The story
Clair A. Gilson, a true inventive genius, was one of many notable people through the years who settled, at least for part of their lives, in or near Martin County. In 1927, the Gilsons bought a parcel of wilderness acreage six miles up river from Stuart, which then was accessible only by boat and built their home.
It was here that the Gilson Slide Rule Company, literally the little factory in the woods, produced the world famous and unique circular slide rule. The modest ?plant’ located on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, was situated at a remote site near the end of rural Murphy Road on a sand trail, later to be named Gilson Road.
This family-run operation, which occupied part of the Gilson homestead on the river bank, was headed by Clair A. Gilson, a civil engineer from Michigan who moved his business and family to the area during the boom years of the 1920s. With his wife, Clara, their two sons, Richard and Stuart and his father, John, the precision instruments were manufactured and shipped to laboratories, businesses and banks around the world.
Used by scientists, engineers, navigators and anyone needing to make mathematical computations, the Gilson circular slide rule proved to be far more practical and accurate (with a tolerance of plus or minus 0.0024) than the traditional straight slide rule and the business enterprise was quite successful.
However, with declining health in the early 1960s, Clair sold the business to Daniel W. Fagen of Stuart on May 1, 1962. Clair Gilson died a few weeks later on May 17, at his home. Fagen owned the Fagen Transfer Storage Company on Flagler Ave. in Stuart where Dan eventually moved the slide rule operations and equipment. By trial and error he learned the manufacturing process, which also involved learning how to construct parts for the equipment, much of which was over 40 years old.
By the early 1970s, Fagen sold the slide rule business to another individual, who also had to learn the arduous procedure. Very shortly thereafter, however, electronic calculators were introduced to the marketplace, ending the once high demand for the slide rule.
