Frederick Douglas Patterson (1871\u20131932) was an American entrepreneur known for the Greenfield-Patterson automobile of 1915, built in Ohio. He later converted his business to the Greenfield Bus Body Company.<\/strong><\/p>\n While in college at Ohio State University<\/a>, he was the first African American to play on its football team. He returned to Greenfield to join his father in his carriage business, which became C.R. Patterson and Sons. The younger man saw opportunity in the new horseless carriages, and converted the company in the early 1900s to manufacture automobiles, making 150 of them. Later he shifted to making buses and trucks, and renamed his company as Greenfield Bus Body Company. After Patterson’s death in 1932, his son kept the business going through much of the Great Depression<\/a>, finally closing it in 1939.<\/strong><\/p>\n Named after the noted abolitionist<\/a>, Frederick Douglas Patterson was born in 1871, one of four children of Josephine Utz (aka Outz) and Charles Richard Patterson<\/a>.<\/sup> His siblings were Katherine, Dollie, and his younger brother Samuel. Their father was a former slave who had escaped to Greenfield, Ohio<\/a> from Virginia shortly before the American Civil War<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n After getting established as a blacksmith in town, Charles married Josephine Utz, a young local white woman.<\/sup> In 1873, Charles and J.P. Lowe, a white carriage maker, established a successful carriage manufacturing business called J.P. Lowe & Company.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Pattersons cared deeply about the education of their two sons, Frederick and Samuel.<\/sup> Frederick graduated from the old Greenfield High School in 1888 and went on to Ohio State University<\/a>.[citation needed<\/span><\/a><\/i>]<\/sup> While at the university, he played on the football team in his junior year on the 1891 Ohio State Buckeyes football team<\/a>, the first African American to do so. He withdrew from college in his senior year before graduating, taking a job as a high school history teacher in Louisville, Kentucky<\/a>. It was a different career than his father’s business, where his brother Samuel was already working.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1893, Charles bought out his 20-year partner, J.P. Lowe, and renamed the carriage business C.R. Patterson & Son Company in honor of his son Samuel, who had joined the business.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n In 1897, Charles became ill. By this time, Samuel had died. Frederick resigned his teaching position to return and help operate the family business. His father renamed it C.R. Patterson and Sons, and the younger man took on an increasing role.<\/strong><\/p>\n After his father died in 1910, Frederick D. Patterson took over the business.<\/sup> Seeing the rise of “horseless carriages”, he started development of the first Patterson-Greenfield<\/a> car, completed in 1915. His two styles competed with Henry Ford<\/a>‘s model T<\/a> and sold for about $850. He was the first African American to own and operate a car manufacturing company. After producing about 150 vehicles, and having difficulty getting financing for expansion, Patterson decided to change his business rather than compete head on with the major Detroit industry. He built bodies for trucks and buses set upon a chassis made by Ford<\/a> or GM<\/a>. In 1920, he changed the name of his company to Greenfield Bus Body Company<\/a>.[citation needed<\/span><\/a><\/i>]<\/sup> He built strong business relationships with numerous school districts, which became steady customers.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Crash<\/a> and Great Depression<\/a> had a devastating effect on his company, as widespread financial problems caused his customers to cut back on bus orders. Patterson died in 1932. His son Postell Patterson, who had worked with him, closed the business in 1939.<\/strong><\/p>\n No Patterson-Greenfield<\/a> autos are known to exist, but some of his father’s C.R. Patterson & Sons Company carriages have survived.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n Patterson married in 1899, later fathering sons Frederick & Postell Patterson.<\/strong><\/p>\n Patterson was a Methodist<\/a>. At a time of a rise in fraternal organizations, he joined the Freemasons<\/a>, where he rose to the level of Worshipful Master<\/a> of the Greenfield Cedar Grove Masonic Lodge#17<\/a>. Patterson also joined The Third Wind Foraker club<\/a>. He became 2nd vice-president of the National Negro Business League<\/a> during Booker T. Washington<\/a>‘s term as leader.<\/strong><\/p>\n Patterson joined the Republican <\/a>Party<\/a> and served as a Greenfield’s annual delegate to the Ohio Republican Party<\/a> caucus. As a delegate and an African-American businessman, he was important to the Warren G. Harding<\/a> 1920 campaign<\/a> in turning out the Ohio black vote. For his work in the 1920 election, he was rewarded with a position as alternate delegate to the 1924 Republican National Convention<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Black Man Had His Own Car Company 100 Years Ago Frederick Douglas Patterson (born 1871- died 1932) was an American entrepreneur, the first African American to manufacture cars, and known for the Greenfield-Patterson automobile of 1915, built in Ohio. He later converted his business to the Greenfield Bus Body Company. Frederick Douglas Patterson (1871\u20131932) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3306,3307,3308],"class_list":["post-17915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-automobile-comapany-owner","tag-freemason","tag-national-negro-business-league","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_C.R._Patterson_%26_Sons_Company_Patterson-Greenfield_Automobile.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nEarly life and education<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Family business<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Greenfield Bus Body Company<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\nMarriage and family<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Politics, religion and business<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n