Gregg, Mahlon

  Mahlon Gregg was born on Feb 9th, 1820, in Kennett Township, Chester County, PA to Jesse Gregg and Mary Clark Nelson. Kennett is wedged just outside Wilmington, Delaware, and during his youth, Mahlon would claim both Wilmington and Philadelphia as his home. During his younger years he was concerned with agricultural implements, and his patented numerous improvements to quite a few. His inventions were marketed through a partnership with Jacob Pierson and their company “Pierson and Gregg, Makers of Agricultural Implements”. This company would dissolve on amicable grounds in December of 1843.   Shortly after the dissolution of Piers and Gregg, Mahlon would move to the Rochester, New York. Here he would work as a Millwright, and in 1847 he would marry Martha Demaris Frazer of nearby Pittsford. In 1854 Gregg’s attention would shift to Edge Tools, possibly influenced by the success of D.R. Barton of the same town. He would concentrate his manufacturing on Cooper’s, Shipwright’s, and Carpenter’s tools and name his company the “Rochester Edge Tool Works”. As he years went by, Mahlon and Martha would have 2 sons and 3 daughters. His 2nd son, James Nelson Gregg, born in 1858, would take an interest in his fathers work and would eventually follow in his footsteps. James would partner with his father and form M. Gregg and Son, proprietors of the Rochester Edge Tool Works. Their factory was located at the end of Falls Street, below the Upper Falls of the Genesee River.   The Gregg’s main competition was D.R. Barton, who would sell his company to the Mack brothers of Mack and Co in 1874. Mack and Co. would build a large factory next to the Rochester Edge Tool Works in 1888, edging the smaller company competitively. Mahlon Gregg passed away on June 22nd of 1890, though James would continue to run the company to some extent until 1901, at which point he sold the factory and the land it was on to the Rochester Gas and Electric Company.