PERSONAL HISTORY CONTINUED.--COMMENCING BUSINESS.--SALE TO A
SOUTHERNER.--REMOVAL TO BRISTOL.--FIRST SERIOUS LOSS.
I must now go back and give a history of myself, from the winter of
1816, to this time (1825.) As I said before, I went to work for Mr.
Terry, making the Patent Shelf Clock in the winter of 1816. Mr. Thomas
had been making them for about two years, doing nearly all of the labor
on the case by hand. Mr. Terry in the mean time being a great mechanic
had made many improvements in the way of making the cases. Under his
directions I worked a long time at putting up machinery and benches. We
had a circular saw, the first one in the town, and which was considered
a great curiosity. In the course of the winter he drew another plan of
the Pillar Scroll Top Case with great improvements over the one which
Thomas was then making. I made the first one of the new style that was
ever produced in that factory, which became so celebrated for making the
patent case for more than ten years after.
When my time was out in the spring, I bought some parts of clocks,
mahogany, veneers, etc., and commenced in a small shop, business for
myself. I made the case, and bought the movements, dials and glass,
finishing a few at a time. I found a ready sale for them. I went on in
this small way for a few years, feeling greatly animated with my
prosperity, occasionally making a payment on my little house. I heard
one day of a man in Bristol, who did business in South Carolina, who
wanted to buy a few clocks to take to that market with him. I started at
once over to see him, and soon made a bargain with him to deliver twelve
wood clocks at twelve dollars apiece. I returned home greatly encouraged
by the large order, and went right to work on them. I had them finished
and boxed ready for shipping in a short time. I had agreed to deliver
them on a certain day and was to receive $144 in cash. I hired an old
horse and lumber wagon of one of my neighbors, loaded the boxes and took
an early start for Bristol. I was thinking all the way there of the
large sum that I was to receive, and was fearful that something might
happen to disappoint me. I arrived at Bristol early in the forenoon and
hurried to the house of my customer, and told him I had brought the the
clocks as agreed. He said nothing but went into another room with his
son. I thought surely that something was wrong and that I should not get
the wished-for money, but after a while the old gentleman came back and
sat down by the table. "Here," he says, "is your money, and a heap of
it, too." It did look to me like a large sum, and took us a long time to
count it. This was more than forty years ago, and money was very scarce.
I took it with a trembling hand, and securing it safely in my pocket,
started immediately for home. This was a larger sum than I had ever had
at one time, and I was much alarmed for fear that I should be robbed of
my treasure before I got home. I thought perhaps it might be known that
I was to receive a large sum for clocks, and that some robbers might be
watching in a lonely part of the road and take it from me, but not
meeting any, I arrived safely home, feeling greatly encouraged and
happy. I told my wife that I would make another payment on our house,
which I did with a great deal of satisfaction. After this I was so
anxious to get along with my work that I did not so much as go out into
the street for a week at a time. I would not go out of the gate from the
time I returned from church one Sunday till the next. I loved to work as
well as I did to eat. I remember once, when at school, of chopping a
whole load of wood, for a great lazy boy, for one penny, and I used to
chop all the wood I could get from the families in the neighborhood,
moonlight nights, for very small sums. The winter after I made this
large sale, I took about one dozen of the Pillar Scroll Top Clocks, and
went to the town of Wethersfield to sell them. I hired a man to carry me
over there with a lumber wagon, who returned home. I would take one of
these clocks under each arm and go from house to house and offer them
for sale. The people seemed to be well pleased with them, and I sold
them for eighteen dollars apiece. This was good luck for me. I sold my
last one on Saturday afternoon. There had been a fall of snow the night
before of about eight or ten inches which ended in a rain, and made very
bad walking. Here I was, twenty-five miles from home, my wife was
expecting me, and I felt that I could not stay over Sunday. I was
anxious to tell my family of my good luck that we might rejoice
together. I started to walk the whole distance, but it proved to be the
hardest physical undertaking that I ever experienced. It was bedtime
when I reached Farmington, only one-third the distance, wallowing in
snow porridge all the way. I did not reach home till near Sunday
morning, more dead than alive. I did not go to church that day, which
made many wonder what had become of me, for I was always expected to be
in the singers' seat on Sunday. I did not recover from the effects of
that night-journey for a long time. Soon after this occurrence, I began
to increase my little business, and and employed my old joiner "boss"
and one of his apprentices; bought my mahogany in the plank and sawed my
own vaneers [sic] with a hand-saw. I engaged a man with a one horse
wagon to go to New York after a load of mahogany, and went with him to
select it. The roads were very muddy, and we were obliged to walk the
whole distance home by the side of the wagon. I worked along in this
small way until the year 1821, when I sold my house and lot, which I had
almost worshipped, to Mr. Terry; it was worth six hundred dollars. He
paid me one hundred wood clock movements, with the dials, tablets, glass
and weights. I went over to Bristol to see a man by the name of George
Mitchell, who owned a large two story house, with a barn and seventeen
acres of good land in the southern part of the town, which he said he
would sell and take his pay in clocks. I asked him how many of the Terry
Patent Clocks he would sell it for; he said two hundred and fourteen. I
told him I would give it, and closed the bargain at once. I finished up
the hundred parts which I had got from Mr. Terry, exchanged cases with
him for more, obtained some credit, and in this way made out the
quantity for Mitchell.
The next summer I lost seven hundred and forty dollars by Moses Galpin
of Bethlem. Five or six others with myself trusted this man Galpin with
a large quantity of clocks, and he took them to Louisiana to sell in the
fall of 1821. In the course of the winter he was taken sick and died
there. One of his pedlars came home the next spring without one dollar
in money; the creditors were called together to see what had better be
done. The note that he had given me the fall before was due in July, and
I as much expected it as I did the sun to rise and set. Here was trouble
indeed; it was a great sum of money to lose, and what to do I didn't
know. The creditors had several meetings and finally concluded to send
out a man to look after the property that was scattered through the
state. He could not go without money. We thought if we furnished him
with means to go and finish up the business, we should certainly get
enough to pay the original debt. It was agreed that we should raise a
certain sum, and that each one should pay in proportion to the amount of
his claim. My part was one hundred dollars, and it was a hard job for me
to raise so large a sum after my great loss. When it came fall and time
for him to start, I managed in some way to have it ready. This man's
name was Isaac Turner, about fifty years old, and said to be very
respectable. He started out and traveled all over the state, but found
every thing in the worst kind of shape. The men to whom Galpin had sold
would not pay when they heard that he was dead. Mr. Turner was gone from
home ten months, but instead of his returning with money for us, we were
obliged to pay money that he had borrowed to get home with, besides his
expenses for the ten months that he was gone. This was harder for me
than any of the others, and was indeed a bitter pill. As it was my first
heavy loss I could not help feeling very bad.
In the winter and spring of 1822, I built a small shop in Bristol, for
making the cases only, as all of the others made the movements. The
first circular saw ever used there was put up by myself in 1822, and
this was the commencement of making cases by machinery in that town,
which has since been so renowned for its clock productions. I went on
making cases in a small way for a year or two, sometimes putting in a
few movements and selling them, but not making much money. The clocks of
Terry and Thomas sold first rate, and it was quite difficult to buy any
of the movements, as no others were making the Patent Clock at that
time. I was determined to have some movements to case, and went to
Chauncey Boardman, who had formerly made the old fashioned hang-up
movements, and told him I wanted him to make me two hundred of his kind
with such alterations as I should suggest. He said he would make them
for me. I had them altered and made so as to take a case about four feet
long, which I made out of pine, richly stained and varnished. This made
a good clock for time and suited farmers first rate.
In the spring of 1824, I went into company with two men by the name of
Peck, from Bristol. We took two hundred of these movements and a few
tools in two one horse wagons and started East, intending to stop in the
vicinity of Boston. We stopped at a place about fifteen miles from there
called East Randolph; after looking about a little, we concluded to
start our business there and hired a joiners' shop of John Adams, a
cousin of J.Q. Adams. We then went to Boston and bought a load of
lumber, and commenced operations. I was the case-maker of our concern,
and 'pitched into' the pine lumber in good earnest. I began four cases
at a time and worked like putting out fire on them. My partners were
waiting for some to be finished so that they could go out and sell. In
two or three days I had got them finished and they started with them,
and I began four more. In a day or two they returned home having sold
them at sixteen dollars _each_. This good fortune animated me very
much. I worked about fourteen or fifteen hours per day, and could make
about four cases and put in the glass, movements and dials. We worked on
in this way until we had finished up the two hundred, and sold them at
an average of sixteen dollars apiece. We had done well and returned home
with joyful hearts in the latter part of June. On arriving home I found
my little daughter about five years old quite sick. In a week after she
died. I deeply felt the loss of my little daughter, and every 7th of
July it comes fresh into my mind.
In the fall of 1824, I formed a company with my brother, Noble Jerome,
and Elijah Darrow, for the manufacturing of clocks, and began making a
movement that required a case about six or eight inches longer than the
Terry Patent. We did very well at this for a year or two, during which
time I invented the Bronze Looking Glass Clock, which soon
revolutionized the whole business. As I have said before, it could be
made for one dollar less and sold for two dollars more than the Patent
Case; they were very showy and a little longer. With the introduction of
this clock in the year 1825, closed the second chapter of the history of
the Yankee Clock business.