Mercury Marine - Company Beginnings

Company Beginnings

The company began when engineer Carl Kiekhaefer purchased a small outboard motor company in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Kiekhaefer's original intention for the Kiekhaefer Corporation was to make magnetic separators for the dairy industry. The purchase included 300 defective outboard motors. Kiekhaefer and a small staff of employees rebuilt the motors and sold them to Montgomery Ward, a mail-order company. The motors were much improved, so the buyer purchased more. Kiekhaefer designed motors that withstood the elements better than his competition and called the motor Mercury after the Roman god. Kiekhaefer took more than 16,000 orders at the 1940 New York Boat Show.

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