Dayton's economy is forever grateful to Patterson for his business acumen, but his greatest contributions may have come during The Great Flood of 1913.
John H. Patterson, the cash and the flood
It’s hard to drive around Dayton and not see a street named in John H. Patterson’s honor.
Patterson Blvd., that travels from Kettering and Oakwood through Dayton is an obvious connection. Dorothy Lane happens to be named after the path his daughter Dorothy followed on horseback. Far Hills Avenue is even named after the Patterson family estate.
John Henry Patterson was born on December 13, 1844, and died May 7, 1922 (aged 77). This Civil War veteran and ivy-league educated businessman took a failing business with 13 people on the payroll and grew it into a Fortune 500 company with over seven thousand employees. That business of course is National Cash Register (NCR), or just “The Cash” around Dayton.
Dayton’s economy is forever grateful for his business acumen, but his greatest contributions may have come during The Great Flood of 1913.
The flood is taught in local schools, but chaos doesn’t describe that week well enough. Over 300 people died, and Dayton even instituted martial law as looters ran the streets.
Patterson turned his factory into an emergency shelter with food for over 2,700 people a day and medical care. His employees immediately shifted to building nearly 300 small boats for rescue operations. Other NCR facilities became American Red Cross and Ohio National Guard relief stations.
Sixty-eight-year-old Patterson personally risked his life leading a boat to help rescue stranded families. NCR, a private company, spent nearly two thirds of its profit in 1913 on the rescue and relief efforts.
While Patterson was an extremely successful businessman and a pioneer in sales, his ego was the stuff of legend. TIME magazine named him one of the "10 Worst Bosses" for being, "a control freak who tried to impose his obsession with cleanliness and healthiness on his employees," but also for, "[firing] and then [rehiring] executives to break their self-esteem."
Most famously, Patterson fired Thomas J. Watson Sr., a future millionaire and CEO of IBM. Watson would credit Patterson as his inspirational mentor.
Want to enjoy the fruits of Patterson’s work? If you’ve ever visited Hills and Dales MetroPark in Kettering, you already have. The park was originally built for NCR employees and their families, until Patterson donated it to the city in 1918.
If you prefer to pay homage to John Patterson in a more social way, head on down to Dayton Beer Company and try their John Patterson Pale Ale.
