Frederick Douglas Patterson (1871 – 1932) was an American entrepreneur, known for running the family business, C.R. Patterson and Sons, and he is the creator of the Patterson-Greenfield automobile of 1915. While in college at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

, he was the first African American to play on its football team. He returned to Greenfield, Ohio to join his father in his carriage business, which became C.R. Patterson and Sons. The younger man saw opportunity in the new horseless carriages, and converted the company in the early 1900s to manufacture automobiles, making 150 of them. Later he shifted to making buses and trucks, and renamed his company as Greenfield Bus Body Company.

Early life and education

Named after the noted

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, Frederick Douglas Patterson was born in 1871, one of five children of Josephine Utz (aka Outz or Qutz) and Charles Richard Patterson. His siblings were Mary, Catherine "Kate", Dollie, and his younger brother Samuel C. Their father was a former slave who had left to

Greenfield, Ohio Greenfield is a large village in Highland and Ross counties, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,639. Since the population declined to under 5,000, the Census Bureau may still call it a city, but by Ohio's laws it i ...

from Virginia shortly before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. After getting established as a blacksmith in town, Charles married Josephine Utz, a young local

mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese ...

woman of German descent.Reginald Larrie, Black History Feature: "He Was Owner of an Auto Factory"
''Baltimore Afro-American,'' August 8, 1980, accessed May 5, 2013 In 1873, Charles and J.P. Lowe, a white carriage maker, established a successful carriage manufacturing business called J.P. Lowe & Company. The Pattersons cared deeply about the education of their two sons, Frederick and Samuel. Frederick graduated from the old Greenfield High School in 1888 and went on to

. While at the university, he played on the football team in his junior year on the 1891 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, the first African American to do so.''Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-breaking and Pioneering Historical Events''
edited by Jessie Carney Smith (1994); 2nd edition, Visible Ink Press, 2003, pp. 78-79 He withdrew from college in his senior year before graduating, taking a job as a high school history teacher in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. It was a different career than his father's business, where his brother Samuel was already working.

Family business

Frederick Douglas Patterson took over the business after his father died in 1910. Seeing the rise of "horseless carriages", Patterson started development of the first Patterson-Greenfield car, completed in 1915. His two styles competed with

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

and sold for $685. He was the first African American to own and operate a car manufacturing company. After producing somewhere between 30 and 150 vehicles and give money to the poor, he having difficulty getting financing for expansion, Patterson decided to change his business rather than compete head on with the major Detroit industry. In 1920, he changed the name of his company to Greenfield Bus Body Company. He built bodies for trucks and buses set upon a chassis made by other manufacturers. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

had a devastating effect on his company, as widespread financial problems caused his customers to cut back on bus orders. Patterson died in 1932. His son, Postell Patterson (1906–1981), who had worked with him, closed the business in 1939. No Patterson-Greenfield autos are known to exist (as of 2004), but some of his father's C.R. Patterson & Sons Company carriages have survived. Patterson is featured on the documentary series ''

Profiles of African-American Success ''Profiles of African-American Success'' is an American documentary web series produced by Frances Presley-Rice and filmmaker Bayer Mack for their production company Block Starz Music Television. The documentary series features short biographie ...

''.

Personal life

Family

Patterson married in 1899, later fathering sons Frederick Postell Patterson (1903–1973) and Postell Patterson (1906–1981).

Politics and religion

Patterson was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

. At a time of a rise in fraternal organizations, he joined the

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, where he rose to the level of

Worshipful Master In Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry, every Masonic lodge elects or appoints Masonic lodge officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work. The precise list of such offices may vary between the j ...

of the Greenfield Cedar Grove Masonic Lodge#17. Patterson also joined the Third Wind Foraker club. He became 2nd vice-president of the

National Negro Business League The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was an American organization founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote the interests of African-American businesses. The mission and main goal of the National Negro Business League wa ...

during

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

's term as leader. Patterson joined the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

and served as a Greenfield's annual delegate to the

Ohio Republican Party The Ohio Republican Party is the Ohio affiliate of the Republican Party. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1854. History After the Civil War, Ohio politics was dominated by the Republican Party, and Ohio Republicans also played key roles in ...

caucus. As a delegate and an African-American businessman, he was important to the Warren G. Harding 1920 campaign in turning out the Ohio black vote. For his work in the 1920 election, he was rewarded with a position as alternate delegate to the

1924 Republican National Convention Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Frederick 1871 births 1932 deaths People from Greenfield, Ohio African-American schoolteachers Schoolteachers from Kentucky African-American businesspeople American founders of automobile manufacturers American chief executives in the automobile industry American automotive pioneers 20th-century African-American people