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John Henry Patterson (December 13, 1844May 7, 1922) was an
industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through pers ...
and founder of the
National Cash Register Company NCR Corporation, previously known as National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactures self-service kiosks, point-of-sale termin ...
. He was a businessperson and salesperson. He headed relief efforts after the 1914 Dayton flood, and successfully promoted the city manager form of government.


Early years

John Henry Patterson was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1844. He spent his childhood working on the family farm and in his father's sawmills. He graduated from
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
in 1867 and went to work as a canal toll collector until 1870. That year, he began managing the Southern Ohio Coal and Iron Company. He became an investor in the National Manufacturing Company in 1882, buying it out with his brother by 1884 to form
National Cash Register Company NCR Corporation, previously known as National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactures self-service kiosks, point-of-sale termin ...
.


Pioneering business practices

In 1893 he constructed the first "daylight factory" buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that let in light and could be opened to let in fresh air as well. This was in an era when
sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...
s were still in operation elsewhere. He hired
John Charles Olmsted John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920), was an American landscape architect. The nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, he worked with his father and his younger brother, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in their father's firm. After their fathe ...
to landscape the grounds of the National Cash Register Company campus in Dayton, with spacious lawns and landscaping with colorful plantings. Olmsted also had a hand in designing the residential community surrounding the plant (
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand their ...
) as well as a park system for the City of Dayton. Based on a 16-page handbook written by his brother-in-law, Patterson established the world's first sales training school on the grounds of the NCR factory campus (at Sugar Camp in Dayton, Ohio). He also coined a phrase for his service division which, until about the time the company was bought by AT&T, hung on the wall of every service department in the company. The phrase was, "We Cannot Afford To Have A Single Dissatisfied Customer".


NCR and IBM

Patterson was famous for firing Thomas Watson Sr, who went on to become General Manager, then President, of CTR, later renamed IBM. So many prominent businessmen were trained and fired by Patterson that some business historians regarded experience at NCR as the rough equivalent of an MBA degree. Patterson was also famous for firing many people on rather trivial grounds, for example, if they could not tell him why the flags happened to be flying that day. Charles F. Kettering was hired and fired at NCR multiple times; once for failing at an equestrian event. Reportedly, Patterson fired him with the remark: "Anybody who can't handle a horse can't handle men."


Violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act

In 1912, NCR was found guilty of violating the
Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. T ...
. Patterson, Watson and 26 other NCR executives and managers were convicted of illegal anti-competitive sales practices and were sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Their convictions were unpopular with the public due to the efforts of Patterson and Watson to help those affected by the Dayton, Ohio floods of 1913, but efforts to have them pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson were unsuccessful. However, their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1915 on the grounds that important defense evidence should have been admitted.


Great Dayton Flood

During the
Great Dayton Flood The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 resulted from flooding by the Great Miami River reaching Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history. In response, the General Assembly passed the Vonderheide Act to ...
disaster, John H. Patterson contributed significantly to the recovery efforts. NCR employees built nearly 300 flat-bottomed boats and Patterson organized rescue teams to save the thousands of people stranded on roofs and the upper stories of buildings. He turned the NCR factory on Stewart Street into an emergency shelter providing food and lodging, and he organized local doctors and nurses to provide medical care. Patterson's vision for a managed watershed for the
Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...
resulted in the development of the
Miami Conservancy District The Miami Conservancy District is a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio to control flooding of the Great Miami River and its tributaries. It was organized in 1915 following the catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of the Great Miami R ...
, one of the first major flood control districts in the United States.


Personal life

Patterson attended
Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...
,
Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion of the state approximately northwest o ...
and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1867. He was something of a health fanatic, and adopted one regimen after another, most of which were required of his executives and employees. While at Miami, Patterson was a member of
Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...
. In 1888 Patterson married Katharine Beck of
Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and West ...
. They had two children: Frederick Beck Patterson and Dorothy Forster Patterson. Mrs. Patterson died of diphtheria in June, 1894 at the age of 28.A History of the Beck Family, by Charlotte Conover, 1908 His younger brother, Lt Frank Patterson, was killed in 1918 when his military aircraft crashed near Dayton, Ohio.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur W ...
was named in his memory. Patterson lived in his Swiss chalet estate "The Far Hills" in
Oakwood, Montgomery County, Ohio Oakwood is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. A suburb of Dayton. The population was 9,202 at the 2010 census. Oakwood is part of the Dayton metropolitan area. It was incorporated in 1908. John Henry Patterson, industrialist and ...
. Patterson loved the Adirondacks and built his summer estate on Beaver Lake, on the Beaver River east of Lowville, NY. His family built two other estates on the lake. All three estates still exist, two as church camps (Beaver Camp and
Unirondack Camp Unirondack is a queer, social-justice and intentional community-centered youth summer camp and conference center that is located in the western foothills of the Adirondack Mountains near Lowville, New York on Haudenosaunee Land. The camp wa ...
), one as private bed and breakfast.


Death and legacy

Patterson died on May 7, 1922, two days after reviewing plans with General
Billy Mitchell William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, command ...
to develop a center for aviation research in Dayton. He is interred in the
Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum (200 acres), located at 118 Woodland Avenue, Dayton, Ohio, is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the United States. Woodland was incorporated in 1842 by John Whitten Van Cleve, the first male child born in ...
. He left no great fortune because of his expenditures on social programs at his company, and because he believed that "shrouds have no pockets." He left ownership of the company to his son Frederick Beck Patterson who took it public in 1925. $55 million in stock was offered to the public in what was the largest business
public offering A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a ...
up to that time. Mr. Patterson was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1979. Patterson's methods influenced United States business for a generation. In the period 1910-1930 it was estimated that one-sixth of United States business executives were former NCR executives.


References


Further reading

* Biles, George E. "John Henry Patterson's contributions to industrial welfare". ''International Journal of Public Administration'' (1993). 16 (5): 627–647. doi:10.1080/01900699308524815. * Crowther, Samuel. ''John H Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare'' Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1923. ** Crowther, Samuel. ''John H Patterson: The Romance of Business'' London: Goffrey Bles, 1923, 364pp. * Friedman, Walter A. "John H. Patterson and the sales strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922." ''Business History Review'' 72.4 (1998): 552-584
online
* * Hawes, Jon M. "Leaders in selling and sales management: John H. Patterson." ''Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management'' 5.2 (1985): 59-61
online
* Schleppi, John R. "'It Pays': John H. Patterson and Industrial Recreation at the National Cash Register Company." ''Journal of Sport History'' 6.3 (1979): 20-28
online
* Sealander, Judith. ''Grand Plans: Business Progressivism and Social Change in Ohio's Miami Valley, 1890-1929'' (1988) pp 18–42 on NCR. * Townley, Jonathan. "How John H. Patterson modernized industry." ''The objective standard: A Journal of Culture and Politics'' 14.3 (2019): 56-62.


External links


Patterson Sales Strategy
from the website of
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

History
from the website of The Dayton Foundation

from the website of
Montgomery County, Ohio Montgomery County is located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 537,309, making it the fifth-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat is Dayton. The county was named in honor ...
's official historical organization
Patterson Family Papers
from the
Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...
Libraries website
The Man on the Job at Dayton
from Dayton History Books Online, a CityMax-hosted website created by Curt Dalton {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, John H. 1844 births 1922 deaths Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio American manufacturing businesspeople Miami University alumni NCR Corporation people Dartmouth College alumni Burials at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum People from Oakwood, Montgomery County, Ohio