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FIRST BLACK OWNED AUTOMOBILE COMPANY-THE BLACK HENRY FOR
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"FIRST BLACK OWNED AUTOMOBILE COMPANY-THE BLACK HENRY FORD"
Charles Rich Patterson was born a slave in Greenfield, Ohio and developed the first black-owned automobile company in the United States. Patterson's success started after he ran away in 1865 and became a blacksmith. He worked to build a profitable carriage-making company until his death in 1910.
By 1916, Patterson’s son, Frederick Douglass Patterson, built his first vehicle from his father’s work, the Patterson-Greenfield. The company, C.R. Patterson & Sons, carried the slogan “If it’s a Patterson, it’s a good one.”
Frederick Douglass Patterson not only helped his father’s company thrive, but he had made history as the first black football player at Ohio State University.
The engine of C.R. Patterson & Sons' first vehicle was a 30hp-four from Continental with full floating rear axle, demountable rims and an electric lighting system. The vehicles were said to be more efficient than the Model T. The cars cost about $850 each and reached speeds up to 50 miles per hour.
C.R. Patterson & Sons produced over 100 vehicles. Only four years later did the company switch to producing bodies for commercial vehicles. Fred Patterson led the division that made hearses, buses, ice trucks, bakery and milk trucks. He partnered with Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge to use their chassis. The company became so powerful, they were able to sell and ship vehicles to Haiti.
C.R. Patterson & Sons thrived until it was destroyed by the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unfortunately, none of the vehicles survived to archive, and little was known about the success of the Patterson family until discoveries were made after the millennium. Some of their horse-drawn wagons still exist.
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