John Froelich

John Froehlich (also Froelich ) (* August 9, 1849, † May 23 1933 in St. Paul, Minnesota ) was a German-born, American inventor.

John was the son of German immigrant Johannes Heinrich (Henry) Froelich (* 1813 in Kassel) and Kathryn Gutheil, who settled in 1847 in Clayton County, Iowa. He took classes at the College of Iowa, where he studied mechanical engineering. After absolvence of college he decided to construct a gasoline-powered tractor for agriculture. Until then, tractors had been driven by heavy steam engines.

Together with William Mann, he was able to realize this construction by the year 1892. After the completion of the 16 hp tractor, the two designers brought their machine according to Langford, South Dakota, where they ankoppelten to a threshing machine. Within 52 days, they were able to thresh 72,000 bushels of grain. In 1893 he founded with some business people from Waterloo ( Iowa), the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company.

The invention he sold in 1918 to Deere & Company.

He married after his retirement from the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and moved to Dubuque (Iowa) where he was employed by the Novelty Iron Works. He then worked for his brother Gottlieb and was until 1910 Vice- President of the Henderson - Froelich Manufacturing Company. She then worked as an investment adviser in St. Paul ( Minnesota). With the stock market crash of 1929, he lost his fortune. He died in 1933 in St. Paul of heart failure.