PROGRESS OF CLOCK MAKING.--IMPROVEMENTS BY ELI TERRY AND OTHERS.--SHELF
CLOCK.
At the beginning of this book I have said that I would give to the
public a history of the AMERICAN CLOCK BUSINESS. I am now the oldest man
living that has had much to do with the manufacturing of clocks, and
can, I believe, give a more correct account than any other person. This
great business has grown almost from nothing during my remembrance.
Nearly all of the clocks used in this country are made or have been made
in the small State of Connecticut, and a heavy trade in them is carried
on in foreign countries. The business or manufacture of them has become
so systematized of late that it has brought the prices exceedingly low,
and it has long been the astonishment of the whole world how they could
be made so cheap and yet be good. A gentleman called at my factory a few
years ago, when I was carrying on the business, who said he lived in
London, and had seen my clocks in that city, and declared that he was
perfectly astonished at the price of them, and had often remarked that
if he ever came to this country he would visit the factory and see for
himself. After I had showed him all the different processes it required
to complete a clock, he expressed himself in the strongest terms--he
told me he had traveled a great deal in Europe, and had taken a great
interest in all kinds of manufactures, but had never seen anything equal
to this, and did not believe that there was anything made in the known
world that made as much show, and at the same time was as cheap and
useful as the brass clock which I was then manufacturing.
* * * * *
The man above all others in his day for the wood clock was Eli Terry. He
was born in East Windsor, Conn., in April, 1772, and made a few old
fashioned hang-up clocks in his native place before he was twenty-one
years of age. He was a young man of great ingenuity and good native
talent. He moved to the town of Plymouth, Litchfield county, in 1793,
and commenced making a few of the same kind, working alone for several
years. About the year 1800, he might have had a boy or one or two young
men to help him. They would begin one or two dozen at a time, using no
machinery, but cutting the wheels and teeth with a saw and jack-knife.
Mr. Terry would make two or three trips a year to the New Country, as it
was then called, just across the North River, taking with him three or
four clocks, which he would sell for about twenty-five dollars apiece.
This was for the movement only. In 1807 he bought an old mill in the
southern part of the town, and fitted it up to make his clocks by
machinery. About this time a number of men in Waterbury associated
themselves together, and made a large contract with him, they furnishing
the stock, and he making the movements. With this contract and what he
made and sold to other parties, he accumulated quite a little fortune
for those times. The first five hundred clocks ever made by machinery in
the country were started at one time by Mr. Terry at this old mill in
1808, a larger number than had ever been begun at one time in the world.
Previous to this time the wheels and teeth had been cut out by hand;
first marked out with square and compasses, and then sawed with a fine
saw, a very slow and tedious process. Capt. Riley Blakeslee, of this
city, lived with Mr. Terry at that time, and worked on this lot of
clocks, cutting the teeth. Talking with Capt. Blakeslee a few days
since, he related an incident which happened when he was a boy, sixty
years ago, and lived on a farm in Litchfield. One day Mr. Terry came to
the house where he lived to sell a clock. The man with whom young
Blakeslee lived, left him to plow in the field and went to the house to
make a bargain for it, which he did, paying Mr. Terry in salt pork, a
part of which he carried home in his saddle-bags where he had carried
the clock. He was at that time very poor, but twenty-five years after
was worth $200,000, all of which he made in the clock business.
Mr. Terry sold out his business to Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley, two of
his leading workmen, in 1810. This establishment was the leading one for
several years, but other ones springing up in the vicinity, the
competition became so great that the prices were reduced from ten to
five dollars apiece for the bare movement. Daniel Clark, Zenas Cook and
Wm. Porter, started clock-making at Waterbury, and carried it on largely
for several years, but finally failed and went out of the business.
Col. Wm. Leavenworth, of the same place, was in the business in 1810,
but failed, and moved to Albany, N.Y. A man by the name of Mark
Leavenworth made clocks for a long time, and in the latter part of his
life manufactured the Patent Shelf Clock.
Two brothers, James and Lemuel Harrison, made a few before the year
1800, using no machinery, making their wheels with a saw and knife.
Sixty years ago, a man by the name of Gideon Roberts got up a few in the
old way: he was an excellent mechanic and made a good article. He would
finish three or four at a time and take them to New York State to sell.
I have seen him many times, when I was a small boy, pass my father's
house on horseback with a clock in each side of his saddle-bags, and a
third lashed on behind the saddle with the dials in plain sight. They
were then a great curiosity to me. Mr. Roberts had to give up this kind
of business; he could not compete with machinery. John Rich of Bristol
was in the business; also Levi Lewis, but gave it up in a few years. An
Ives family in Bristol were quite conspicuous as clock-makers. They were
good mechanics. One of them, Joseph Ives, has done a great deal towards
improving the eight day brass clock, which I shall speak about
hereafter.
Chauncey Boardman, of Bristol, Riley Whiting, of Winsted, and Asa
Hopkins, of Northfield, were all engaged in the manufacture of the old
fashioned hang-up clock. Butler Dunbar, an old schoolmate of mine, and
father of Col. Edward Dunbar, of Bristol, was engaged with Dr. Titus
Merriman in the same business. They all gave up the business after a few
years.
Mr. Eli Terry (in the year 1814,) invented a beautiful shelf clock made
of wood, which completely revolutionized the whole business. The making
of the old fashioned hang-up wood clock, about which I have been
speaking, passed out of existence. This patent article Mr. Terry
introduced, was called the Pillar Scroll Top Case. The pillars were
about twenty-one inches long, three-quarters of an inch at the base, and
three-eights at the top--resting on a square base, and the top finished
by a handsome cap. It had a large dial eleven inches square, and tablet
below the dial seven by eleven inches. This style of clock was liked
very much and was made in large quantities, and for several years. Mr.
Terry sold a right to manufacture them to Seth Thomas, for one thousand
dollars, which was thought to be a great sum. At first, Terry and Thomas
made each about six thousand clocks per year, but afterwards increased
to ten or twelve thousand. They were sold for fifteen dollars apiece
when first manufactured. I think that these two men cleared about one
hundred thousand dollars apiece, up to the year 1825. Mr. Thomas had
made a good deal of money on the old fashioned style, for he made a good
article, and had but little competition, and controlled most of the
trade.
In 1818, Joseph Ives invented a metal clock, making the plates of iron
and the wheels of brass. The movement was very large, and required a
case about five feet long. This style was made for two or three years,
but not in large quantities.
In the year 1825, the writer invented a new case, somewhat larger than
the Scroll Top, which was called the Bronze Looking-Glass Clock. This
was the richest looking and best clock that had ever been made, for the
price. They could be got up for one dollar less than the Scroll Top, yet
sold for two dollars more.