Must be a holdover from the handcart days.
Those things had odometers on them!!
Yup; Google® IS our friend at times!
The odometer as used in modern systems, where a separate gear controls each digit, was invented in 1847 by William Clayton with help from Orson Pratt and Appleton Harmon. Clayton, a Mormon pioneer, developed the odometer (dubbed the “roadometer”) to keep track of wheel revolutions on the pioneer wagons. The odometer had at least two gears, including one which turned every quarter-mile and one which turned every ten miles.
From WIKI