Robert Patterson (1753-1827), of Scots-Irish ancestry, was born near Cove Mountain, Pennsylvania. In 1774 he joined a company of Pennsylvania rangers to protect the frontier during Dunmore's War. A year later, as a cattle driver he was a member of John McClelland's group which went down the Ohio River to Kentucky, where they established a station on the site of present Georgetown. In returning to Fort Pitt for needed ammunition in the fall of 1776, Patterson was so severely wounded by Native Americans that he remained in Pennsylvania for nearly two years. Upon returning to Kentucky he first joined George Rogers Clark's Illinois Regiment (1778) and then John Bowman's expedition (1779). In the latter year he also built the first cabin on the site of Lexington, where he made his home for nearly a quarter-century. As an officer of the Fayette County militia, he led a company and narrowly escaped death at Blue Licks (1782) and was severely wounded in Benjamin Logan's campaign (1786). During his years in Kentucky, Patterson held numerous civil offices: justice of the peace, sheriff, representative in the Virginia assembly (1789-1790), and member of the first Kentucky state legislature (1792). Involved in Ohio land speculation, he helped to plat the first settlement of Cincinnati, then called Losantiville (1788-1789), but sold his share there in 1794. Ten years later, however, he did move to Ohio, where he established an estate called “Rubicon Farm” near Dayton, his residence for the rest of his life.
