Out of the Dust: Tower Clock Letter

(Madison County) In the past several years I was involved, to a minor extent, in the restoration of some tower clocks in Madison County. When I found this letter in the county archives, it immediately caught my interest. It is undated and does not indicate to whom it was sent or how it should end up in the county files.

Mr J. Clark, of Cazenovia, proposes to put up a tower clock in the Academy in Morrisville on the following terms:

The movements of said clock shall be set in a cast iron frame, running on brass bushings – the shafts to be made of the best machining cast steel – the two main wheels to be made of cast iron and the others to be made of brass with cut teeth. The clock shall be an 8 day clock calculated for 4 dials and everything necessary for it to be furnished, except for the dial plates. The clock shall be in every respect of the first rate quality and shall be warranted to run correctly for five years.

The terms of payment for which shall be as follows viz: $170.00 – one half in 4 months from the time it is put up and the remainder at the expiration of one year from the time it is put up.

Jehiel Clark, Jr.

The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors has a special group whose interests are Tower Clocks. Two Members of that group, Russell Oechsle and Richard Babel, worked on a Tower Clock in Morrisville and restored it.

The clock was written up in an article “Tower Clocks of Madison County” and printed in Madison County Heritage Vol. #11, Jan. 1982.

The part of the article which references that clock is as follows:

“This clock may presently be found, in beautifully restored condition, in the Village Hall in Morrisville, New York though it originally stood in the tower of the Morrisville Congregational Church. In the 1930’s, the church, located on the site of the present Morrisville Theater on Route 20, burned down but the clock was saved. Soon thereafter it was placed in the tower of the Morrisville Village School, located on the corner of the Turnpike and Union Street. Later the school was converted into a fire house. When the old building was demolished to make way for the new fire house, several local residents saved and carefully restored the clock. Plans are now underway to pace the clock in the tower of the Morrisville Community Church, across the street from its former home.

“The ‘Morrisville’ movement, pictured here, has iron plates approximately three and one-half feet high by three feet wide. The time side gear train is brass and the strike side of iron. The pendulum drop is approximately 8 feet.”

The clock was placed in the Community Church and work was planned for additional work on the tower and dials. Before this could be completed, DISASTER, another fire. The church burned Tuesday, May 16, 1995. The clock was recovered from the remains of the fire but was turned over to a passing motorist as “junk.”

Jehiel Clark worked as a clockmaker in Cazenovia from 1847 to 1852, according to various sources. He left Cazenovia at that time and was also listed as a goldsmith. Reference and picture for this article are from and with permission from Russell Ochsle; fire date from Susan Greenhagen.

Robert Betz is an independent amateur historian who has volunteered for the past two years in the Madison County Archives in the Clerk’s Office. While working there three days a week, Betz has recaptured stories of Madison County’s past ‘out of the dust.’ His columns are taken directly from the county’s historic documents and written in the vernacular of the era.

One Comment on "Out of the Dust: Tower Clock Letter"

David L. Sadler,Village of Canastota Historian,Town of Lincoln Historian,Town of Stockbridge Historian,Town of Lenox Co-Historian on Sat, 6th Feb 2010 1:49 pm

Interesting. There should be an inventory of all the tower clocks
in Madison County and then a thorough
research of each one and once concluded
a book compiled for posterity.

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Out of the Dust: Tower Clock Letter

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