This Geocache was part of the 2017 Oconomowoc Area Historical Tour:
M.J. Althouse & the Windmill
The scene is August 10th , 1828. Pennsylvania. On this day, a genius of industry is born. His name, M. J. Althouse. Though at the time a relatively average boy, Althouse would soon become one of the most important (and ironically one of the least renown) engineers of his time. What was his great innovation you may ask? Something so common that it’s hard to believe there was a time we didn’t have them. Windmills.
Althouse began his long, productive life humbly. As a young man he worked at a sawmill, day and night, in the hopes of one day saving up enough money to see the great American West. He soon succeeded in making enough money and set out to find his ‘Manifest Destiny’. He, however, didn’t quite make it to what we now classify as the west. Althouse instead settled down in Waupun, Wisconsin. When he first arrived there, he had only fifty cents to his name. To procure more funds, Althouse took on odd jobs every day for the price of fifty cents. These jobs included, but were not limited to, basket making, chopping wood, drilling wells, operating thrashing machines, and creating his own wood pump. Later in life, Althouse credited all his success to hard work.
With the success of his wood pump design, and the beginnings of his own company (later called Althouse, Wheeler & Co.) he decided to move on to trickier work. Making windmills. His windmills soon developed a reputation for being superior to any other in production. Not only was his product distributed throughout the United States, but also to India, New Zealand, and numerous other foreign countries. It was at this time he took on a partner with the last name Wheeler. Eventually, Althouse had patented and manufactured his pumps, patented and displayed his windmill and the Chicago World’s Fair, and designed and patented railroad car uncouplers.
- Research done by Steven Peters, written by Abby Eigenberger. Both are descendants of Althouse.
