Enlarge

Portrait of Ole Evinrude, late 1920s

Portrait of Ole Evinrude, probably taken in the late 1920s. Source: WHI-36551 View the original source document: WHI 36551

b. 1877, Oslo, Norway
d. July, 1934, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Old Evinrude was an inventor, manufacturer, and founder of the outboard motor industry.

Motors

He emigrated at age five with his parents to a farm near Cambridge, Wisconsin, where he attended school. After working in Madison, Pittsburgh and Chicago, he settled in Milwaukee. He opened a patternmaking shop and spent 3 years as master patternmaker and consulting engineer with E. P. Allis Company. He designed a gasoline engine and formed a partnership called Clemick and Evinrude to produce it. The group soon dissolved. Evinrude then organized a company to manufacture engines for horseless carriages. The company failed. On November 21, 1906, he married Bessie Emily Cary, grandniece of Milwaukee's pioneer settler George H. Walker.

Outboard Motors Corporation

In 1910, he invented the outboard motor and organized the Evinrude Motor Company. He supervised the manufacturing and made his own designs and machinery. Mrs. Evinrude managed the business, took charge of sales and directed the advertising. They sold the business in 1913. By 1921, Evinrude had perfected outboard motor design and formed the Elto Outboard Motor Company with himself as president and Mrs. Evinrude as secretary-treasurer. In 1929, Evinrude combined Lockwood Motor Company of Jackson, Michigan and the original Evinrude Motor Company to create the Outboard Motors Corporation. Evinrude served as president of the company until his death.

Learn More

Ole Evinrude

See more images, essays, newspapers and records about Ole Evinrude.

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

Sources: G. MacQuarrie, Ole Evinrude [Milwaukee, Chicago, 1947]; Encyclopedia of Amer. Biog., n.s., 5 (1936); F. L. Holmes, et al., eds., Wis. (5 vols., Chicago, 1946); Milwaukee Sentinel, May 14, 1933, July 13, 1934; J. G. Gregory, Hist. gof Milwaukee (4 vols., Chicago, 1931).