Edward P. Allis
Edward P. Allis was an American businessman who founded the Edward P. Allis Company, a manufacturer of milling and mining equipment, steam engines and other largescale capital equipment. He was a notable ideologue in the Greenback Movement, running for governor of Wisconsin as a candidate of the Greenback Party. About a decade after his death, his company merged with others to form the AllisChalmers Manufacturing Company.
Allis was born on May 12, 1824, in Cazenovia, New York. A graduate of Union College in 1845, Allis moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1846 and started a leather company with a tannery in Two Rivers. In 1856 he sold out to his partners, and for a period of time he was out of business, until 1860 when he purchased an iron products manufacturing company. The company grew rapidly and by 1867 had built a large manufacturing works on the near south side on Florida Street. Most of the early business involved making flour mill apparatus, Wisconsin at that time being a leading wheat producing state. The southside facility was known as the Reliance Works which became the brand name for these products. Eventually the Edward P. Allis Company expanded into steam engines, saw mill equipment, iron piping, and other products.
Source: Wikipedia