Waukesha Motor Company

Product Details

Historical Context

In 1906 Harry L. Horning and Frederick Ahrens were operating a motor car garage in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Operating the garage had allowed them to work on a wide range of engines. Determined to build an engine of their own, they found a group of investors and established the Waukesha Motor Company.

Allen Stebbins was their largest investor and he was selected to become the President and Sales Manager. Ahrens would become the Superintendant of Works and Vice President. Horning served as Engineer, Secretary and Treasurer. Stebbins left the company in 1908, Aherns in 1910. Harry Horning would serve as the President of the company from 1925, until his death in 1935.

Waukesha had a 4 cylinder engine available in 1907. The first sales were for marine engines, but sales for automobiles and trucks followed. In 1908 the company sold an engine to the Chicago Fire Department to begin the departments conversion from horses to motorized equipment. By 1912 the company had grown from a handful of workers to more than 100 employees. Demand for engines grew with the start of World War 1, and in 1916 Wauskesha had 1000 workers.

At this point Waukesha was building a wide range of engines, and had developed good international sales. In 1922 the company claimed to have a range of engines in sizes from 6 to 1200 horsepower. This diversity of markets helped the company survive the post war recession and the depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash. During the 1930s Waukesha would begin to expand into other product lines developing refrigeration and cooling systems for use by the railroads.

World War II would again see the company busy manufacturing and its workforce had increased to more than 2000 employees when the war ended.

After the war the company continued to expand and find new markets. During the 1950s it would expand into stationary engine power generation. In 1957 Waukesha acquired the Climax Engineering Company, a manufacturer of small industrial motors and equipment. In 1958 the company acquired the LeRoi Company, another engine manufacturer. LeRoi engines would continue to be sold under the name RoiLine until 1974. In 1960 the company acquired O&M Manufacturing, a builder of radiators and heat exchangers. In 1963 Waukesha acquired the Cerlist Diesel Engine Company a maker of small diesel engines.

Waukesha was acquired by the Punta Bangor Corporation in 1968. Waukesha would continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of this company until 1974 when it was sold to Dresser Industries, becoming the Waukesha Engine Division. By the 1990s Waukesha had become a major supplier of stationary engines for power generation.

In 2011 General Electric purchased the company.

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