By 1870 William Gowen of Wausau, Wisconsin, was designing, and possibly building, sawmill machinery. By the end of 1889 he had been awarded more than a dozen patents. He died in 1910. A 1913 history book notes that Gowen "was a manufacturer of saw mill machinery" but does not provide any more detail. We have been able to find a single contemporaneous ad or article mentioning Gowen as a manufacturer and so we do not know what business name he may have used.

Information Sources

• 1891-91 Bensel's Wausau City Directory lists "Gowen, William inventor, res 716 Main".
• 1913 book, History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti.

  In 1846 William Gowen came to Wisconsin from Boston, Mass., and took up a homestead at Sun Prairie, but lost his land on account of meeting with a serious accident which required him to return to the East for medical treatment for his broken leg. He then visited Florida but returned to Wisconsin in the spring of 1850 and in 1851 brought his family from Boston to Marathon County, taking up a homestead in the town of Wausau, seven miles northeast of the city of Wausau, as at present. He lived there until he had acquired full ownership but later in life was a manufacturer of saw mill machinery, which he invented. His death occurred at Wausau, February 18, 1910, having survived his wife from November 15, 1892.

• FindAGrave page on William Gowen.