Mayville was founded in 1845 by Alvin and William Foster and Chester and S.P. May. These men discovered iron ore about four miles south of Mayville, and in 1846 a quantity of the ore was taken to the nearest iron smelter in Mishawaka, Indiana. In 1847 Judge Alonzo Kinyon promoted a company chartered as the Wisconsin Iron Company, and in 1848 construction of the first furnace began at Mayville. In 1849 the furnace cast its first molten iron, yielding about 12 tons per day and using charcoal from native hardwoods for fuel. The industry prospered for 79 years, modernized over time to an eventual capacity of 800 tons of iron per day, once occupied the entire area and adjacent acreage, and closed permanently in 1928 because demand for pig iron had been curtailed. The last owner was The Mayville Iron Company.