Colonel Robert Patterson (1753–1827) was an American soldier and settler who helped found the cities of Lexington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, then moved to Dayton, Ohio.

Early life

Born in Pennsylvania, Patterson emigrated to Kentucky in 1775. He served in the Kentucky militia in the western theater of the American Revolutionary War. 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 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 last major battle of the war in the west. He was, along with Daniel Boone, one of the few senior officers to survive that disastrous battle. In 1786 he was severely injured in Logan's Raid 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 Northwestern ...

. Patterson moved north from Kentucky into the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

in 1788, and was one of the three founders of Cincinnati, a river port along the north side of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

across from Kentucky.

Later life

Patterson then moved to Dayton, Ohio, in 1802 and continued his military service as a quartermaster during the War of 1812. 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 and stretched from there west to the Old soldiers' home (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, is now a historic house museum operated by Dayton History.

Sources

* Ohio Historical Society.
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