Touring the Patterson Homestead Historic House Museum uring a tour of the Patterson Homestead Historic House Museum, visitors will experience six period rooms-the Hall, Sitting Room, Dining Room, Parlor, Children's Bedroom and Master Bedroom. Each room contains furniture made between 1800 and 1850, with a majority of the collection classified as Hepplewhite, Sheraton or Empire in style. Most of the furniture was purchased for the museum by the donor and is not original to the site. Original Artifacts The collection does contain a number of artifacts that have a family provenance, and several of the pieces are original furnishings of the farmhouse and are listed below: The Patterson Family Bible Published in 1802, the Bible was purchased by Colonel Robert and Elizabeth and was later used by their son and daughter-in-law, Jefferson and Julia. The Bible contains a handwritten family record of births, marriages and deaths up to the late 1860’s. Portrait of Jefferson Patterson (1801—1863) Painted by a nineteenth-century artist, Charles Soule, this portrait of Jefferson Patterson is one of the original decorative arts pieces from the farmhouse. Jefferson was the youngest son of Colonel Robert and Elizabeth. He inherited the house in the mid-1830’s and moved into it with his wife and several of their young children in 1840. Besides operating the 600+ acre farmstead and milling business, Jefferson was active in local government and was a state representative during the late 1850’s and early 1860’s. He was also involved in forming the Montgomery County Agricultural Society in the 1839 and establishing the county fairgrounds in 1850. He died of a sudden heart attack in Columbus on March 23, 1863. Silver spoons with “L.E.P.” Engraved We believe that these spoons were owned by Elizabeth Lindsay Patterson, whose initials are monogrammed into the handles of the spoons. Labeled “L.E.P” and “E.P.,” the spoons were probably purchased after the family settled in Dayton, rather than being 1780’s wedding gifts. Their style is described by silver collectors as that of the “coffin end” variety, which is seen in the angular tapered handles. This style was popular in the early 1800’s. Patterson family cradle Constructed in the early 1800’s, the cradle was originally in Colonel Robert and Elizabeth’s possession and is an original furnishing of the house. Family histories indicate that it was one of the belongings that the family brought with them from Lexington, Kentucky in 1804. Portrait of Julia Johnston Patterson (1811—1897) Named “Juliana,” she was one of fifteen children born to Colonel John Johnston and his wife Rebecca. She grew up on the Piqua farm that is now owned and interpreted by the Ohio Historical Society. She married her husband, Jefferson, in her parent’s parlor on February 26, 1833, and moved to Dayton several days later. During her husband’s tenure in the Ohio State Legislature and after his death, she oversaw the farming and milling businesses while four of her sons served in the Union Army. After the Civil War was over, Julia moved into Dayton and set up housekeeping again, this time at 207 West Third Street. Rather than sell the farmhouse and all remaining acreage, the property was maintained as a family summer home until 1904. In the 1890’s, Julia wrote her memoirs and inventoried several of the Patterson family heirlooms (one of which was the cradle listed above). Eventually, the memoirs became a portion of Charlotte Reeve Conover’s book on the family entitled Concerning the Forefathers, which was published in 1902 by The NCR Press. The Exhibit Gallery As a way to broaden the NCR story at The Homestead, the Patterson Gallery exhibit from the Old Court House Museum was installed during the fall of 2000. Originally developed and funded by Dorothy Patterson Jackson (John H. Patterson’s daughter) in the early 1980’s, the exhibit provides a cursory overview of her father’s career development along with details on the company’s first fifty years. Patterson Homestead Gardens Planning the site’s gardens began in 1990, following the last major renovation of the historic house museum. The first garden area consisted of a rose bed that was dedicated in 1991. With every successive year, older foundation plantings like yew and arborvitae were removed and replaced with varieties of hosta, daffodils, mums, phlox and tulips. Plant material ranging from iris, daisy, coral bell and nearly eight truckloads of vintage peonies were in place by the mid-1990’s. Today, the site employs part-time gardeners and volunteers who work an average of fifty-five hours a month to maintain and beautify the existing plantings at The Patterson Homestead. BACK TO TOP		Patterson Homestead Historic House Museum Patterson Homestead [Web07-01] View of Patterson Homestead from the north with white fence, ca. 1895. [99-22-13] This view of The Patterson Homestead provides documentation of the farmhouse’s appearance in the late nineteenth century, when the Patterson family used it as a summer home. In 1869, following the death of her husband, father and several children, Julia Johnston Patterson relocated to a small red brick Italianate style house at 207 West Third Street in the city of Dayton. Since none of Julia’s surviving children (Robert, Stephen, John H., Frank and Julia) were interested in continuing the family farming and milling businesses, the farmstead was surveyed into suburban housing lots by the mid-1870’s. The lots bore the initials of each child, signifying that proceeds from each sale would be equally distributed. In 1888, a mere four years after John and Frank co-founded The National Cash Register Company, they began to build the factory along Stewart Street, on dozens of housing lots that did not sell. Eventually, NCR would dominate the northern farm fields that had been the family’s livelihood for over seventy years. Family group on porch, circa 1895. (From the NCR Archive) [99-22-11] This photograph was taken circa 1895 and shows three generations of the Patterson family whose lives centered around the old homestead known as “Rubicon Farm.” Seated on the porch is matriarch, Julia Johnston Patterson, who was nearing the end of her life. She is surrounded by a brother, two sisters, grandchildren and her son, John H. (far right). The Rubicon Farm House and Barn, circa 1904. [99-21-15] Demolished in 1954, the farmstead’s original timber frame barn is shown near the present site of the caretaker’s cottage. In the foreground of the same view, we see a literal maze of clothesline posts adjacent to a woodshed on the west end of the house. Of the many evolutions that the site has gone through, none are more glaring than the abundance of open fields in the foreground of this ca. 1904 view. Today, the area is the site of the First Church of Christ Scientist at the intersection of Rubicon and Sawmill Roads.