Mr. Gaston built a stone scale manufactory on Race street, the first manufacturing structure on the west side of Rock river.

The evidence

• “Gaston began his business of scale making upon Race street on the west side of Eock river, doing all his work at first by hand. In the late fall of 1844, soon after the first dam across the river was made, he built at the same spot a stone building, the first manufacturing structure on that side of Rock river, and was the first user of the new water power. The account of that scale manufactory, continued by the same family yet, is given in the chapter on Beloit manufactures.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/29-beloit-manufacturing.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 116 / book p. 626

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources