Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Robert Patterson (1753–1827) was an American soldier and settler who helped found the cities of Lexington,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

, and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, then moved to

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...

Early life

Born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, Patterson emigrated to

in 1775. He served in the Kentucky militia in the western theater of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

. He took part in

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...

's celebrated

Illinois campaign The Illinois campaign, also known as Clark's Northwestern campaign (1778–1779), was a series of events during the American Revolutionary War in which a small force of Virginia militiamen, led by George Rogers Clark, seized control of several ...

in 1778, and fought in many other actions during the war. He was a captain of the Fayette County militia in the

Battle of Blue Licks The Battle of Blue Licks, fought on August 19, 1782, was one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. The battle occurred ten months after Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, which had effectively ended the war in the east. ...

, the last major battle of the war in the west. He was, along with

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the w ...

, one of the few senior officers to survive that disastrous battle. In 1786 he was severely injured in

Logan's Raid Logan's raid was a military expedition in October, 1786 by a Kentucky militia force under General Benjamin Logan against several Shawnee settlements along the Little Miami and Mad Rivers in the Ohio Country. The villages were occupied primarily b ...

in the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1786–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwester ...

. Patterson moved north from Kentucky into the Northwest Territory in 1788, and was one of the three founders of Cincinnati, a river

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

along the north side of the Ohio River across from

Later life

Patterson then moved to

, in 1802 and continued his military service as a

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

. Patterson's farm, Rubicon, was located two miles south of Dayton where he and his wife Elizabeth (Lindsay) raised eight children. Their land is currently part of the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The uni ...

and stretched from there west to the

Old soldiers' home An old soldiers' home is a military veterans' retirement home, nursing home, or hospital, or sometimes an institution for the care of the widows and orphans of a nation's soldiers, sailors, and marines, etc. United Kingdom In the United Kingd ...

(presently the Dayton VA Medical Center).

Personal life

One of Patterson's grandchildren, John H. Patterson, became a prominent Dayton citizen and founded the National Cash Register Company (now NCR Corporation) in 1884. Patterson's granddaughter Eliza Jane (Brown) Anderson was the First Lady of Ohio 1865-1866. Her husband was Governor Charles Anderson.

Legacy

Patterson's home, known as the

Patterson Homestead The Patterson Homestead is a historic house museum located at 1815 Brown Street in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It was built in 1816 by American Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Robert Patterson. The house was built using Federal architect ...

, is now a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

operated by

Dayton History Dayton History is an organization located in Dayton, Ohio, USA, formed in 2005 by the merger of the Montgomery County Historical Society (originally the Dayton Historical Society) and Dayton's Carillon Historical Park Carillon Historical Park is a ...

Sources

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connec ...

.
Robert Patterson
in ''Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History'', 2005. *State Library of Ohio

Entry
from the ''

New International Encyclopedia ''The New International Encyclopedia'' was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the ''International Cyclopaedia'' (1884) and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926. History ''The New Intern ...

'' *Hammon, Neal O. ''Daniel Boone and the Defeat at Blue Licks''. Minneapolis: The Boone Society, 2005.

Primary sources

* Brown-Patterson Papers (MS-015).

Dayton Metro Library Dayton Metro Library is a multi-branch library system serving 531,687 residents of the Dayton Metropolitan Area. It has 19 locations across the area (as well as two bookmobiles). Almost 5.8 million items were borrowed in 2018. The Dayton Metro Lib ...

, Dayton, Ohio. * Patterson Family Papers (MS-236). Wright State University Special Collections and Archives, Dayton, Ohio.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Robert 1753 births 1827 deaths American people of the Northwest Indian War American militiamen in the War of 1812 History of Cincinnati Kentucky militiamen in the American Revolution People from Dayton, Ohio