Bob Jacobson - Ole Evinrude and His Outboard Motor

OLE EVINRUDE

and His Outboard Motor

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OLE EVINRUDE

and His Outboard Motor

BOB JACOBSON

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Publishers since 1855

2009 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin

E-book edition 2013

For permission to reuse material from Ole Evinrude and His Outboard Motor, (ISBN 978-0-87020-420-3, e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-543-9), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

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Photographs identified with PH, WHi, or WHS are from the Societys collections; address requests to reproduce these photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706.

Designed by Jill Bremigan

13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Jacobson, Bob, 1963

Ole Evinrude and his outboard motor / Bob Jacobson.

p. cm.(Badger biographies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87020-420-3
1. Evinrude, Ole, 18771934. 2. Outboard motorsHistoryJuvenile literature. 3. Inventors United StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 4. BusinessmenWisconsinBiographyJuvenile literature. 5. Norwegian AmericansWisconsinBiographyJuvenile literature. I. Title.

VM348.J33 2008

338.762387234092dc22

[B]

2008030790

Front cover: Norwegian Emigrant Museum

This book is dedicated to the generations of immigrants from all over the world who have settled in Wisconsin in search of a better life for their children and grandchildren. Some of them, like Ole Evinrude, have left a lasting mark in business, science, or some other field. Most of them have lived quieter lives but have nevertheless contributed in a huge way to their communities. It is those people and their families who give Wisconsin its special flavor, making it a great place to live, visit, or just putter around in a motorboat.

Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a gift from Mrs. Harvey E. Vick of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Contents

Meet Ole Evinrude

a common sight on Wisconsin lakes. Little did he know that the idea he had one hot summer day to put a motor on a boat would make his name and Wisconsin famous for outboard motors.

Ole Evinrude was born on April 19, 1877, on a farm about 60 miles from Christiana, the largest city in Norway. Christianas name was changed to Oslo soon after Ole was born. Oslo is still Norways biggest city and its capital.

Ole was born on a farm near Christiana, the largest city in Norway.

Ole was the oldest boy among his parents 11 children. His father, Andrew, was a skills. Oles earliest memories of Norway were of the lake near the Evinrude farm. He loved to play on its shore and watch the boats go by.

When Ole was 5 years old, the Evinrude family moved to America in search of a better life. Even at that young age, Oles fascination with boats and engines was obvious. He spent as much of the trip across the Atlantic Ocean as possible in the ships engine room. He loved to watch the giant engines do their work. His mother and grandmother considered the engine room an unsafe place for a small child. They spent the entire trip dragging him out of the engine room, only to have him wander back at the first opportunity.

Ole came to America on a ship like this. This ship, the Bergensfjord, was part of the Norwegian America Line.

The dining room onboard the immigrant ship Bergensfjord.

The deck of the ship that brought Ole to America looked something like this.

Arriving in America, the Evinrudes settled on a farm in Cambridge, Wisconsin, near Lake Ripley. Oles education in America was divided between the old and the new. For 8 months of each year, his schooling was in English. He attended a Norwegian school for another 3 months. This may sound like a lot of schoolmost kids in America today get the whole summer offbut Ole didnt stick around for long. He left school after finishing third grade. By that time, however, he could already do the math that was usually given to eighth graders. Actually, it was pretty common for kids to leave school early in those days. Many children worked on their families farms and did not go to school at all (even though Wisconsin had a law requiring that all children ages 7 to 14 attend school for at least 12 weeks a year).

This wheat farm was in a Norwegian community close to Cambridge where Ole lived.