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Excerpts taken from Exhibit: 150 years of Gault history reflect the story of Westport of the Westport News.
Over the last 150 years five generations of the Gault family has applied its Yankee ingenuity to survive, thrive and bring success for the family and the community of their hometown, Westport, Connecticut. The Gault family is such a staple in the their community that the Westport Historical Society has created an exhibit, showcasing 150 years of Gault family Memorabilia, entitled “Five Generations of Yankee Ingenuity.” The exhibit includes vintage photos, documents, tools and artifacts all depicting the story of how the family as well as Westport itself has grown and changed over the years.
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| Bill Gault looks at artifacts from five generations of his family that are displayed in a new exhibit that opened Friday at the Westport Historical Society. Photo: Mike Lauterborn |
The Gault's immigrated to Westport, Connecticut from Ireland in the mid-19th century. Their first business began with a young entrepreneur named Robert Gault, who started his delivery service with one horse and one wagon. His sons later expanded the business, which originally delivered from the Saugatuck rail station to upstream factories, later expanded with the demand for lumber, stone and coal. Their enterprises continued to expand and change into rock and gravel crushing, sand and home heating oil delivery. Westport began to change rapidly, especially when Interstate 95 construction began in the mid 1950s. The Gaults lost half their riverfront land, along with oil storage tanks, to eminent domain. The Gault Family, eager to keep up with the rapid development, again expanded their business with oil burner installation and increasing their service beyond Westport. Today the business is led by Bill Gault, his son Sam and son in-law Jim Donaher. Megan Smith-Gill, the Gault Energy & Stone marketing officer, was commissioned along with Max Communications and the historical society exhibits committee to gather the memorabilia necessary to visually showcase this great story in the exhibit. According to Smith-Gill the Gault Family have done and incredible job of preserving the family archives over 5 generations. Making it easy to tell the story of one of Westport’s most influential family.
"Five Generations of Yankee Ingenuity, The Gault Family" runs through Sept. 2 at the Westport Historical Society. For more information please visit http://westporthistory.org/.
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