inventor of the Tainter Gate. He went to Menomonie to work in the Knapp-Stout lumber  mills in 1862, where his brother Andrew (q.v.) was a manager, and while there invented the Tainter Gate. This device is used in water control dams and locks throughout the world; there are 321 Tainter Gates on the Mississippi River Basin between Minneapolis to St. Louis alone. They operate by using water power to help open and  close the gates.

Learn More

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

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

[Source: Lynch, Larry, and John Russell. Where the Wild Rice Grows: a Sesquicentennial Portrait of Menomonie, 1846-1996 ([Menomonie, Wis.]: Menomonie Sesquicentennial Commission, 1996); Dunn Co. Historical Society. ]