We recently looked at James Ritty’s invention of the cash register, before John Patterson took the enterprise to greater heights with NCR. But Ritty also has another interesting story that connects to a present-day business. His original occupation was a saloonkeeper and he … [Read more...] about James Ritty’s Pony House Saloon
John H. Patterson: NCR Founder and Dayton Industrialist
John Henry Patterson (1844–1922) was born in Dayton and built the National Cash Register Company into one of the most influential businesses in American industry.
After buying out James Ritty's cash register patent in 1884, he turned NCR into an early leader in employee welfare and sales training, building "daylight factory" buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows and founding what's considered the first formal sales training school in the country.
He also organized much of Dayton's flood relief effort after the Great Flood of 1913 and helped establish what became the Miami Conservancy District.
Patterson died in 1922, but his influence is still visible across Dayton: in the South Park neighborhood he helped design, in the parks and boulevards he funded, and in the generation of Dayton executives and companies (including Delco) that grew out of NCR's ranks.
All of our published articles that reference Patterson are below.
Who Invented the Cash Register? Meet James Ritty, a Dayton Saloonkeeper
The invention of the cash register began not with a major corporation, but with a Dayton saloonkeeper confronting a very practical problem. In 1879, James Ritty created the first mechanical cash register as a way to prevent employee theft, a simple idea that would ultimately … [Read more...] about Who Invented the Cash Register? Meet James Ritty, a Dayton Saloonkeeper