[14] Henry Patterson, who as a child was friends with future US president Andrew Johnson,[15][16] worked as a master mason in Oberlin.

On October 7, 1864, E. H. Fairchild, principal of Oberlin College's preparatory department from 1853 to 1869, wrote recommending her for an "appointment from the American missionary Association as a ... teacher among freedmen."

In this letter he described her as "a light quadroon, a graduate of this college, a superior scholar, a good singer, a faithful Christian, and a genteel lady.

She was demoted and served as assistant principal under Richard Theodore Greener who was the first Black Harvard University graduate and was the father of Belle da Costa Greene.

Patterson's commitment to thoroughness as well as her "forceful" and "vivacious" personality helped her establish the school's strong intellectual standards.

Her obituary in the Evening Star said she "co-operated heartily in sustaining the Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored People in this city and other Kindred organizations.

"[29][8] Patterson also worked in 1892 with Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Josephine Beall Bruce, and others, all supporters of the education and development of Black people at a local and national level, to form the Colored Woman's League of Washington D.C., which was committed to the "racial uplift" of colored women.

The league focused on kindergarten teacher training, rescue work, and classes for industrial schools and homemaking.

[33] Her life was spent giving young African Americans the same educational chances that she had been granted at Oberlin College.

[35] In Terrell's words, "She was a woman with a strong, forceful personality, and showed tremendous power for good in establishing high intellectual standards in the public schools.

"[36] In 2019, a scholarship was established in Patterson's name as part of the California State University, Long Beach, Teachers for Urban Schools project.