Isaac Patterson was a conductor on the
Underground Railroad in Northwood, Ohio.

Little is known of Patterson's life.
Patterson helped found a Covenanter
Church in Northwood in the early 1830s.
Covenanters are an offshoot of the
Presbyterian Church and primarily
consist of people of Scottish heritage.
Patterson earned his living through
farming and was a conductor on the
Underground Railroad in Northwood, which
is located in Logan County, Ohio. He
usually hid the fugitive slaves in his
care in a cave on his property. The
runaways descended a ladder into the
cave. To gain admittance to the cave,
people had to give the password, which
was "Boston." The ladder is currently on
display at the Logan County Museum.
Patterson supposedly hid the slaves in
the cave for as long as three weeks,
waiting until slave catchers had given
up the search for the fugitives. Perhaps
as many as thirteen runaways stayed in
the cave at one time. Other conductors
would then transport the runaway slaves
to other stops on the Underground
Railroad. Many of these conductors were
students at nearby Geneva College. 

Isaac Patterson represents the growing
tensions over slavery between
Northerners and Southerners during the
early nineteenth century. While many
Northern states had provisions outlawing
slavery, runaway slaves did not
necessarily gain their freedom upon
arriving in a free state. Federal law
permitted slaveowners to reclaim their
runaway slaves. Some slaves managed to
escape their owners on their own, while
others sometimes received assistance
from sympathetic Northerners, such as
Patterson.