I found this watch fob while using a metal detector in an early 1900s Wyoming railroad town. The fob is marked: “Guelph Ont. Port Washington, Wis. Gilson Manufacturing. Gasoline Engine.” Would any Farm Collector readers know more about it and the date it was produced?
Mike Redford, phone: (801) 391-9705; email: mredford06@my.com.
Editor’s note: According to C.H. Wendel’s American Gasoline Engines Since 1872, Vol. 1, Gilson Mfg. Co. was launched in Port Washington, Wisconsin, in 1850. The first Gilson engine was developed in 1905. Gilson Mfg. Co. Ltd., Guelph, Ontario, Canada, was incorporated in 1906. The first “made in Canada” Gilson appeared in 1907. The American company was sold to H.W. Bolens (subsequently Bolens Mfg. Co.) in 1914. According to Gas Engine Magazine archives, the Canadian company was sold the same year. Gilson engines continued in production in Port Washington for less than three years; Canadian-built Gilson engines remained in production until 1929 or ’30..
