Louis Allis was born in Milwaukee on December 30, 1866, the ninth of twelve children born to Edward P. and Margaret Allis. He attended Markham Academy in Milwaukee and received a degree in civil engineering from Pennsylvania Military College in 1888. After graduation, Allis returned to Milwaukee and began his business career as a clerk at E. P. Allis Co. He left the company in 1901, shortly before it became part of the Allis-Chalmers Company, and for several years is thought to have engaged in supervision of the timber and mining holdings of the E. P. Allis estate. In 1901 he invested in the recently formed Mechanical Appliance Co., a Milwaukee manufacturer of small direct-current motors. By eliminating line shafts and drive belts, the Mechanical Appliance Co. pioneered in the development of industrial electric motors and became an important contributor to safety and efficiency. In 1903 Allis became president of the firm, which was renamed the Louis Allis Company in 1922. He continued as president until his retirement in 1945.
In 1890 Louis Allis married Carol Yates, the daughter of Col. Theodore Yates (1832-1899), the commandant of the Milwaukee Soldiers Home. The couple's only child, Edward P. III (Ned), was born in 1892. Soon thereafter Mrs. Allis left Milwaukee, apparently suffering from depression.
In 1896 Mrs. E. P. Allis returned from a European trip with a set of golf clubs for her son; this gift was to have a significant impact on family life. Louis promptly joined the newly-organized Milwaukee Country Club, and in his personal correspondence he admitted “I have the [golf] fever so badly that the family laugh at me continually.” Louis Allis became a leading member of the country club, facilitating the move from the city's upper east side to a tract of land several miles north of the city limits. When he died in 1950 Milwaukee newspapers referred to Allis as the “Father of Golf in Wisconsin.” Ned Allis excelled at the sport at a young age, and he was a prominent amateur player throughout his life.
After several unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation Louis and Carol Allis divorced in 1907, and in 1911 Louis married Louise Hegen. The couple had four children: Louis, Jr. (b. 1916); John W. (b. 1918); William W. (b. 1921); and Robert T. (b. 1925). In 1927 Allis sold the mansion he had built in 1912 in the Yankee Hill neighborhood at Juneau Place and Martin Street to the city of Milwaukee. (The house was subsequently razed in order to expand Juneau Park). The family moved to the 112 acre estate on Dean Road near the country club which had first been purchased in 1918 as a summer residence.
