Guided By History is pleased to feature this guest post by Cheryl L. McDonald. Cheryl is Wells Fargo's vice president of Diverse Growth Segments specializing in the African American segment. This team develops initiatives to address the financial needs of diverse and emerging customer groups nationwide. She is responsible for planning business strategies and marketing programs for the African American market — then making them happen. (CR)

I always look forward to Black History Month  because invariably I learn something new about the historical achievements of African Americans. One of my favorite little-known "jewels of history" is the Pattersons of Greenfield, Ohio . They were an African American family who manufactured cars, trucks and buses.

The patriarch of the family was Charles Richard Patterson , a blacksmith who escaped from slavery in Virginia by running away to freedom. In Ohio, Patterson took over a blacksmith business and founded the Charles R. Patterson Carriage Company , which built horse-drawn vehicles in the 1860s. When Patterson died, his son Frederick Douglass Patterson  took over and produced the new "horseless carriage." The Patterson family manufactured their first car in 1915 and called their line the Patterson-Greenfield .

The Patterson Company produced cars until they could no longer compete with larger companies. Apparently there was a better market for custom-bodied vehicles, and the company decided to cease production of cars and concentrate efforts on such products as buses, hearses, moving vans, and trucks for hauling ice, milk and baked goods.

Only in recent years have we learned about the remarkable history of the Patterson family's manufacture of motorized vehicles well into the late 1930s.

Please share some of the little-known "jewels" of African American history that you run across this month. Use the "Feedback" button at the bottom of the page, or send it to "Ask the Expert" to your right. Or just send a comment to us!