Integrated Learning-Living Communities
Business Ethics and Environmental Sustainability: BEES tour the Patterson Homestead, ride canal boats at Johnston Farm and raise money for beehives for families in developing countries
A guided tour of the Patterson Homestead (close to campus) provided an opportunity for BEES to view the ancestral home of the founder of NCR (National Cash Register), John Patterson. A coal supplier, Patterson bought the ‘incorruptible cashier’ from James Ritty, one of two brothers concerned about employee theft from their Dayton saloon, The Pony.
John Patterson’s grandfather — Robert Patterson — acquired the Rubicon Farm from one of Dayton’s more important early denizens: D.C. Cooper. Cooper, part of the team that originally surveyed the area, constructed one of the first sawmills on the Rubicon stream (which now flows under the Recplex and student neighborhood west into the Great Miami River).
Jefferson Patterson (Robert Patterson’s son and John Patterson’s father) married Julia Johnston (the daughter of John and Rachel Johnston of Piqua, Ohio). This Patterson connection justified an excursion to the Johnston Farm and Indian Agency (about an hour north of campus).
John Johnston (born in Ireland) was first a trader, and then served as an Indian Factor and Agent for the US government before retiring to Upper Piqua. But during the War of 1812, Johnston was ’drafted’ to be the Indian Agent for the Shawnee, Wyandot, Seneca and Lenape (Delaware). His job was to deter the tribes from fighting against the Americans. His record of public service and his farm’s location contributed to his becoming one of Ohio’s canal commissioners in 1825 (the Miami-Ohio canal being conveniently located adjacent to his property). Ironically — because Johnston was apparently quite sympathetic to the tribes’ claims to territory in the area — the Johnston Farm later became a launching location for the forced removal of Native Americans from Ohio by canal in the 1840s.
Every fall, committed volunteers put replicas of the original canal boats back in the water, and — because it was family weekend — some UD students were joined by family: Austin Ebbing, Becca Donovan and C’ron Clay.
Both the Pattersons and the Johnstons had bee hives, and three BEES devoted an afternoon to raising money to purchase bee hives for families in developing countries through Heifer International by selling cotton candy on Halloween: Katie Bryant, Eloise Harris, and Martin Silva.
