Check this out. Did you know there was a Black owned automobile manufacturing business? I didn't! C.R. Patterson & Sons was founded by Charles Richard Patterson. Born in 1833 into slavery this brother escaped and made his way north to Ohio. There he began working as a blacksmith honing his skills to make horse carriages. In 1873 he linked with J.P. Lowe started a joint horse carriage business. In 1893 they parted ways and he renamed the company C.R. Patterson and Sons which he ran with his son Frederick (1 of 5 kids). They repaired carriages and cars at first then debuted their first car in 1913. Between the years of 1893 and 1939 they would make coupe's, trucks, busses, and at one point had 28 types of horse carriages. C.R. passed away in 1910 his son Frederick kept the business going. They had several employees and a thriving business but could not compete with larger companies such as Ford, and once the depression hit they were one of many small companies to fold. Imagine what it would be like if they had the resources to continue?! Although there are no intact C.R. Patterson and Sons vehicles left they were pioneers from from Greenfield Ohio.
Sources: BlackPast.org, Wikipedia, The Big Car Channel
Dig this? Check out these pieces about race car drivers Cheryl Linn Glass and Willy T. Ribbs
No comments:
Post a Comment