Henry Harnischfeger

Henry Harnischfeger (July 10, 1855 – November 15, 1930) was a pioneer in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin mining industry.

Harnischfeger was born in Salmünster, Kreis Schlüchtern, Hesse-Nassau on July 10, 1855. He left his homeland in 1872 and came to the United States. He arrived in the U.S. on April 9th, and was employed by Singer Sewing Machine Company, which is now known as the Singer Corporation. He worked there for 9 years, and then came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He then worked for the White Hill Sewing Machine Company where he managed castings patternmaking and gear machining operations within the Whitehill factory with Alonzo Pawling. They formed a machine and pattern shop on December 1, 1884. to manufacture, assemble and service components and equipment needed by other, larger manufacturing firms in the region.

In 1883 Pawling opened up Milwaukee Tool and Pattern Shop with Mauritz Weiss. The partnership dissolved after one year, and Harnischfeger took over Weiss' interests. Their customers included industrial knitting machine manufacturers, brick makers, grain drying equipment manufacturers and beer brewers.

They Manufactured valves for Bruno V. Nordberg. Bruno left Allis and rented the loft space above Pawling and Harnischfeger.

Christopher W. LeValley also came to the shop for custom work. He went on to found the Chain Belt Company

Frederick Pabst, who at that the time owned Best Brewing Company with Emil Schandein, gave them brewery equipment orders. In 1887, Pawling and Harnischfeger helped rebuild and upgrade an overhead bridge crane within the foundry operations of the Edward P. Allis Manufacturing Company, owned by Edward P. Allis, that collapsed following an attempt to move a load beyond its rated lifting capacity. The rebuilt crane featured a simplified system of motors and gearboxes to drive the bridge, trolley and hoist functions on the lifting machine, replacing a complex system of ropes and pulleys that failed on the earlier version. Soon after, Pawling and Harnischfeger began building their own line of overhead cranes for manufacturing and warehouse operations.

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