John Froelich (November 24, 1849 – May 24, 1933) was an Iowan inventor and entrepreneur, who invented the first stable gasoline-powered tractor with forward and reverse gears. He received several patents relating to tractors and internal combustion engines.
Life and career
Froelich was born in 1849 in Giard, Iowa to Henry and Kathryn () Froelich. Henry, whose original name was Johannes Heinrich Froelich, from Kurhessen, today part of the German state of Hesse. John Froelich grew up in the small town of Froelich, Iowa, named for his father Henry Froelich. invented one of the first gasoline-powered tractors by mounting a one-cylinder Van Duzen gasoline engine on a Robinson engine frame, propelled by Froelich's own gearing. and thresh 72,000 bushels in 52 days.
In 1893, Froelich and a group of investors founded the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company, based in Waterloo, Iowa. The company only produced four tractors, and only sold two, both of which were returned as unsatisfactory. In 1895 the company abandoned tractor manufacturing and changed the name to Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, producing stationary engines instead. Here, he developed a new type of clothes-washing machine he named the Froelich Neostyle Washer, which brought him considerable financial prosperity.
He later moved to Marshalltown, eventually settling in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1929.
John Froelich's innovations helped pave the way for modern farming, and contributed to the establishment of Waterloo as a center for internal combustion engine production in the early years of the 20th century.