Rufus Lenoir Patterson Jr. (July 11, 1872 – April 11, 1943) was an American businessman who founded
American Machine and Foundry and served as a vice president of the
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...
.
Early life

Patterson was born in
Salem, North Carolina
Salem is a census-designated place (CDP) in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,218 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Hickory–Lenoir– Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The town of Sale ...
on July 11, 1872, into the prominent
Patterson family. He was a son of
Rufus Lenoir Patterson and, his second wife, Mary Elizabeth ( Fries) Patterson.
His father served as
Mayor of Salem, North Carolina. From his parents marriage, he had five siblings. From his father's first marriage to Marie Louise Morehead, he had five elder half-siblings (although one died before his birth).
His father was the eldest son of
Samuel F. Patterson, a politician who was a
North Carolina State Treasurer
The North Carolina State Treasurer is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina responsible for overseeing the financial operations of state government. The current state treasurer is Dale Folwell.
The office of state treasur ...
, and Phoebe Caroline ( Jones) Patterson.
His uncle,
Samuel L. Patterson, was a
North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture
The Commissioner of Agriculture is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The commissioner is a constitutional officer who serves as the head of the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is res ...
.
His maternal grandparents were Francis Levin Fries and Lisetta Maria ( Vogler) Fries. His maternal uncle,
Francis Henry Fries, married his half-sister, Latitia Walker Patterson.
Patterson gave up formal schooling at the age of fifteen, worked a short while for a railroad, then spent a year studying at
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
.
Career
Patterson left the University of North Carolina to work with inventor William H. Kerr.
In 1891, he went to England to introduce the Kerr tobacco machine. After studying mechanical engineering in England for two years, he returned to
Durham, where he became associated with
James Buchanan Duke and the
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...
in 1898, of which Patterson later became a vice-president in 1901. During this period, he "developed several machines, including the Patterson packer, to weigh, pack, label, and stamp smoking tobacco, which revolutionized the tobacco industry."
In 1900, American Tobacco spun off its machinery division as the
American Machine and Foundry Company
American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with Diversification (marketing strategy), diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors ...
and Patterson became its first president. He held this position until 1941 when he became chairman of its board of directors. When he retired as president of AMF, he was succeeded by his son
Morehead, who also became chairman of the board following his death in April 1943.
Under his leadership, the companies developed a number of machines, including the "Standard Tobacco Stemmer" in 1908, the "Standard Cigarette Machine" in 1908, and a long filler cigar machine in 1918. He also diversified into other fields, beginning with the development of the "Standard Bread Wrapper" in 1924. The company was added to the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
in 1926.
In addition, he served as president of the International Cigar Machinery Company, which later became a subsidiary of AMF.
Philanthropy
In the 1920s, Patterson and his college classmate and fraternity brother,
John Motley Morehead III
John Motley Morehead III (November 3, 1870 – January 7, 1965) was an American chemist, politician, and diplomat. As a chemist, his work provided much of the foundation for the business of Union Carbide Corporation. The Union Carbide and Ca ...
(who was also a first cousin of his wife),
funded the $100,000 construction cost of the
Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower
The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower is a functioning bell tower located on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). It is a 172-foot-tall tower with a Roman numeral clock built-in on each of the four sides of the tower. ...
, a bell tower designed by
McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...
and located on the campus of
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. It was initially built to commemorate the NC State alumni that fell during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
The Tower was dedicated in November 1931.
Personal life

On November 27, 1895, Patterson married Margaret Warren "Madge" Morehead (1874–1968), a niece of his father's first wife. She was the daughter of Lucy Cornelia Lathrop and Robert Lindsay Morehead (the youngest son of
North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead
John Motley Morehead (July 4, 1796 – August 27, 1866) was an American lawyer and politician who became the 29th governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina (1841 to 1845). He became known as "the Father of Modern North Carolina."
Early and ...
of
Blandwood
Blandwood Mansion is a historic house museum at 447 West Washington Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. Originally built as a four-room Federal style farmhouse in 1795, it was home to two-term North Carolina governor John Motley Morehead (1841 ...
). From 1919 until 1943, they divided their time between their limestone neo-Renaissance three-story Manhattan townhouse at 15
East 65th Street (which they bought from
James J. Van Alen
James John Van Alen (March 20, 1848 – July 13, 1923) was an American socialite. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Italy on October 20, 1893, but declined the appointment. He was well known as a New York Society lea ...
who had built the mansion in 1917),
and Lenoir (now called Linden) their estate at
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
.
Together, they were the parents of:
*
Morehead Patterson Morehead Patterson (October 9, 1897 – August 5, 1962) was an American businessman, a diplomat, an inventor, and president, CEO and chairman of American Machine and Foundry, the company founded by his father Rufus Patterson.
Patterson led expa ...
(1897–1962),
who married Elsie Parsons, a daughter of
Herbert Parsons and
Elsie Clews Parsons
Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons (November 27, 1875 – December 19, 1941) was an American anthropologist, sociologist, folklorist, and feminist who studied Native American tribes—such as the Tewa and Hopi—in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexi ...
, in 1921.
They divorced in 1929 and he married Helen Isabelle ( Mitchell) Clark, a daughter of journalist Roscoe Conklin Mitchell, in 1945.
After her death in 1955, he married Margaret Morgan ( Tilt) Jacob, the former wife of Walter Phelps Jacob who was a daughter of automaker and
Diamond T founder Charles Arthur Tilt, in 1956.
* Lucy Lathrop Patterson (1900–1977),
who married Casimir de Rham,
a descendant of
Henry Casimir de Rham
Henry Casimir de Rham (15 July 1785 – October 1873) was a Swiss–American merchant and diplomat.
Early life
Henry Casimir de Rham was born on 15 July 1785 in Giez, Switzerland. He was a son of Johann Christoph Wilhelm de Rham of Braunschweig ...
, in 1919.
After a brief illness, Patterson died at his New York townhouse on April 11, 1943.
After his death, his widow sold their townhouse to the
Kosciuszko Foundation
The Kosciuszko Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City. It was created by Stephen Mizwa to fund programs that promote Polish-American intellectual and artistic exchange.
History
The Polish American Scholarship Committee was ...
, and moved to
834 Fifth Avenue, where she died in 1968.
Descendants
Through his son Morehead, he was a grandfather of two grandsons, Rufus Lenoir Patterson III (1922–1944),
a Lieutenant with the
USAAF who was
killed in action during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
(he married Mae Gouverneur Cadwalader, daughter of Gouverneur
Cadwalader),
and
Herbert Parsons Patterson (1925–1985),
who became president of the
Chase Manhattan Bank in 1968.
Through his daughter, he was a grandfather of two grandsons,
Casimir de Rham (1924–2011), who married Elizabeth Evarts,
, and David Patterson de Rham (1931–1995), who married Rachael Thompson.
References
;Notes
;Sources
External links
Rufus Lenoir Patterson Papers, 1894-1900; 1943; 1956; 1967.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson Jr., Rufus Lenoir
1872 births
1943 deaths
People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Businesspeople from North Carolina
19th-century American businesspeople