Beloit was little more than a settlement when N.B. Gaston came to Wisconsin. That was in 1844. The western frontier was gradually moving beyond the Mississippi, and in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois the rich Rock River valley was becoming an important agricultural section.

The year he came to Beloit he started to build a factory. With the completion of part of the new building he began to manufacture scales. The Gaston Scale Works continued to produce an article needed by farmers and by industrial and commercial interests nearly a century – for 94 years.

His frontier manufacturing business was difficult. Distribution and sufficient sales expansion to support the new venture had its hardships. In the early years it was a matter of making a few scales and then loading the product into a wagon to sell from farm to farm.

It was the need for such equipment that caused determination and N.B. Gaston saw a brighter future. Two sons, T.E. Gaston and T.I. Gaston, devoted their energies to the business and it developed. The product was good and it was efficient.

Not many years passed until the railroad came to Beloit and Gaston scales were shipped in carload lots to all parts of the country.

N.B. Gaston was born in New York in 1810, and he was active until a few months before he died, July 10, 1900.