Danish immigrant Christian Nelson, a schoolteacher and candy store owner,
began experimenting in 1921 with different ways to adhere melted chocolate
to bricks of ice cream in Onawa, Iowa. He began selling his invention under
the name "I-Scream Bars." In 1921, he filed for a patent, and secured an
agreement with local chocolate producer Russell C. Stover to mass-produce
them under the new trademarked name "Eskimo Pie", a name suggested by
Mrs.. Stover, and to create the Eskimo Pie Corporation. After the patent 
was issued on January 24, 1922, Nelson franchised the product, allowing
ice cream manufacturers to produce them under that name.

Christian Kent Nelson (1922)

Early ad for Eskimo Pies, November 3, 1921