Charles "Rich" Richard Patterson (1833 – 1910) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

manufacturer, entrepreneur and

civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

; he founded precursor companies to

C.R. Patterson and Sons C.R. Patterson and Sons was an American automotive company, active from 1893 to 1939 primarily in Greenfield, Ohio and for one year in Gallia, Ohio. The first African American founded car company founded by Frederick Douglas Patterson, and named ...

Early life

Patterson was born in April 1833 as a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

on a

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

. He was the oldest of the thirteen children of Charles and Nancy Patterson. There are conflicting stories on how he left the plantation, he ended up living in

Greenfield Greenfield or Greenfields may refer to: Engineering and Business * Greenfield agreement, an employment agreement for a new organisation * Greenfield investment, the investment in a structure in an area where no previous facilities exist * Greenf ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, which was also the site of an

underground railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

station. It is thought he left Virginia right before the

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

in 1861. In c.1865, he married Josephine Utz (aka Outz, and Qutz), a

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 is ...

woman of German descent. Together they had five children, Mary (1866), Frederick "Fred" Douglas (1871), Dorothea "Dollie" (c.1871), Samuel C. (1873), and Catherine "Kate" (1879).

Career

He initially worked at Dines and Simpson Carriage and Coach Makers Company, and learned

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

ing. Charles Patterson later formed a partnership with James P. Lowe (J. P. Lowe), a

white man White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

, they created J.P. Lowe & Company in 1873. In 1880, he served as a trustee of the Greenfield African Methodist Episcopal Church (Greenfield A.M.E. Church) and served as a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

teacher. When his oldest son Fred was not allowed to attend the public high school due to

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

, Charles filed a court case, Patterson vs The Board of Education, in Highland County Court of Common Pleas with the help of Rev. James A. Shorter of his church. The verdict came in April 1887, and Patterson was allowed to attend the public school Greenfield High School. In 1893, Charles Patterson bought out the remaining shares of the J. P. Lowe & Company and the name was changed to C.R. Patterson, Son & Company, to mark the inclusion of his son Samuel to the business. Samuel C. Patterson fell ill in 1897, and died in 1899. His eldest son Frederick Douglas Patterson moved home to help with the business. After Charles R. Patterson's death on April 26, 1910, his son Frederick Douglas Patterson took over the carriage business and decided they needed to get into the "Patterson horseless carriage" business.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Charles Richard 1833 births 1910 deaths African-American businesspeople American transportation businesspeople People from Greenfield, Ohio American former slaves School desegregation pioneers Activists for African-American civil rights 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century African-American people