Charles "Rich" Richard Patterson (1833 – 1910) was an African-American carriage manufacturer, entrepreneur and civil rights activist; he founded precursor companies to C.R.

[6][2] There are conflicting stories on how he left the plantation, he ended up living in Greenfield, Ohio, which was also the site of an underground railroad station.

[6] In c.1865, he married Josephine Utz (aka Outz, and Qutz), a mulatto woman of German descent.

[6] Together they had five children, Mary (1866), Frederick "Fred" Douglas (1871), Dorothea "Dollie" (c.1871), Samuel C. (1873), and Catherine "Kate" (1879).

[6] He initially worked at Dines and Simpson Carriage and Coach Makers Company, and learned blacksmithing.