson Company's international business adds another dimension to its history. The enterprise had developed from a nineteenth-century carriage manufacturer into a producer of automobiles, commercial trucks, school buses, and passenger coaches. By 1935, it had secured a contract involving transportation equipment for a foreign government. The Haitian project deserves recognition because it demonstrates both the company's manufacturing capabilities and the geographic reach of its business relationships. It also illustrates the importance of examining the Patterson story beyond the familiar history of the Patterson-Greenfield automobile. The company's later achievements were substantial, even as the economic conditions confronting it became increasingly difficult.
• Greenfield Republican, January 17, 1935, reporting the visit by Haitian representatives.
• Greenfield Republican, April 1935, reporting the contract for six buses.
• Contemporary records concerning the Patterson Company's commercial vehicle manufacturing.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter IV, particularly pp. 244–246.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How changing technology, economic hardship, and increasing competition brought a pioneering manufacturing enterprise to a close
For much of its history, the Patterson Company survived by adapting to changes in transportation. It moved from horse-drawn carriages into automobile repair, automobile manufacturing, commercial vehicle bodies, and motorized school buses. Each transition required new skills, different equipment, and a willingness to enter unfamiliar markets. During the 1930s, however, the company encountered a combination of economic and technological pressures that proved increasingly difficult to overcome. The Great Depression weakened its financial position, while changing school-bus construction standards required expensive new manufacturing methods. By 1939, after approximately seventy-four years of business activity under the company's traditional historical chronology, the Patterson enterprise had closed.
The Greenfield Bus Body Company entered the 1930s following a period of considerable success. Its products had become widely used, and the company had provided employment for a substantial number of Greenfield residents. A 1930 newspaper account praised the enterprise as an important community employer and described a period when its factory had operated around the clock. Yet the national economic situation was deteriorating. The stock market crash of 1929 was followed by widespread business failures, unemployment, and declining access to credit.
The Patterson Company initially continued receiving some school-bus orders because districts remained responsible for transporting students. However, maintaining production became increasingly difficult as financial pressures intensified.
Manufacturing commercial vehicles required money before customers paid for completed products. Materials had to be purchased, employees paid, and construction completed before the finished buses could be delivered and inspected. The company frequently relied upon borrowing to finance this process. When an order was received, its documentation could be used to obtain a bank loan covering production costs. Payment from the customer would then be used to repay the loan and meet other expenses.
This arrangement could support operations when orders were steady and financing was available. It became far more difficult when credit tightened or production costs increased. The company's financial problems were compounded by extensive borrowing secured against family and business property. By the mid-1930s, its ability to obtain additional capital had become seriously restricted.
Frederick Douglass Patterson died in January 1932. His death removed the leader who had guided the company's major transitions for more than two decades. Responsibility passed to his sons, Frederick Postell Patterson and Postell Patterson. Both had attended Ohio State University. Frederick Postell had studied mechanical engineering and had already become involved in designing vehicles for the company during the late 1920s.
The third generation therefore possessed relevant experience, but it inherited a business facing increasingly difficult conditions. Their challenge was not simply to maintain existing production. They also had to respond to changes in school-bus construction that threatened the usefulness of the company's established equipment and methods.
During the early decades of motorized school transportation, bus construction standards were relatively limited. Many school districts purchased locally manufactured or homemade bodies installed upon ordinary truck chassis. Wooden framing was widely used. The Patterson Company had developed considerable expertise in this type of construction. Its woodworking equipment and experienced craftsmen were well suited to producing specialized wooden vehicle bodies.
However, concerns about school-bus safety were increasing. Transportation studies examined the strength, convenience, and safety of existing vehicles. By the latter part of 1935, Ohio and neighboring states were adopting more demanding school-bus construction requirements. According to the historical research, the new standards included a transition to all-steel body construction. For the Patterson Company, this represented a major technological challenge.
The transition to steel required equipment and skills different from those used in traditional carriage and bus-body manufacturing. Steel body construction involved cutting, shaping, welding, and assembling metal components. Larger manufacturers possessed equipment that allowed these processes to be performed efficiently and repeatedly. The Patterson Company did not have comparable resources. Postell Patterson traveled to the Hobart Manufacturing Company in Troy, Ohio, to receive welding instruction.
He purchased welding equipment and began teaching company employees the new techniques. A contemporary Greenfield Republican article reported that the firm was installing electric welding equipment and preparing to manufacture and repair metal bus bodies. These efforts demonstrate that the family did not simply refuse to adopt new technology. It attempted to make the transition. The difficulty was the cost. The company needed new equipment, additional training, and production methods suitable for steel construction at a time when its finances were already severely strained.
The new standards also increased the advantages enjoyed by larger bus-body manufacturers. Companies such as Wayne and Superior possessed greater manufacturing capacity and better access to capital. Some had already begun producing steel bodies before the standards became more demanding. They were therefore better positioned to adapt. Smaller manufacturers, including the Patterson Company, faced the expense of acquiring machinery and changing production methods without the assurance of enough orders to recover those investments.
The Pattersons had competed successfully for decades by relying upon skilled craftsmanship and custom construction. The new manufacturing environment increasingly favored companies capable of producing standardized steel bodies in larger quantities. The business model that had supported the Patterson enterprise was becoming less competitive.
The company's financial difficulties reached a critical point in 1935. Although an August newspaper report described improvement in business, foreclosure proceedings followed later that year. The Fidelity Building and Loan Company moved against Patterson property, and a sheriff's sale was ordered. Bettie Estelline Patterson, who had assumed substantial responsibility for the company's finances, attempted to arrange for operations to continue. The business reopened on December 1, 1935, under the name Patterson Body Company.
Kathleen Wilson Patterson, wife of Postell Patterson, was identified as its new manager. These efforts demonstrated the family's determination to preserve the enterprise despite its financial difficulties. However, the underlying problems remained.
The company still depended upon obtaining sufficient financing to complete orders. Unexpected production problems could consume the small margin remaining after expenses. In 1936, an employee strike disrupted the construction of several school buses scheduled for delivery before the beginning of the school year. The remaining workers, including family members and blacksmith Arlis Bailey, attempted to complete the order. Delivery was delayed, and the company incurred additional expenses associated with providing substitute transportation. Such setbacks were especially damaging to a business operating with limited financial reserves.
The family continued experimenting with specialized vehicles. Frederick Postell Patterson designed a large hearse intended to transport a casket and numerous mourners in one vehicle. The unusual design did not enter regular production. The company also developed two-wheeled travel trailers equipped with amenities such as sleeping accommodations, cooking facilities, and plumbing. These projects demonstrated continued inventive ability.
However, they also required resources that were difficult to justify while the company's established business was struggling. The family was searching for another specialized market in which its manufacturing experience might provide an advantage.
In 1938, the company relocated its remaining operations to Gallipolis, Ohio. The move represented another attempt to restore the business through a different location and new opportunities. The enterprise operated under the Gallia Body Company name during its final period. Despite these efforts, the financial and competitive difficulties continued. The business could not secure enough profitable work to sustain operations.
In 1939, the Patterson family's manufacturing enterprise closed permanently. Kathleen Wilson Patterson later recalled the disappointment of abandoning the family's hopes for the business. Her account provides a personal perspective on the end of a company that had occupied an important place in the lives of several generations.
The Patterson Company's closure cannot be attributed to a single event. The Great Depression weakened business conditions and restricted credit. Earlier borrowing created additional financial obligations. The death of Frederick Patterson removed an experienced leader. New school-bus construction standards required expensive equipment and training.
Larger manufacturers possessed advantages in capital, production methods, and the ability to manufacture standardized steel bodies. Labor difficulties and other operational setbacks further strained the company's resources. Together, these factors made continued operation increasingly difficult. The surviving evidence does not support reducing the company's history to a simple account of failure. For decades, the Pattersons had adapted successfully to changing markets.
They developed specialized products, employed skilled workers, served customers across several states, and made important contributions to American transportation. The company ultimately encountered changes that required more capital than it could obtain.
The closing of the Patterson Company in 1939 ended a remarkable chapter of American industrial history. Its products had included horse-drawn carriages, automobiles, school wagons, motorized school buses, transit coaches, commercial trucks, and specialized vehicle bodies. The company had survived numerous technological transitions and remained active through three generations of family leadership. Its final years demonstrate the difficulties faced by smaller manufacturers during a period of increasing industrial consolidation. They also reveal the determination of the Patterson family to preserve its business even when the economic conditions were unfavorable.
The company's history deserves recognition not simply because it was Black-owned, but because its achievements were substantial. Its closure marked the end of the enterprise, not the end of its historical significance.
• Greenfield Republican, manufacturing reports and financial notices, 1930–1938.
• Ohio school-bus construction standards and contemporary transportation studies, particularly 1930–1935.
• Albert McGee Callon, A Score Card and Typical Standards for School Bus Bodies (1930).
• Clayton M. Barden, School Bus Standards (1932).
• Kathleen Wilson Patterson, It's Been a Wonderful Life: One Day at a Time (2001).
• Bill Naughton, reporting concerning the Patterson Company, 1980.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters IV–V.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
Why the history of C.R. Patterson and Sons should be measured by more than its final years
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company closed its doors in 1939, ending a manufacturing enterprise whose traditional history extended back to 1865. For some businesses, closure becomes the defining event in their history. Earlier accomplishments are overshadowed by the circumstances that brought operations to an end. The Patterson Company deserves a different assessment. Over approximately seventy-four years, three generations of the family participated in an enterprise that manufactured horse-drawn vehicles, automobiles, school buses, transit coaches, commercial truck bodies, and other specialized products. Some ventures were profitable. Others were short-lived. Several required substantial changes in equipment, workforce skills, and business strategy.
Taken as a whole, the company's history is better understood as an extended record of adaptation than as a story of eventual failure. What Constitutes Business Success? Business success can be measured in several ways. Profitability is an obvious consideration, but it is not the only one. The length of time a company remains in operation, its ability to attract customers, the employment it provides, its influence upon an industry, and its capacity to adjust to technological change are also meaningful measures.
By these standards, the Patterson Company achieved considerable success. It survived through major changes in American transportation, including the decline of horse-drawn vehicles, the rise of the automobile, and the expansion of motorized commercial transportation. The company's products reached customers beyond Ohio, and its manufacturing activities supported a substantial workforce during several periods. Its ability to remain commercially active for decades is itself an important accomplishment.
Charles Richard Patterson developed a respected carriage-manufacturing enterprise during the nineteenth century. The company became known for producing carefully constructed vehicles and maintaining a reputation for quality. Its products were sold beyond the immediate Greenfield area, and the business expanded as demand increased. The later decline of carriage manufacturing should not be interpreted as evidence that the Patterson carriage business had been unsuccessful. The industry itself was changing.
As automobiles became increasingly practical and affordable, demand for new horse-drawn vehicles declined across the country. The Pattersons faced the same fundamental challenge confronting numerous established carriage manufacturers. Their traditional market was disappearing.
The Patterson-Greenfield automobile is the product for which the family is best remembered. Introduced in 1915, it represented an important achievement in American automotive history. However, automobile production occupied only a small portion of the company's total history. The venture was difficult to sustain because the industry was already becoming dominated by larger manufacturers capable of producing automobiles at substantially lower costs. The Patterson Company did not have the capital or production volume necessary to compete on equal terms.
The venture therefore failed to develop into a lasting automobile-manufacturing business. Yet it also provided valuable experience. Automobile repair, body construction, and the use of motorized chassis helped prepare the company for its subsequent work in commercial vehicle manufacturing. The automobile venture was commercially disappointing, but it was not without lasting value.
The company's move into school buses and commercial vehicle bodies proved considerably more successful. During the 1920s, the Greenfield Bus Body Company developed a substantial market. Contemporary reports described large orders, significant employment, and annual production reaching hundreds of bodies. A 1930 study of Ohio school transportation found Patterson bodies on 35.8 percent of buses in the city school systems surveyed and 15.5 percent in the county school systems surveyed. These figures demonstrate that the company's buses were widely used.
The Pattersons had identified a market in which their manufacturing experience provided a competitive advantage. For much of the decade, that decision was commercially successful.
The company's final decade presented a different situation. The Great Depression weakened demand and restricted access to credit. Financial obligations accumulated, and the company struggled to obtain the capital necessary for continued production. Changes in school-bus construction standards created another challenge. The transition toward all-steel bodies required equipment and manufacturing methods different from those used in the company's traditional woodworking operations.
Larger competitors were better positioned to make the necessary investments. The Pattersons attempted to adapt, but the combination of financial and technological pressures ultimately proved too great. The company closed in 1939.
It would be inaccurate to describe every Patterson business venture as successful. The automobile venture did not achieve sustained profitability, and the company experienced serious financial problems during its final decade. However, it would be equally inaccurate to characterize the entire enterprise as a failure. For most of its history, the company remained commercially active and adjusted its products to changing markets. It developed a reputation for craftsmanship, introduced new products, employed skilled workers, and participated in several important transportation industries. Its final closure does not erase those accomplishments.
The most useful way to evaluate the Patterson Company is to consider the circumstances confronting it during each period. Its carriage business succeeded while horse-drawn transportation remained important. Its automobile venture encountered an industry already dominated by larger manufacturers. Its commercial vehicle business achieved substantial success during the 1920s. Its final years were shaped by the Great Depression, financial difficulties, and changes in manufacturing technology.
The company experienced both success and failure, as most long-lived businesses do. Its significance lies in the remarkable range of activities it undertook and its ability to remain active through several major transformations in American transportation. The Patterson Company should be remembered not simply because it manufactured an automobile, but because it survived, competed, and innovated for more than seven decades.
• Contemporary Patterson carriage, automobile, and commercial vehicle advertisements, 1880s–1930s.
• Greenfield Republican, reporting on company operations and employment.
• J. H. Harmon, The Journal of Negro History (1929).
• M. D. Hartsook, A Survey of Bus Transportation to and from Ohio Schools, 1929–1930 (1930).
• Craig Robert Semsel, Built to Move Millions: Transit Vehicle Manufacture in Ohio, 1880–1938 (2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter V, particularly pp. 268–272.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
Understanding the challenges of Black industrial entrepreneurship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company occupied an unusual position in American business history. It was a Black-owned manufacturing enterprise that competed in industries dominated by white-owned businesses and remained active across several generations. Its accomplishments were especially notable because manufacturing presented difficulties that many other forms of business did not. Industrial enterprises required equipment, facilities, trained employees, raw materials, and sufficient capital to maintain production while awaiting payment from customers. For Black entrepreneurs operating during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, obtaining these resources could be particularly difficult. The Patterson Company's history offers an important example of both the opportunities and limitations facing Black industrial manufacturers.
Following the Civil War, Black Americans established businesses in a wide variety of fields. Many operated small retail stores, restaurants, barbershops, and service establishments. Manufacturing was a more difficult undertaking. Unlike many service businesses, manufacturing required substantial investment before a finished product could be sold. Entrepreneurs needed workshops, machinery, raw materials, and skilled workers.
They also needed access to customers beyond their immediate communities if production was to expand. These requirements made industrial manufacturing especially challenging for business owners with limited access to capital.
Historians of Black business have repeatedly observed that relatively few Black entrepreneurs established substantial manufacturing enterprises during this period. Carter G. Woodson examined the limited participation of Black Americans in manufacturing and other industrial occupations. Later researchers also identified manufacturing as an area in which Black-owned businesses were comparatively underrepresented. The reasons were complex. Discriminatory lending practices, restricted access to business networks, unequal educational opportunities, and limited accumulated wealth all affected the ability of Black entrepreneurs to enter capital-intensive industries.
The Patterson Company developed within this broader environment. Its success was not representative of the typical experience of Black business owners. That is precisely why its history deserves closer examination.
One important characteristic of the Patterson enterprise was its willingness to compete for customers regardless of race. The company did not restrict its products to a Black customer base. It manufactured vehicles for individuals, businesses, school districts, and commercial operators across several states. Frederick Patterson publicly encouraged Black-owned businesses to compete in the broader American marketplace by emphasizing the quality and value of their products. This approach was consistent with the company's own experience. Its ability to attract customers beyond a relatively small Black population was essential to operating a substantial manufacturing business.
The Patterson Company operated during a period when racial discrimination was widespread. Black Americans faced barriers in education, employment, housing, finance, and political participation. Greenfield possessed an important abolitionist history, but that did not mean its later social environment was free of racial prejudice. The company's success must be understood against this background. At the same time, historical analysis requires distinguishing between documented discrimination and assumptions about particular business events.
The available records do not establish that every financial difficulty experienced by the Pattersons resulted from racial discrimination. Nor does the company's ability to obtain credit and attract white customers demonstrate that discrimination was absent. Both realities can be acknowledged. The company achieved unusual commercial success within a society that imposed significant obstacles upon Black entrepreneurs.
The Patterson family's experience also demonstrates the importance of technical knowledge. Charles Richard Patterson developed expertise in carriage manufacturing before operating his own enterprise. That knowledge enabled him to supervise skilled workers and produce vehicles capable of competing in the wider marketplace. Frederick Patterson later expanded the business into automobile repair, automobile manufacturing, and commercial vehicle bodies. These transitions required additional skills and an understanding of changing technologies. The company's success depended not only upon ownership and management, but also upon the technical capabilities of its workforce.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American manufacturing changed dramatically. Larger companies increasingly used specialized machinery, standardized components, and high-volume production methods. These developments reduced manufacturing costs but also increased the amount of capital required to compete. Smaller manufacturers could remain successful in specialized markets, particularly where customers valued custom work. However, they became increasingly vulnerable when larger companies began producing comparable goods at lower prices.
This transformation affected manufacturers regardless of race. For Black-owned enterprises that already faced obstacles to obtaining capital, the changes could be especially difficult. What Made the Patterson Company Different? Several factors help explain the company's unusual longevity. It developed a reputation for quality.
It maintained manufacturing skills that could be transferred from one product to another. It served customers across racial and geographic boundaries. Its leaders recognized new markets and were willing to take commercial risks. The company also established relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and financial institutions that supported its operations for many years. These advantages did not eliminate every difficulty.
Eventually, the capital required for modern steel-body manufacturing exceeded the company's available resources. Nevertheless, the enterprise remained active far longer than many early manufacturers.
The Patterson Company's importance extends beyond the fact that it was Black-owned. It provides a documented example of Black participation in American industrial manufacturing during an era when such enterprises were relatively uncommon. Its history challenges simplified accounts that portray Black entrepreneurship as confined primarily to small retail and service businesses. The Pattersons operated factories, employed skilled workers, developed products, competed for contracts, and participated in rapidly changing transportation industries. Their accomplishments deserve a place within both Black business history and the broader history of American manufacturing.
• Carter G. Woodson, historical studies of Black occupations and business activity.
• Carl Kelsey, studies of Black economic and occupational conditions, early twentieth century.
• Vishnu V. Oak, historical analysis of Black business and manufacturing.
• Robert W. Fairlie and Alicia M. Robb, research concerning racial differences in business ownership and industry participation.
• An Era of Progress and Promise, 1863–1910 (1910).
• Contemporary federal census and manufacturing statistics.
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapter V, particularly pp. 272–275.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
Why the skills that sustained a successful carriage business became harder to compete with in the age of mass production
For much of its history, the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company depended upon skilled craftsmanship. Its workers manufactured carriage bodies, shaped wood and metal components, constructed wheels, installed upholstery, and produced carefully finished vehicles. These abilities allowed the company to develop a reputation for quality and compete with other manufacturers. They also provided the foundation for later ventures into automobile bodies, school buses, and commercial vehicles. Yet the American transportation industry changed dramatically between the nineteenth century and the 1930s.
The importance of skilled craftsmanship did not disappear, but manufacturing methods increasingly favored companies with substantial capital, specialized machinery, and the ability to produce standardized vehicles in large quantities. The Patterson Company's history illustrates both the advantages of traditional manufacturing skills and the limitations those skills encountered as the industry changed.
During the nineteenth century, carriage manufacturing relied heavily upon skilled labor. Although manufacturers used machinery for certain operations, workers still performed many tasks requiring individual judgment and experience. The construction of a quality carriage depended upon accurate woodworking, carefully fitted components, durable metalwork, and attention to finishing. A manufacturer with experienced employees could distinguish its products through quality and reliability. The Patterson Company developed its reputation within this environment.
Charles Richard Patterson understood the importance of skilled labor and maintained standards that helped attract customers. The company's manufacturing abilities also allowed it to produce specialized vehicles rather than depend upon a single standardized design. This flexibility became one of its most important business advantages.
The arrival of the automobile did not immediately make carriage-building skills obsolete. Early automobile bodies often incorporated wood framing, upholstery, metal fittings, and finishing methods familiar to carriage manufacturers. Many automobile companies purchased mechanical components from suppliers and concentrated upon assembling vehicles and constructing bodies. The Patterson Company followed a similar approach when it entered automobile manufacturing. Its established skills were also useful in producing enclosed automobile tops and customized bodies.
When the company shifted into motorized school buses, the transition was especially practical. Early bus bodies were commonly constructed with wooden framing and mounted upon purchased truck chassis. The company could therefore apply much of its existing equipment and workforce experience to the new industry.
The Pattersons served customers with different requirements. A school district might need a particular seating arrangement or a body suited to an existing chassis. A commercial customer might require a specially constructed delivery compartment. A transportation operator might need a passenger body designed for a particular route. The company's manufacturing methods allowed it to accommodate such requests.
This approach was especially useful during the early development of the school-bus industry, when uniform construction standards were limited. Customers often selected vehicles according to local needs and budgets. A skilled body manufacturer could compete successfully without producing thousands of identical vehicles.
By the 1920s and 1930s, the advantages of large-scale manufacturing were becoming increasingly important. Companies using specialized machinery could produce standardized components more efficiently. They could spread the cost of equipment across large production runs and purchase materials in greater quantities. These methods lowered costs and increased output. For smaller manufacturers, competing against such operations became increasingly difficult.
Custom manufacturing remained valuable, but it could not always match the prices or production capacity of larger competitors. The Patterson Company encountered this problem first in automobile manufacturing. Later, it faced a similar challenge in the bus-body industry.
The changing requirements of school-bus construction created a particularly serious problem during the 1930s. For decades, the Patterson Company had relied upon wooden framing as an essential part of its vehicle-body construction. Its workers possessed considerable experience with those methods. New safety requirements and industry practices increasingly favored all-steel construction. Steel bodies required different machinery and manufacturing techniques.
Workers needed experience with metal fabrication and welding, while larger-scale production benefited from specialized equipment for forming steel components. The Patterson Company attempted to adapt. Postell Patterson received welding instruction from the Hobart Manufacturing Company in Troy, Ohio, and introduced welding equipment into the Greenfield shop. He also began training employees in the new methods. These efforts demonstrate that the company recognized the need for technological change.
The difficulty was that adaptation required more than learning a new skill. It required substantial investment in equipment and production methods.
The Patterson Company's experience was not unique. Several established vehicle manufacturers struggled during the transition to modern bus construction. The Fremont Metal Body Company, for example, continued relying upon wood-framed bodies while larger manufacturers increasingly adopted metal construction. Its specialized market also weakened during the Great Depression. The Lang Body Company adopted assembly-line methods but nevertheless failed to survive the decade.
Other manufacturers were more successful. The Anderson Body Company benefited from its relationship with the Flxible Corporation. Twin Coach expanded production substantially during the 1930s. The White Motor Company experienced serious financial difficulties but later invested in new manufacturing facilities and aluminum-body construction. These examples demonstrate that technological adaptation was important, but it did not guarantee survival. Capital, market demand, management decisions, and business relationships also influenced outcomes.
For much of the Patterson Company's history, success depended upon the ability to produce well-made vehicles that met customers' requirements. By the 1930s, that remained important, but it was no longer sufficient. Manufacturers increasingly needed the financial resources to invest in modern equipment and standardized production. The Pattersons had developed their business around craftsmanship, flexibility, and relatively small production runs. Those characteristics had supported decades of commercial activity. Eventually, however, the industry's economic structure changed faster than the company could afford to change its manufacturing methods.
The Patterson Company's experience demonstrates that technological progress does not affect every manufacturer equally. A new manufacturing method can create opportunities for some businesses while threatening the survival of others. The Pattersons repeatedly used their established skills to enter new markets. For decades, that adaptability was one of their greatest strengths. Their final difficulties did not result from a lack of craftsmanship or an unwillingness to innovate.
They resulted partly from the increasing cost of remaining competitive in an industry moving toward capital-intensive manufacturing. The company's history therefore offers a useful example of the broader transformation of American industry from skilled, relatively small-scale production toward increasingly mechanized and standardized manufacturing.
• Craig Robert Semsel, Built to Move Millions: Transit Vehicle Manufacture in Ohio, 1880–1938 (PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2001).
• Contemporary accounts of Twin Coach, White Motor Company, Anderson Body Company, Lang Body Company, and Fremont Metal Body Company.
• Ohio school-bus construction studies and standards, 1928–1935.
• Greenfield Republican, reporting on Patterson manufacturing changes and welding equipment, 1935.
• Kathleen Wilson Patterson, It's Been a Wonderful Life: One Day at a Time (2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters IV–V, particularly pp. 249–252 and 270–272.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
How access to financing supported decades of manufacturing—and why financial limitations became decisive during the 1930s
The history of the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company demonstrates that manufacturing success depends upon more than producing a quality product. A business must also obtain the money necessary to purchase materials, maintain equipment, pay employees, and complete orders before customers provide payment. These requirements are especially important for manufacturers of expensive products such as carriages, automobiles, and commercial vehicles. The Patterson Company successfully managed many of these challenges for decades. Its leaders acquired property, developed relationships with financial institutions, and used credit to support manufacturing operations.
However, the company's financial position weakened during the late 1920s and early 1930s. When the bus industry required substantial investment in new equipment, the Pattersons no longer possessed the resources necessary to make the transition effectively.
Property ownership played an important role in the company's early development. Charles Richard Patterson acquired real estate in Greenfield during the nineteenth century. The family's holdings provided space for business activities and represented assets that could support borrowing. Research into county property records identified approximately thirty property acquisitions involving the family or company between 1862 and 1938. These were transactions occurring across many decades, not thirty properties held simultaneously.
The records demonstrate that real estate was an important part of the family's economic history. Property could provide both operational space and security for loans.
The Patterson enterprise established relationships with local lenders and other sources of credit. These relationships helped support its growth during the carriage-manufacturing years. The company's ability to borrow is significant because access to capital was often a major obstacle for Black entrepreneurs during this period. However, the Patterson experience does not fit a simple narrative in which the family was uniformly excluded from financing. The historical record demonstrates that it obtained credit and used financial arrangements to support business activities for many years.
That access was not unlimited, and the precise influence of racial discrimination upon particular lending decisions cannot always be determined. Nevertheless, the company's early financial history reflects substantial commercial credibility.
The need for credit became particularly important during the bus-manufacturing years. A school district might place an order for several buses, but payment would not necessarily be made until the vehicles were completed and accepted. The manufacturer still needed money to purchase materials and pay employees. The Patterson Company sometimes used the documentation associated with customer orders to obtain loans. The proceeds financed construction.
When the buses were delivered, customer payments could be used to repay the loans and cover other expenses. This arrangement allowed a relatively small manufacturer to undertake orders that might otherwise have been beyond its immediate financial resources. However, it also created risks. Delays, unexpected expenses, or insufficient profit margins could leave the company unable to meet its obligations.
During the successful bus-manufacturing years, the company attempted to expand. In 1928, Frederick Patterson purchased the former South Side School building and adjoining property in Greenfield. Contemporary newspaper accounts described plans to convert the property into additional manufacturing space. The purchase reflected expectations of continued business growth. However, expansion required capital.
Real estate acquisitions, equipment purchases, and additional production capacity could increase financial obligations even when a company was receiving substantial orders. The available evidence does not establish that this particular property purchase caused the company's later difficulties. It does demonstrate the financial demands associated with expanding a manufacturing business.
The Great Depression created serious problems for businesses throughout the country. Demand weakened, banks failed, and credit became more difficult to obtain. The Highland County Bank closed in July 1930, reflecting the instability affecting financial institutions in the region. The Patterson Company entered this period with existing financial obligations. Its reliance upon mortgages and other borrowing increased the consequences of declining business activity.
As financial difficulties accumulated, the company had less flexibility to obtain additional financing. By the middle of the decade, these limitations had become particularly serious.
The transition to all-steel school-bus bodies created an expensive manufacturing challenge. The company needed welding equipment, metalworking machinery, and workers trained in new methods. Larger manufacturers possessed greater resources and were often better positioned to invest in these changes. The Pattersons attempted to acquire equipment and develop the necessary skills. However, their weakened financial position restricted what they could accomplish.
The problem was not simply whether the company understood the new technology. It was whether the company could afford to manufacture vehicles using that technology at a competitive cost.
The company's final years illustrate the vulnerability of manufacturers operating with limited financial reserves. In 1935, foreclosure proceedings threatened its property. The family reorganized and resumed operations, but financing remained difficult. In 1936, labor problems delayed the completion of a school-bus order. The company incurred additional expenses associated with the delay.
For a business with substantial reserves, such an event might have been manageable. For the Patterson Company, it created further financial pressure. The combination of debt, limited access to new capital, and unexpected operating costs made recovery increasingly difficult. Was Race the Decisive Financial Factor? The broader history of Black entrepreneurship demonstrates that racial discrimination often restricted access to capital.
The Patterson family operated within that environment. However, the company's financial history also documents decades of borrowing, property ownership, and relationships with lenders. Its difficulties during the 1930s involved identifiable financial and industrial developments, including accumulated obligations, the Depression, and the cost of new manufacturing equipment. The surviving evidence does not permit a precise calculation of how much racial discrimination contributed to the company's eventual closure. It would therefore be misleading to attribute every financial problem to discrimination.
It would be equally misleading to assume that racial barriers had no influence upon the economic opportunities available to the family. A balanced interpretation recognizes both the company's documented financial decisions and the broader conditions under which Black manufacturers operated.
The Patterson Company survived for decades because it combined manufacturing expertise with access to property, customers, suppliers, and credit. Its financial relationships helped make possible the expansion of its carriage business and later commercial vehicle operations. By the 1930s, however, the requirements of successful manufacturing had changed. Competition increasingly favored businesses capable of financing modern machinery and larger production operations. The company's weakened financial position left it unable to make those investments on the necessary scale.
Its experience demonstrates that business survival depends not only upon the quality of a product or the abilities of management, but also upon the continuing availability of capital. The Patterson family's financial history is therefore an essential part of understanding both its accomplishments and its eventual difficulties.
• Highland County property and mortgage records, 1862–1938.
• Greenfield Republican, reporting on the South Side School property purchase, 1928.
• Greenfield Republican, reporting on the Highland County Bank closure, July 1930.
• Patterson family and company financial records discussed in the manuscript.
• Greenfield Republican, foreclosure and business reorganization notices, 1935.
• Kathleen Wilson Patterson, It's Been a Wonderful Life: One Day at a Time (2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters I, IV, and V, particularly pp. 270–275.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.
Why the complete history of this pioneering Black-owned manufacturer deserves greater recognition
For many years, the history of the C.R. Patterson and Sons Company has been presented primarily through one accomplishment. The company manufactured the Patterson-Greenfield automobile, introduced in 1915, and became a pioneering Black-owned automobile manufacturer. That achievement deserves recognition. Yet it represents only a small portion of the company's history. The Patterson enterprise operated across several generations and participated in nearly every major transformation of American road transportation between the Civil War and the Second World War.
Its products included carriages, school wagons, automobiles, commercial vehicle bodies, motorized school buses, and passenger coaches. Its leaders were involved in business organizations, education, politics, and community affairs. Its history also includes women whose contributions were essential to the company's operation and survival. A more complete understanding of the Patterson family reveals a story considerably broader than the automobile for which it is best remembered.
The Patterson Company's history followed the changing transportation needs of American society. During the nineteenth century, horse-drawn vehicles served families, businesses, and public institutions. The Pattersons became established manufacturers within that industry. When automobiles began replacing horse-drawn transportation, the company developed repair services and eventually introduced its own automobile. When the manufacture of passenger automobiles became increasingly difficult for smaller companies, the Pattersons shifted toward specialized commercial vehicles.
Their school buses helped serve the expanding system of consolidated public schools. Their commercial bodies were used by businesses and transportation operators in several states. This sequence demonstrates a continuing willingness to adapt to new technologies and changing markets.
The Patterson family's influence was not confined to its factory. Charles Richard Patterson developed a successful business and participated in community affairs during the nineteenth century. His son Frederick Douglass Patterson became involved in civic and political activities while guiding the company's growth. Frederick also participated in the National Negro Business League and worked within the broader network of Black entrepreneurs associated with Booker T. Washington. His educational experiences at Ohio State University and his involvement in local government reveal dimensions of his life that are often absent from popular accounts. These activities demonstrate that the Patterson family participated in important developments extending beyond manufacturing.
The company's history also requires recognition of the women who helped sustain it. Josephine Outz Patterson was part of the family and financial structure that supported the enterprise during its early decades. Kathleen Patterson Buster preserved valuable information about the company's origins and history. Dollie Patterson Rudd participated in the corporate organization of the Greenfield Bus Body Company. Bettie Estelline Patterson assumed substantial responsibility for the company's finances during its later years.
Kathleen Wilson Patterson subsequently became manager during the company's efforts to reorganize and continue operations. These contributions demonstrate that the enterprise was not directed exclusively by the men whose names most often appear in historical summaries. The family's women participated in ownership, financial management, business administration, and the preservation of its history. Their roles are essential to understanding the complete enterprise.
The Patterson Company operated during a period when Black Americans faced widespread discrimination in business, education, employment, and finance. Manufacturing was particularly difficult because it required substantial investment and access to markets beyond the immediate community. The Pattersons nevertheless developed an enterprise that employed skilled workers, acquired property, manufactured specialized products, and served customers across state lines. The company competed in industries dominated by larger white-owned manufacturers. Its success demonstrates that Black entrepreneurship during this period extended well beyond the retail and service businesses most commonly discussed in historical accounts. The Patterson enterprise deserves recognition within the broader history of American industrial manufacturing.
The company's involvement in school transportation was especially significant. The Pattersons manufactured horse-drawn school wagons before the widespread adoption of motorized buses. They later became important suppliers of school-bus bodies during the 1920s. Their products were used by school districts across Ohio and beyond. The company's ability to adapt its vehicle designs to changing transportation requirements contributed to the development of motorized pupil transportation. This achievement deserves greater attention because it connects the Patterson story with a major transformation in American public education.
The company's history also includes specialized designs and manufacturing methods that are rarely discussed in popular accounts. Its winter-buggy improvements demonstrated an effort to solve practical problems associated with horse-drawn transportation. Its commercial vehicle operations employed flexible body construction and shipping methods. Its later products included customized delivery trucks, transit coaches, and experimental designs intended to serve new markets. These developments reveal a manufacturing enterprise that continually searched for practical improvements and new opportunities. The Patterson-Greenfield automobile was one important expression of that inventive approach, but it was not the only one.
The company eventually closed in 1939. Its final years were marked by financial difficulties, changing manufacturing standards, and increasing competition from larger companies. Those difficulties should be acknowledged. However, the closing of the enterprise does not negate its earlier accomplishments. For much of its history, the company remained commercially active and adapted successfully to changing markets.
Its automobile venture was short-lived, but its carriage and commercial vehicle operations achieved substantial success. The business survived long enough to experience several fundamental changes in American transportation. That record is remarkable in its own right.
The Patterson story also demonstrates why historical claims must be examined carefully. Some popular accounts contain inaccuracies concerning the family's origins, the development of the company, and the dates or circumstances of particular events. Other accounts concentrate upon a small number of familiar achievements while overlooking substantial parts of the historical record. Contemporary newspapers, advertisements, census records, property documents, corporate records, photographs, and family materials provide a more complete understanding. These sources do not answer every question.
Some production totals remain uncertain, and the circumstances surrounding certain business decisions cannot be reconstructed fully. Nevertheless, the surviving evidence establishes a history far more extensive than the abbreviated accounts commonly repeated.
The Patterson family's accomplishments deserve recognition because they reflect sustained participation in American manufacturing during a period of extraordinary industrial and social change. Charles Richard Patterson established a respected vehicle-manufacturing enterprise. Frederick Douglass Patterson guided it through several technological transitions. Later generations attempted to preserve the business as manufacturing methods and economic conditions changed. Family members, employees, and business associates all contributed to its operations.
The company's achievements were not confined to one automobile, one decade, or one individual. Its complete history encompasses industrial innovation, business development, education, civic leadership, and the broader experience of Black entrepreneurship in the United States. The Patterson-Greenfield automobile remains an important part of that story. But the lasting significance of C.R. Patterson and Sons lies in everything the company accomplished before and after it.
• Contemporary newspapers, advertisements, corporate records, and family documents concerning the Patterson Company, 1860s–1939.
• An Era of Progress and Promise, 1863–1910 (1910).
• National Negro Business League proceedings and related correspondence.
• Ohio State University historical records concerning Frederick D. Patterson.
• J. H. Harmon, The Journal of Negro History (1929).
• M. D. Hartsook, A Survey of Bus Transportation to and from Ohio Schools, 1929–1930 (1930).
• Kathleen Wilson Patterson, It's Been a Wonderful Life: One Day at a Time (2001).
• Christopher Nelson, The C.R. Patterson and Sons Company: Black Pioneers in the Vehicle Building Industry, 1865–1939, second edition, Chapters I–V.
This essay summarizes findings from the historical research of Christopher Nelson, conducted with the cooperation of Patterson family descendants. For the full documented history of the family and company, consult the book cited above.