A.W.Gray & Sons

Near this site Albert W. Gray manufactured his horse power treadmills, which he invented and patented in 1844 and 1856. He also invented a corn sheller, patented in 1836, and a machine for making wrought iron nails. For over 50 years the shop, under the management of A. W. and his sons, Leonidas and Albert Y., employed some 60 workers to produce treadmills, threshers, wood saws, ensilage cutters and gasoline engines that were sold all over the world. In 1868 A. W. Gray rediscovered Middletowns mineral springs, which had been lost after the flood of 1811, inspiring a change in the towns name to Middletown Springs in 1885. The Grays bottled and sold the waters, helped finance construction of the Montvert Hotel resort in 1871, and built their own fashionable homes nearby.