Talk to Loescher

This ad from the advertisers' section of the 1920 Nicolet, Menasha High's annual, promotes the use of the Evinrude motor for any boat, first introduced in 1909.  Loescher's Hardware on Main Street carried the motors and the other requisite outdoor gear for a perfect vacation. 

The story goes that Mr. Evinrude, desiring some ice cream, rowed two and half miles across a lake west of Milwaukee during a picnic to obtain the ice cream but that it melted before he could return to the picnic site.  Purportedly, this inspired him to invent an engine that would replace the oar as a means of boat propulsion.  His first outboard motor was a one-cylinder, 1.5 hp design.