Immigrant
Hieronymus Mueller was born in Wertheim, Germany in 1832. Political unrest caused him to immigrate to the United States around 1850. He found work in gun and machine shops in Freeport, Illinois and married Frederica Bernhardt, a Prussian immigrant. His brothers advised him to “pick a good town with a railroad and grow with it. Decatur, a town south of here, is at the junction of two railroads. Go there and grow up with the town.” Hieronymus moved his young family to Decatur in 1857, and after a short and unsuccessful effort in the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, returned to Decatur to begin his life as an inventor and businessman.
Patriarch
The Mueller family consisted of six sons and one daughter, born between 1858 and 1871. The sons played active roles in many facets of the growing company, including management, research and development. The children built fine homes in Decatur and two of the sons, having recognized the architectural genius of Frank Lloyd Wright, hired his firm to design residences which still stand on Decatur’s Millikin Place. The museum has exhibits tracing the family history and genealogy.
Inventory
Hieronymus Mueller was named Decatur’s first “city plumber” in 1871 to oversee an emerging water system. The following year he patented his first major invention, the Mueller Water Tapper, which is still in use today. he and his direct descendants held a total of 501 patents including the first sanitary drinking fountain, a roller skate design, and bicycle kick-stands. In 1892 Hieronymus imported a Benz auto from Germany and he and his sons immediately began refining it with such features as a reverse gear, water cooled radiator, spark plugs and a distributor. The Mueller-Benz won the first unofficial road race in the country in 1895 and later finished second in the first official race held in Chicago. The museum has many exhibits related to the inventions and patents held by the Muellers.
Businessman
Hieronymus was a good business man, putting profits back into his enterprises and building a good relationship with his workers whom he considered “family.” His sons carried on those principles after his death in 1900 and the company continued to grow adding the manufacturers of vitreous ware and related fixtures (no longer made), fire hydrants (half of all American hydrants today are Mueller), a full line of water distribution products. Mueller Co. remained in family ownership until 1986, and the company is a thriving enterprise today. The museum traces the history of the company, its employees and its products and has an excellent display of the manufacturing process used in the Decatur facility.
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