Charlie Nagreen born in Hortonville, Wisconsin in 1870, where he spent his boyhood.
Nagreen was said to have been only 15 years old on August 5, 1885, when he first began frying his hamburger patties in butter and selling them from an ox-drawn cart at the Outagamie County Fair.
Charlie Nagreen of Wisconsin was said age 15 years old, sold hamburgers from his ox-drawn food stand at the Outagamie County Fair.
Business wasn't good and he quickly realized that it was because meatballs were too difficult to eat while strolling around the fair. In a flash of innovation, he flattened the meatballs, placed them between two slices of bread and called his new creation a hamburger.
This legend is so well known and retold, that in 2007, The State Assembly of Wisconsin proclaimed Seymour, Wisconsin as the “Original Home of the Hamburger”. The town of Seymour holds a festival every year to honor the hamburger.
He was known to many as "Hamburger Charlie." He continued to sell his creation at the county fair for the next 65 years.
Charlie Nagreen: Hamburger’s inventor
