Gottfried Schloemer
Gottfried Schlemer or Godfrey Schlemer was a coopersmith, mechanic and inventor who lived on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US. His principal claim to fame rests on the motor wagon that he built there in 1889, which some have hailed as the first workable gasolineengine automobile ever built in the United States, four years ahead of Charles and Frank Duryea, who are most often identified with this achievement.
Schloemer was born near Cologne on the Rhine river August 25, 1842. He immigrated to America from Prussia with his family when he wasyears old in May 1845. According to the National Archives he arrived in New York port on the ship Harriett on July 1, 1845. They then traveled to Milwaukee and arrived there in June 1846 and bought some farm land on Beloit Road. Schloemer was raised on this farm and when he became an adult he moved out of state and took up jobs in the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Source: Wikipedia