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Edward Phelps Allis, 1948

Head and shoulders portrait of Edward Allis. View the original source document: WHI 102067

The United States became the world's number one industrial nation by 1900. The U.S. led in meatpacking, mining and timber and steel production. Manufacturing in Wisconsin focused mainly on extracting raw materials like lead, lumber and furs from the state. In contrast to the rest of the state, manufacturing in Milwaukee focused on creating finished consumer goods from raw materials.

Milwaukee

Milwaukee's history of small, skilled craft shops provided a foundation for the large manufacturing companies that later dominated the area. Milwaukee also had the advantages of an expanding urban market, a steady stream of immigrant labor and access to materials and customers through an improved transportation system. 

Iron

Milwaukee built foundries and metal businesses before the iron and steel industries in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. The Milwaukee Iron Company opened in Bay View in 1870. The plant produced iron rails for railroads. 

Allis

Edward P. Allis purchased Milwaukee's Reliance Works in 1860. He named it the Allis Company in 1861. The Allis Company began producing iron pipes for water systems in Milwaukee and Chicago. Allis invented a high-speed saw for large sawmills with millwright George Hinckley. The Allis Company became Milwaukee largest manufacturer in the 1880s. The company was world-famous for making machinery for mines, power plants and public utilities. The company became the Allis-Chalmers Company in 1901, and continued to produce machinery and other products until the 1980s.

Agriculture

Most small towns outside of Milwaukee hosted only one or two industries. In Racine, J. I. Case made threshers and steam engines that became industry standard. Many towns along the Rock River Valley manufactured agricultural products; the only exception was La Crosse, a center for lumbering and riverboat manufacture.

Paper

Large-scale papermaking began along the lower Fox River in the 1880s. The first wood pulp mill began operating in Appleton in 1871. Most paper mills on the Fox River were converted flour mills. Paper grew to become the state's fourth largest industry in 1925.

Ships

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Manitowoc Ship Building Company, 1950

Aerial view showing shipyards, rivers and roads. View the original source document: WHI 103843

Shipbuilding has been an important industry along Lake Superior and Lake Michigan since the 19th century. Builders along Superior began making lake schooners in the 1850s and supplied cargo vessels during World War II. Manitowoc began producing ships in the 1850s. It made hundreds of schooners, tugboats and steamboats and began producing freighters, car ferries, oil tankers and bulk carriers after World War I. The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company never built submarines, but promised the Navy 10 submarine during World War II. The shipyard ended up supplying 28 ships in the time the Navy had allotted to build 10.

Manufacturing still dominates Wisconsin's economy. Milwaukee continues to produce heavy machinery, tools, vehicles, metal products, medical instruments, farm implements and lumber. Fox Valley still hosts one of the largest paper industries in the nation. The state's northern ports accommodate large, oceangoing ships and some of the nation's largest shipyards and docks.

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[Source: The History of Wisconsin vols. 3 and 4 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin); Kasparek, Jon, Bobbie Malone and Erica Schock. Wisconsin History Highlights: Delving into the Past (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004); Reaves, Shiela. Wisconsin: Land of Change (Sun Valley, CA: American Historical Press, 2004)]