Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Patterson, Robert (pioneer)

PATTERSON, Robert, pioneer, b. in Bedford county, Pa., 15 March, 1753; d. in Dayton, Ohio, 5 Aug., 1827. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1775, joined the settlement at Royal Spring (now Georgetown), and assisted in building the fort which he subsequently defended. In October, 1776, he was one of seven men that set out for Fort Pitt to procure powder and ammunition, making the journey through the wilderness on foot and up the river in canoes. All the party were either killed or wounded by the Indians, Patterson received a blow from a tomahawk that confined him to a bed for a year. He was on Col. Clark's expedition in 1778, and with Capt. John Bowman in his raid on old Chillicothe in 1779. On 1 April of the latter year he built the first house on the present city of Lexington, and bought a large part of the surrounding property. He was a captain of a company in Col. Clark's expedition against the Shawnees in August, 1780, and was second in command to Daniel Boone at the battle of Lower Blue Licks. Being overcome with fatigue in the retreat, he fell by the way, but was rescued by Aaron Reynolds, who dismounted and gave him a horse, with the remark: “You saved my soul; I will save your life.” Patterson had rebuked him for profanity in a previous campaign. He was colonel of Clark's second expedition into the Miami country in 1782, and in Gen. Benjamin Logan's expedition against the Shawnees in 1786, in which he received severe wounds. He was one-third owner of Cincinnati when the town was laid out, and in 1804 built the first settlement at Dayton, Ohio, residing on a farm in its vicinity until his death.