Frederick Louis Maytag I

[3] In 1867, when Frederick was ten years old, the family traveled in a covered wagon to a small farm near Laurel, Iowa.

In the 1910s, he left the day-to-day company operation in the hands of sons Elmer and Lewis, to concentrate on other business areas including innovations of a washing machine with a gas powered motor branded as the Multi-Motor and a washing machine with an agitator that forced the water through the clothes branded as the Gyrafoam.

These inventions proved extremely valuable as by 1927, the Maytag Company was producing more than twice the washers of its nearest competition and had outperformed the industry with growth doubling for five consecutive years.

In 1937, Frederick Maytag died of a heart ailment at Good Samaritan Hospital, near his winter home in Beverly Hills, California.

[8][9] A special train brought mourners from the east coast to Newton, Iowa, and an estimated 10,000 factory workers and salesmen formed a line five blocks long to observe the casket processional.