Between 1892 and 1952 Florence had a blacksmith by the name of Alex Gay. His shop was located where the current Florence Post Office is today. As a blacksmith one of his primary tasks was shoeing horses, but he also made nails, buckets, and nearly anything out of metal. In Alex's case, he was so talented that he even made many of his own tools!
The shop evolved over the sixty years it was in operation. He started out with a manual bellow to blow air over hot coals, with hand or foot-powered tools. As time went on he had a gasoline engine that used a belt and lineshaft system, with the engine turning the lineshaft and the tools connected to the spinning lineshaft with belts. An electric fan replaced the manual bellow. His shop was said to be filled with many of his own inventions.
Alex was born Jose Alejandro Andres Gay in 1875 in the Arizona territory. His father was from Switzerland and his mother from Mexico. Alex was married twice, with his first wife Catalina Reyes dying and leaving him a son. He remarried and had three children with his second wife, Guadalupe Rodriguez.
