Complete acquired repository OCR of Chauncey Jerome’s autobiography. Search the narrative and verify a passage in the original page scans.
Public domain in the United States. Uncorrected repository OCR; the author’s own retrospective perspective should be considered.
Read searchable source text
.s?^ °^
\r^^
A' <<
>^
>^>.<
•^' ------^ '^^.^^
^ :^M^^^ %^^ ^>^^\ '^^^ r
^> n^ J" si
-^^o^
^^^
<.
^^di
^ .\^
.^^ ^
%
■^^0^
r.'VJU.'4^^.-L4
t-^--t^
HISTORY
OF THE
American Clock Business
FOR THE PAST SIXTY YEARS,
Life of CHAUNOEY JEROME,
WRITTE-\ BY HIMSELF.
BARNUM'S CONNECTION"
WITH THE
YANKEE CLOCK BUSINESS.
Iduiniren:
PUBLISHED By F. C. DAYTON, Jr.
1860.
\'^-
>
ESTERKD, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
F. C. DAYTON, Jr.,
in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Connecticut.
ILLIAMS, WILEY & TTTRKEE, PEINTEBl
152 ASYLCM ST., HABTFOED, CT.
?'^7^^5
PREFACE.
The manufacture of Clocks has become one of the
most important branches of American industry. Its
productions are of immense value and form an impor-
tant article of export to foreign countries. It has grown
from almost nothing to its present dimensions within
the last thirty years, and is confined to one of the
smallest States in the Union. Sixty years ago, a few
men with clumsy tools supplied the demand ; at the
present time, with systematized labor and complicated
machinery, it gives employment to thousands of men,
occupying some of the largest factories of New Eng-
land. Previous to the year 1838, most clock move-
ments were made of wood ; since that time they have
been constructed of metal, which is not only better and
more durable but even cheaper to manufacture.
Many years of my own life have, been inseparably
connected w^ith and devoted to the American clock
business, and the most important changes in it have
taken place within my remembrance and actual expe-
rience. Its whole history is familiar to me, and I can-
not write my life without having much to say about
" Yankee clocks." Neither can there be a history of
that business written without alluding to myself.
A few weeks since I entered my sixty-seventh year,
and reviewing the past, many trying experiences are
brought fresh into my mind. For more than forty -five
years I have been actively engaged in the manufac-
ture of clocks, and constantly studying and contriving
new methods of manufacturing for the benefit of my-
self and fellow-men, and although through the instru-
mentality of others, I have been unfortunate in the loss
of n\y good name and an independent competency,
which I had honorably and honestly acquired by these
long years of patient toil and industry, it is a satisfac-
tion to me now to know that I have been the means
of doing some good in the world.
On the following pages in my simple language, and
in a bungling manner, I have told the story of my life.
I am no author, but claim a title which I consider no-
bler, that of a " Mechanic." Being possessed of a re-
markable memory, I am able to give a minute account
and even the date of every important transaction of
my w^hole life, and distinctly remember events which
took place when I was but a child, three and a half
years old, and how I celebrated my fourth birthday.
I could relate many instances of mj boyhood and
later clay experiences if my health and strength would
permit. It has been no part of my plan to boast, ex-
aggerate, or misrepresent anything, but to give "plain
facts."
A history of the great business of Clock making has
never been written. I am the oldest man living who
has had much to do with it, and am best able to give
its history. To-day my name is seen on millions of
these useful articles in every part of the civilized globe^
the result of early ambition and untiring perseverance.
It was in fact the " pride of my life." Time-keepers
have been known for centuries in the old world ; but I
will not dwell on that. It is enough for the American
people to know that their country supplies the whole
world with its most useful time-keepers, (as well as
many other productions,) and that no other country
can compete with ours in their manufacture.
It has been a long and laborious undertaking' for me
in my old age to write such a work as this ; but the
hope that it might be useful and instructive to many of
my young friends has animated me to go on ; and in
presenting it to the public it is with the hope that it
will meet with some favor, and that I shall derive some
pecuniary benefit therefrom.
New Haven, August 15th, 1860.
CONTENTS
Chapter I. — My Early History. — Birthplace; nail making; death
of my Father ; leaving home ; work on a farm ; hard times ; the great
eclipse ; bound out as a carpenter ; carry tools thirty miles ; work on
clock dials ; what I heard at a training; trip to New Jersey in 1812 ;
first visit to New York ; what I saw there ; cross the North River in
a scow ; case making in New Jersey ; hard fare ; return home ; first
appearance in New Haven ; at home again ; a great traveller ; expe-
riences in the last war ; go to New London to fight the British in
1813; incidents; soldiering at New Haven in 1814 ; married; hard
times again; cottton cloth $1 per yard; the cold summer of 1816;
a hard job ; work at clocks.
Chapter II. — Early History of Yankee Clock Making. — Mr. Eli
Terry the father of wood clocks in Connecticut; clocks in 1800;
wheels made with saw and jack-knife ; first clocks by machinery ;
clocks for pork; men in the business previous to 1810; [ ]a new
invention ; the Pillar Scroll Top Case ; peddling clocks on horseback ;
the Bronze Looking Glass Clock.
Caapter hi. — Personal History Continued. — 1816 to 1825; work
with Mr. Terry ; commence business ; work alone ; large sale to a
Southerner ; a heap of money ; peddle clocks in Wethersfield ; walk
twenty-five miles in the snow ; increase business ; buy mahogany in
the plank ; saw veneers with a hand saw ; trade cases for movements ;
move to Bristol ; bad luck ; lose large sum of money ; first cases by
machinery in Bristol ; make clocks in Mass. ; good luck ; death of my
little daughter ; form a company ; invent Bronze Looking Glass Clock.
Chapter IV. — Progress of Clock Making. — Revival of business ;
Bronze Looking Glass Clock favorite; clocks at the South ; $115 for a
clock ; rapid increase of the business ; new church at Bristol — Rev.
David L. Parmelee ; hard times of 1837 ; panic in business ; no more
clocks will be made ; wooden clocks and wooden nutmegs ; opposi-
tion to Yankee pedlars in the South ; make clocks in Virginia and
South Carolina; my trip to the South; discouragements; "I won't
give up ;" invent one day Brass clock ; better times ahead ; go further
South ; return home ; produce the new clock ; its success.
8
Chapter V. — Brass Clocks — Clocks ix En-glaxd. — The new clock
a favorite; I carry on the business alone; good times: profits in
1841; wood clock makers half crazy; competition; prices reduced;
can Yankee clocks be introduced into England; I send out a cargo;
ridiculed by other clock makers; prejudice of f]nglish people against
American manufacturers; how the}' were introduced; seized by cus-
tom house officers ; a good joke ; incidents ; the Terry family.
Chapter VI. — The career of a fast youxg Man. — Incidents; Frank
Merrills; a smart young man; I sell him clocks; his bogus operations ;
a sad history; great losses; human nature; my experience; incident
of my boyhood; Samuel J. Mills, the Missionary; anecdotes.
Chapter VII. — Removal to New IIavek — Fire — Tkocble. — Make
cases at Xew Haven; factories at Bristol destroyed by fire; great
loss; sickness; heavy trouble; human nature; move whole business
to New Haven; John "Woodruflf; great competition ; clocks in New
York; swindlers; law-suit; ill-feeling of other clock makers.
Chapter VIII. — The method of Man'ufacturixg — The Jerome Man-
ufacturing Company. — Benefit of manufacturing by system; a clock
case for eight cents; a clock for seventy-five cents; thirty years ago
and to-day; more human nature; how the Brass clock is made; cost
of a dock ; the facilities of the Jerome Manufacturing Company ; a
joint stock company; how it was managed; interesting statements;
its failure.
Chapter IX. — Men now in the Business. — The New Tlaven Clock
Co.; Hon. Jas. E. English, II. M. Welch, John Woodruff, Hiram
Camp, Philip Pond, Charles L. Griswold, L. F. Root. Benedict &
Burnham Company of Waterbnr}': Arad W. "Welton. Seth Thomas
& Co. Wm. L. Gilbert. E. N. Welch. Beach & Hubbell. Ireneus
Atkins.
Chapter X. — Barnum's connection in the Clock Business. — Bamum
and the Jerome Manufacturing Co. ; Terry & Bamum ; interesting
statements-, causes of the failure ; the results.
Chapter XI. — Effects of the Failure on myself. — My prospects;
leave New Haven ; move to Waterbury ; a frightful accident ; a
practical story.
Chapter XII. — Another Unfortunate Partnership. — More mis-
placed confidence ; a dishonest man threatening to imprison me for
fraud ; every dollar gone ; kindness of John Woodruff, etc.
Chapter XIII. — The Wooster Place Church — Reasons for building
it, and how it was built ; growth of dififerent denominations, etc.
Chapter XIV. — New Haven as a business place — growth, exten-
sive manufactories, facilities for manufacturing, population, wealth,
etc.
Appendix. — General directions for keeping clocks in order, etc
AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
IIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY DAYS. LEAVING HOME. BOUND OUT. FAR-
MING. CARPENTER. SOLDIER. CLOCK MAKING.
I was born in the town of Canaan, Litchfield
County, in the State of Connecticut, on the 10th
day of June, 1793. My parents were poor but
respectable and industrious. My father was a
blacksmith and wrought-nail maker by trade,
and the father of six children — four sons and
two daughters. I was the fourth child.
In January, 1797, he moved from Canaan to
the town of Plymouth, in the same County, and
in the following spring built a blacksmith shop,
which was large enough for three or four men
to work at the nail making business, besides car-
rying on the blacksmithing. At that time all
2
12 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
the nails used in the country were hammered by
hand out of iron rods, which practice has ahnost
entirely been done away by the introduction of
cut nails.
My advantages for education were very poor.
When large enough to handle a hoe, or a bun-
dle of rye, I was kept at work on the farm. The
only opportunity I had for attending school was
in the winter season, and then only about three
months in the year, and at a very poor school.
When I was nine years old, my father took me
into the shop to work, where I soon learned to
make nails, and worked with him in this way
until his death, which occurred on the fifth of
October, 1804. For two or three days before
he died, he sufTered the most excruciating pains
from the disease known as the black colic. The
day of his death was a sad one to me, for I knew
that I should lose my happy home, and be
obliged to leave it to seek work for my support.
There being no manufacturing of any account
in the country, the poor boys were obliged to
let themselves to the farmers, and it was extreme-
ly difficult to find a place to live where they
would treat a poor boy like a human being.
Never shall I forget the Monday morning that I
took my little bundle of clothes, and with a
bursting heart bid my poor mother good bye.
I
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 13
I knew that the rest of the family had got to
leave soon, and I perhaps never to. see any of
them again. Being but a boy and naturally very
sympathizing, it really seemed as if my heart
"would break to think of leaving my dear old
home for good, but stern necessity compelled
me, and I was forced to obey.
The first year after leaving home I was at work
on a farm, and almost every day when alone in
the fields would burst into tears — not because I
had to work, but because my father was dead
whom I loved, and our happy family separated
and broken up never to live together again. In
my new place I was kept at work very hard,
and at the age of fourteen did almost the work
of a man. It was a very lonely place where we
lived, and nothing to interest a child of my age.
The people I lived with seemed to me as very
old, though they were probably not more than
thirty-six years of age, and felt no particular in-
terest in me, more than to keep me constantly at
work, early and late, in all kinds of Vv^eather, of
which I never complained. I have many times
worked all day in the woods, chopping down
trees, with my shoes filled with snow ; never had
a pair of boots till I was more than twenty years
old. Once in two weeks I was allowed to go
to church, which opportunity I always improved.
14 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
I liked to attend church, for I could see so mauy
folks, and the habit which I then acquired has
never to this day left me, and my love for it
dates back to this time in my youth, though the
attractions now are different.
I shall never forget how frightened I was at
the great eclipse which took place on the IGth
of June, 1806, and which so terrified the good
people in every part of the land. They were
more ignorant about such operations of the sun
fifty-four years ago than at the present time. I
had heard something about eclipses but had not
the faintest idea what it could be. I was hoeing
corn that day in a by-place three miles from
town, and thought it certainly was the day of
judgment. I watched the sun steadily disap-
pearing with a trembling heart, and not till it
again appeared bright and shining as before, did
I regain my breath and courage sufficient to
whistle.
The winter before I was fifteen years old, I
went to live with a house carpenter to learn the
trade, and was bound to him by my guardian
till I was twenty-one years old, and was to have
my board and clothes for my services. I learned
the business very readily, and during the last
three years of my apprenticeship could do the
work of a man.
LIFE OF CHAUXCEY JEROME. 15
It was a very pleasant family that I lived with
while learning my trade. In the year 1809 my
" boss" took a job in Torringford, and I went with
him. After being absent several months from
home, I felt very anxious to see my poor mother
who lived about two miles from Plymouth. She
lived alone — with the exception of my youngest
brother about nine years old. I made up my
mind that I would go down and see her one
night. In this way I could satisfy my boss by
not losing any time. It was about twenty miles,
and I only sixteen years old. I was really sorry
after I had started, but was not the boy to back
out. It took me till nearly morning to get there,
tramping through the woods half of the way ;
every noise I heard I thought was a bear or
something that would kill me, and the frightful
notes of the whippoorwill made my hair stand on
end. The dogs were after me at every house I
passed. I have never forgotten that night. The
boys of to-day do not see such times as I did.
The next year, 1810, my boss took a job in
Ellsworth Society, Litchfield County. I footed
it to and from that place several times in the
course of the year, with a load of joiners' tools
on my back. What would a boy 17 years old
now think to travel thirty miles in a hot sum-
mer's day, with a heavy load of joiners' tools on
16 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
his back ? But that was about the only way that
we could get around in those days. At that
time there were not half a dozen one-horse wag-
ons in the whole town. At that place I attended
the church of Rev. Daniel Parker, father of Hon.
Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, who was then a lit-
tle boy four or five years old. I often saw him
at meeting with his mother. He is a first cousin
of F. S. k J. Parker of this city, two highly re-
spectable men engaged in the paper business.
In the fall of 1811, I made a bargain with the
man that I was bound to, that if he would give
me four months in the winter of each year when
the business was dull, 1 would clothe myself I
therefore went to Waterbury, and hired myself
to Lewis Stebbins, (a singing master of that
place,) to work at making the dials for the old
fashioned long clock. This kind of business gave
me great satisfaction, for I always had a desire
to work at clocks. In 1807, when I was four-
teen years old, I proposed to my guardian to get
me a place with Mr. Eli Terry, of Plymouth, to
work at them. Mr. Terry was at that time mak-
ing more clocks than any other man in the coun-
try, about two hundred in a year, which was
thought to be a great number.
My guardian, a good old man, told me that
there was so many clocks then making, that the
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 17 9
country would soon be filled with them, and the
business would be good for nothing in two or
three years. This opinion of that wise man made
me feel very sad. I well remember, when I
was about twelve years old, what I heard some
old gentleman say, at a training, (all of the good
folks in those days were as sure to go to train-
ing as to attend church,) they were talking about
Mr. Terry ; the foolish man they said, had begun
to make two hundred clocks ; one said, he never
would live long enough to finish them ; another
remarked, that if he did he never would, nor
could possibly sell so many, and ridiculed the
very idea.
I was a little fellow, but heard and swallowed
every word those wise men said, but I did not
relish it at all, for I meant some day to make
clocks myself, if I lived.
What would those good old men have thought
when they were laughing at and ridiculing Mr.
Terry, if they had known that the little urchin
who was so eagerly listening to their conversation
would live to make Two Hundred Thousand
metal clocks in one year, and many millions
in his life. They have probably been dead for
years, that little boy is now an old man, and dur-
ing his life has seen these great changes. The
clock business has grown to be one of the
1^ AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
largest in the country, and almost every kind of
American manufactures have improved in much
the same ratio, and I cannot now believe that
there will ever be in the same space of future
time so many improvements and inventions as
those of the past half century — one of the most
important in the history of the world. Every-
day things with us now would have appeared to
our forefathers as incredible. But returning to
my story — having got myself tolerably well
posted about clocks at Waterbury, I hired my-
self to two men to go into the state of New Jer-
sey, to make the old fashioned seven foot stand-
ing clock-case. ^lessrs. Ilotchkiss and Pierpont,
of Plymouth, had been selling that kind of a
clock without tlic cases, in the northern part
of that State, for about twenty dollars, apiece.
The purchasers, had complained to them how-
ever, that there was no one in that region that
could make the case for them, which prevented
many others from buying. These two men
whom I went with, told them that they would
get some one to go out from Connecticut, to
make the case, and thought they could be made
for about eighteen or twenty dollars apiece,
which would then make the whole clock cost
about forty dollars — not so very costly after
all : for a clock was then considered the most
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 19
useful of anything that could be had in a fami-
ly, for what it cost. I entered into an agree-
ment with these men at once, and a few days
after, we three started on the 14th Dec, 1812, in
an old lumber wagon, with provisions for the
journey, to the far off Jersey. This same trip
can now be made in a few hours. We were
many days. We passed through Water town,
and other villages, and stopped the first night at
Bethel. This is the very place where P. T. Bar-
num was born, and at about this time, of whom
I shall speak more particularly hereafter. The
next morning we started again on our journey,
and not many hours after, arrived in Norwalk,
then quite a small village, situated on Long Island
Sound ; at this place I saw the salt water for the
first time in my life, also a small row-boat, and
began to feel that I was a great traveler indeed.
The following night we stopped at Stamford,
which was, as I viewed it, a great place ; here I
saw a few sloops on the Sound, which I thought
was the greatest sight that I had ever seen.
This was years before a steamboat had ever
passed through the Sound. The next morning
we started again for New York, and as we passed
along I was more and more astonished at the
wonderful things that I saw, and began to think
that the world was very extensive. We did not
20 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
arrive at the city until night, but there being a
full moon every thing appeared as pleasant, as
in the day-time. We passed down through the
Bowery, which was then like a country village,
then through Chatham street to Pearl street, and
stopped for the night at a house kept by old Mr.
Titus. I arose early the next morning and hur-
ried into the street to see how a city looked by
day-light. I stood on the corner of Chatham
and Pearl for more than an hour, and I nmst
confess that if I was ever astonished in my life, it
was at that time. I could not understand why
so many people, of every age, description and
dress, were huiTying so in every direction. I
asked a man what was going on, and what all
this excitement meant, but he passed right along
without noticing me, which I thought was very
uncivil, and I formed a very poor opinion of
those city folks. I ate nothing that morning, for
I thought I could be in better business for a
while at least. I wandered about gazing at the
many new sights, and went out as far as the Park;
at that time the workmen were finishing the in-
terior of the City Hall. I was greatly puzzled
to know how the winding stone stairs could be
fixed without any seeming support and yet be
perfectly safe. After viewing many sights, all of
which were exceedingly interesting to me, I re-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 21
turned to the house where my companions were.
They told me that they had just heard that the
ship Macedonian, which was taken a few days
before from the British by one of our ships, had
just been brought into the harbor and lay off
down by Burling Slip, or in that region. We
went down to see her, and went on board. I was
surprised and frightened to see brains and blood
scattered about on the deck in every direction.
This prize was taken by the gallant Decatur, but
a short distance from New York. Hastening
back from this sickening scene, we resumed our
journey. My two companions had been telling
me that we should have to cross the North River
in a boat, and I did not understand how a boat
could be made to carry our team and be perfect-
ly safe, but when we arrived there, I was much
surprised to see other teams that were to cross
over with us, and a number of people. At that
time an old scow crossed from New York City
to the Jersey shore, once in about two hours.
What a great change has taken place in the last
forty-seven years ; now large steam ferry .boats
are crossing and recrossing, making the trip in a
few minutes. It was the first time that I had
ever crossed a stream, except on a bridge, and I
feared that we might upset and all be drowned,
but no accident happened to us ; we landed in
22 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
safety, and went on our way rejoicing towards
Elizabeth town. At that place I saw a regiment
of soldiers from Kentucky, who were on their
way to the northern frontier to light the British.
They were a rough set of fellows, and looked as
though they could do a great deal of lighting.
It will be remembered that this was the time of
the last war with England. We passed on
through Elizabethtown and Morristown to Dutch
Valley, where we stopped for the night. We
remained at this place a few days, looking about
for a cabinet shop, or a suitable place to make
the clock cases. Not succeeding, we went a mile
further north, to a place called Schooler's Moun-
tain ; here we found a building that suited us.
It was then the day before Christmas. The peo-
ple of that region, we found, kept that day
more strictly than the Sabbath, and as we were
not ready to go to work, we passed Christmas
day indoors feeling very lonely indeed. The
next day we began operations. A young man
from the lower part of New Jersey worked
with me all winter. We boarded ourselves in
the same building that we worked in, I doing
all of the house-work and cooking, none of which
was very fine or fancy, our principal food being
pork, potatoes and bread, using our work-bench
for a table. Hard work gave us good appetite.
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 23
We would work on an average about fifteen
hours a day, the house-work not occupying
much of our time. I was then only nineteen
years old, and it hardly seems possible that the
boys of the present day could pass through such
trials and hardships, and live. We worked in
this way all winter. When the job was finished,
I took my little budget of clothes and started
for home. I traveled the first day as far as Eliza-
bethtown, and stopped there all night, but fomid
no conveyance from there to New York. I was
told that if I would go down to the Point, I
might in the course of the day, get a passage
in a sailing vessel to the city. I went down ear-
ly in the morning and, after waiting till noon,
found a chance to go with two men in a small
sail boat. I was greatly alarmed at the strange
motions of the boat which I thought would up-
set, and felt greatly relieved when I was again
on terra firma.
I wandered about the streets of New York all
that afternoon, bought a quantity of bread and
cheese, and engaged a passage on the Packet
Sloop Eliza, for New Haven, of her Captain
Zebulon Bradley. I slept on board of her that
night at the dock, the next day we set sail for
New Haven, about ten o'clock in the forenoon,
with a fair wind, and arrived at the long wharf
24 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING,
in (that city) about eight o'clock the same day.
I stopped at John Howe's Hotel, at the head
of the wharf. This was the first time that I
was ever in this beautiful city, and I little
thought then that I ever should live there, work-
ing at my favorite business, with three hundred
men in my employ, or that I should ever be its
Mayor. — Times change.
Very early the next morning, after looking
about a little, I started with my bundle of clothes
in one hand, and my bread and cheese in the other,
to find the Watcrbury turnpike, and after dodg-
ing about for a long time, succeeded in finding
it, and passed on up through Watcrbury to Ply-
mouth, walking the whole distance, and arrived
home about three o'clock in the afternoon.
This was my first trip abroad, and I really felt
that I was a great traveler, one who had seen
much of the world ! What a great change has
taken place in so short space of time.
Soon after I returned from my western trip,
there began to be a great excitement throughout
the land, about the war. It was proposed by
the Governor of Connecticut, John Cotton Smith,
of Sharon, to raise one or two regiments of
State troops to defend it in case of invasion.
One Company of one hundred men, was raised
in the towns of Watcrbury, Watertown, Middle-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME, 25
bury, Plymouth and Bethlem, and John Bucking-
ham chosen Captain, who is now living in Water-
bury; the other commissioned officers of the
company, were Jas. M. L. Scovill, of Waterbury,
and Joseph H. Bellamy, of Bethlem. The com-
pany being composed of young men, and I be-
ing about the right age, had of course to be one
of them.
Early in the Summer of 1813, the British fleet
run two of our ships of war up the Thames
River, near New London. Their ships being so
large could not enter, but lay at its mouth. Their
presence so near greatly alarmed the citizens of
that city, and in fact, all of the people in the
eastern part of the State. Our regiment was
ordered to be ready to start for New London by
the first of August. The Plymouth company
was called together on Sunday, which was the
first of August, and exercised on the Green in
front of the church, in the fore part of the day.
This unusual occurrence of a military display on
the Sabbath greatly alarmed the good people
of the congregation, but it really was a case of
necessity, we were* preparing to defend our
homes from a foreign foe.
In the afternoon we attended church in a
body, wearing our uniforms, to the wonder and
astonishment of boys,"* but terrible to the old
26 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
people. On Monday morning we started on a
march to Hartford, sleeping that night in a barn,
in the eastern part of Farmington, and reaching
Hartford the next day, where we joined the
other companies, and all started for New London.
The first night we slept in a barn in East Hartford,
and the second one in an old church in Marl-
boro. I remember lying on the seat of a pew,
with my knapsack under my head. We ar-
rived at New London on Saturday, marching
the whole distance in the first week in August,
and a hotter time I have never experienced
since. We were dressed in heavy woolen
clothes, carrying heavy guns and knapsacks, and
wearing large leather caps. It was indeed a
tedious job. We were whole days traveling
what can now be done in less than as many hours,
and were completely used up when we arrived
there, which would not appear strange. We
were immediately stationed on the high ground,
back from the river, about half way between the
city and the light-house, in plain view of the
enemy's ships. They would frequently, when
there was a favorable wind, hoist their sails and
beat about iu the harbor, making a splendid
appearance, and practising a good deal with
their heavy guns on a small American sloop,
which they had taken and anchored a long dis-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 27
tance off. The bounding of the cannon balls
on the water was an interesting sight to me.
The first night after our arrival, I was put on
guard near the Light-house, and in plain sight
of the ships. I was much afraid that the sharp
shooters from their barges would take me for a
target and be smart enough to hit me ; and a
heavy shower with thunder and lightning pass-
ing over us during the night, did not alleviate
my distress. I was but a boy, only twenty
years old, and would naturally be timid in such
a situation, but I passed the night without being
killed ; it seems that was not the way that I was
to die.
I soon became sick and disgusted with a sol-
dier's life ; it seemed to be too lazy and low-lived
to suit me, and, as near as I could judge, the
inhabitants thought us all a low set of fellows.
I never have had a desire to live or be any-
where without I could be considered at least as
good as the average, which failing I have now
as strong as ever. We not having any battles to
fight, had no opportunities of showing our brave-
ry, and after guarding the city for forty-five
days, were discharged; over which we made
a great rejoicing, and returned home by the way
of New Haven, which was my second visit to.
this city. The North and Centre Churches were
3
28 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
then building, also, the house now standing at
the North-east corner of the Green, owned then
by David DeForest ; stopping here over night,
we pased on home to Plymouth. I had not
slept on a bed since I left home, and would have
as soon taken the barn floor as a good bed.
This ended my first campaign.
After this I went to work at my trade, the
Joiners business. I was still an apprentice ;
would not be twenty-one till the next June.
The War was not yet over, and in October,
1814, our Regiment was ordered by Governor
Smith to New Haven, to guard the city. Col.
Sanford, (father of Eliliu and Harvey Sanford of
this city,) commanded us. On arriving, we were
stationed at the old slaughter-house, in the Eastern
part of the city, at the end of Green street. All
the land East of Academy street was then in
farmers' lots, and planted with corn, rye and
potatoes now covered with large manufactories
and fine dwellings. I little thought then, that I
should have the largest Clock-factory in the
world, mthin a stone's throw of my sleeping-
place, as has since proved. Nothing of much
importance took place during our campaign at
New Haven. The British did not land or molest
us. We built a large fort on the high grounds,
on the East Haven side, which commanded the
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 29
Harbor, the ruins of which can now be seen
from the city. A good deal of fault was found
by the officers and men with the provisions,
which were very poor. When this campaign
closed I was through with my military glory, and
returned to my home, sick and disgusted with a
soldier's life. I hope our country will not be dis-
graced with another war.
All of the old people will remember what a
great rejoicing there was through the whole coun-
try, when peace was declared in February, 1815.
I was married about that time to Salome Smith,
daughter of Capt. Theophilus Smith, one of the
last of the Puritanical families there was in the
town ; she made one of the best of wives and
mothers. She died on the 6th of March, 1854.
We lived together 39 years. A short time after
we were married, I moved to the town of
Farmington, and hired a house of Mr. Chauncey
Deming to live in, and went to work for Capt.
Selali Porter, for twenty dollars per month.
We built a house for Maj. Timothy Cowles, which
was then the best one in Farmington. I was not
worth at this time fifty dollars in the world.
1815, the year after the war, was, probably the
hardest one there has been for the last hundred
years, for a young man to begin for himself
30 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
Pork was sold for thirteen dollars per hundred,
Flour at thirteen dollars per barrel ; ^lolasses was
sold for seventy-five cents per gallon, and
brown Sugar at thirty-four cents per pound.
I remember buying some cotton cloth for a
common shirt, for which I paid one dollar
a vard, no better than can now be boujrht
for ten cents. 1 mention these things to let
the young men know what a great change
Jias taken place, and what my prospects
were at that time. Not liking this place, I
moved back to Plymoutli. 1 did not have money
enough to pay my rent, which however, was not
due until the next May, but Mr. Deming, who
by the way, was one of the richest men in the
State, was determined that J should not go till
I had paid him. I promised him that he should
have the money when it Avas due, if my life was
spared, and he finally consented to let me go.
When it came due I Avalked to Farmington,
fifteen miles, paid him and walked back the
same day, feeling relieved and happy. I ob-
tained the job of finishing the inside of a dwelling
house, wdiich gave me great encouragement.
The times were awful hard and but little busi-
ness done at anything. It would almost frighten
a man to see a five-dollar bill, they were so very
scarce. My work was about two miles from
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 31
where I lived. My wife was confined about this
time with her first babe. I would rise every morn-
ing two hours before day -light and prepare my
breakfast, and taking my dinner in a little pail, bid
my good wife good-by for the day, and start for my
work, not returning till night. About this time
the Congregational Society employed a celebra-
ted music teacher to conduct the church singing,
and I having always had a desire to sing sacred
music, joined his choir and would walk a long dis-
tance to attend the singing schools at night after
working hard all day. I was chosen chorister
after a few weeks, which encouraged me very
much in the way of singing, and was afterwards
employed as a teacher to some extent, and for a
long time led the singing there and at Bristol
where I afterwards lived. The next summer was
the cold one of 1816, which none of the old people
will ever forget, and which many of the young
have heard a great deal about. There was ice and
snow in every month in the year. I well remember
on the seventh of June, while on my way to
work, about a mile from home, dressed through-
out with thick woolen clothes and an overcoat
on, my hands got so cold that I was obliged to
lay down my tools and put on a pair of mittens
which I had in my pocket. It snowed about an
hour that day. On the tenth of June, my wife
32 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
brought in some clothes that had been spread on
the ground the night before, which were frozen
stiff as in winter. On the fourth of July, I saw
several men pitching quoits in the middle of the
day with thick overcoats on, and the sun shining
bright at the same time. A body could not feel
very patriotic in such weather. I often saw men
when hoeing corn, stop at tlie end of a row and
get in the sun by a fence to warm themselves.
Not half enough corn ripened that year to furnish
seed for the next. I worked at my trade, and
had the job of finishing the inside of a three-
story house, having twenty -seven doors and a
white oak matched floor to make, and did the
whole for eighty-five dollars. The same work
could not now be done as I did it for less
than five hundred dollars. Such times as these
were indeed hard for poor young men. We
did not have many carpets or costly furni-
ture and servants ; but as winter approached
times seemed to grow harder and harder. No
work could be had. I was in debt for my little
house and lot which I had bought only a short
time before, near the center of Plymouth, and
had a payment to make on it the next spring.
I proposed going south to the city of Baltimore,
to obtain work, and had already made prepara-
tions to go and leave my young family for the
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME.
winter, at which I could not help feeling very
sad, when I accidentally heard that Mr. Eli Ter-
ry was about to fit up his factory (which was
built the year before,) for making his new Patent
Shelf Clock. I thought perhaps I could get a
job with him, and started immediately to see
Mr. Terry, and closed a bargain with him at
once. I never shall forget the great good feel-
ing that this bargain gave me. It was a pleas-
ant kind of business for me, and then I knew I
could see my family once a week or oftener if
necessary.
CHAPTER II.
PROGRESS OF CLOCK ilAKLNtJ. IMRROVEMENTS BY
ELI TERRY AND OTHERS. SHELF CLOCK.
At the l)cgiiiiiing of this l)ook I have said that
I would give to the public a history of the
American Clock Business. I aui roav the old-
est 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 noth-
ing 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 per-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 35
fectly astonished at the price of them, and had
often remarked that if he ever came to this coun-
try he would visit the factory and see for him-
self After I had showed him all the different
processes it required to complete a. clock, he ex-
pressed 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 manu-
factures, 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 man-
ufacturing.
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 ma-
king 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
36 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
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 a])out 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 Watcrbury associated
themselves together, and made a large contract
with him, they furnishing the stock, and he ma-
king the movements. With this contract and
what he made and sold to other parties, he accu-
mulated quite a little fortune for those times.
Tlie lirst 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 larg-
er 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 jDrocess.
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
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 37
ago, and lived on a farm in Litchfield. One day
Mr. Terry came to the house Avhere he lived to
sell a clock. The man with whom young Blakes-
lee 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 bus-
iness.
Mr. Terry sold out his business to Seth Thom-
as and Silas Hoadley, two of his leading vf ork-
men, in 1810. This establishment was the lead-
ing one for several years, but other ones spring-
ing 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, start-
ed 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 Pa-
tent Shelf Clock.
38 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
Two brothers, James and Lemuel Harrison,
made a few before the year 1800, using no ma-
chinery, 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 ar-
ticle. 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 j'cars. An Ives family
in Bristol were quite conspicuous as clock-makers.
They were good mechanics. One of them, Jo-
seph Ives, has done a great deal towards improv-
ing the eight day brass clock, which I shall speak
about hereafter.
Chauncey Boardman, of Bristol, Riley Whi-
ting, of Winsted, and Asa Hopkins, of North-
field, 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
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 3^
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 com-
pletely revolutionized the whole business. The
making of the old fashioned hang-up wood clock,
about Avhich I have been speaking, passed out
of existence. This patent article Mr. Terry in-
troduced, 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 Thom-
as, 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 thou-
sand. 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. Thom-
as had made a good deal of money on the old
fashioned style, for he made a good article, and
40 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
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 re-
quired 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.
CHAPTEE III.
PERSONAL HISTORY CONTINUED. COMMENCING BUSI-
NESS. SALE TO A SOUTHERNER. REMOVAL TO
BRISTOL. FIRST SERIOUS LOSS.
I must now go back and give a history of
myself, from the vnnter 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.
42 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
When my time was out in the spring, I bought
some parts of clocks, mahogany, veneers, etc.,
and commenced in a snuall shop, business for my-
self. I made the case, and bouglit the movements,
dials and glass, finishing a fcAv 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 pay-
ment on my little house. I heard one day of a
man in Bristol, who did lousiness in South Caroli-
na, who wanted to buy a few clocks to take to
tliat market with him. I started at once over to
;see hinr, 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 ^^•ent riglit to work on them.
I had them finished and boxed ready for ship-
ping in a short time. I had agreed to deliver
them on a certain dav 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 biitrwent
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 43
into another room with his son. I thought sure-
ly 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 im-
mediately 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 re-
member once, when at school, of chopping a whole
4
44 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
load of wood, for a great lazy boy, for one pen-
ny, and I used to chop all the wood I could get
from the fiimilies in the neighborhood, moon-
light nights, for very small sums. The win-
ter after I made this large sale, I took about one
dozen of tlie 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 wag-
on, who returned home. I would take one of
these cloc-ks 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 af-
ternoon. 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,
btit it proved to be the hardest physical under-
taking that I ever experienced. It was bed-
time when I reached Farmington, only one-third
the distance, wallowing in snow pomdge all the
w^ay. I did not reach home till near Sunday
morning, more dead than alive. I did not go
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 45
to church that day, which made many wonder
what had become of me, for I was always ex-
pected to be in the singers' seat on Smiday. I
did not recover from the effects of that night-
jom-ney for a long time. Soon after this occur-
rence, 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 with a
hand-saw. I engaged a man with a one horse
wagon to go to New York after a load of mahog-
any, 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
4G AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
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 Gal-
pin Avith a large quantity of clocks, and he took
them to Louisiana to sell in the fiill 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 toi^'cthcr to see what had
better be done. The note that he had given me
the flill 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 con-
cluded to send out a man to look after the prop-
erty 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
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 47
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 respect-
able. 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 ex-
penses 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, 1 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 my-
self in 1822, and this was the commencement of
making cases by machinery in that town, which
has since been so renowned for its clock produc-
tions. 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
48 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
sold first rate, and it was quite difficult to buy
any of the movements, as no others were mak-
ing the Patent Clock at that time. I was deter-
mined to have some movements to case, and
went to Chaunccy Boardman, who had formerly
made the old liishioned hang-up movements, and
told him I wanted him to make me two hundred
of his kind with such alterations as I should sug-
gest. 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 Bos-
ton and bought a load of lumber, and com-
menced 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 part-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 49
iiers 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 anima-
ted 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 lat-
ter 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 mak-
ing 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, dur-
ing 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
50 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
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.
.CHAPTER lY.
THE BRONZE LOOKING GLASS CLOCK. CHURCH AT
BRISTOL. PANIC OF 1837. CLOCKS AT THE
SOUTH. THE ONE DAY BRASS CLOCK.
With the introduction of the Bronze Looking-
Glass Clock, the business seemed to revive in all
the neighboring towns, but more especially in
Plymouth and Bristol. Both Mr. Terry and Mr.
Thomas, did and said much in disparagement of
my new invention, and tried to discourage the
pedlars from buying of me, but they did as men
do now-a-days, buy where they can do the best
and make the most money. This new clock was
liked very much in the southern market. I
have heard of some of these being sold in Mis-
sissippi and Lousianna as high as one hundred
and one hundred and fifteen dollars, and a great
many at ninety dollars, which was a good ad-
vance on the first cost. Mr. Thomas gave out
that he would not make them any how, he did
not want to follow Jerome, but did finally come
to it, making only a few at first, but running
them down in the mean time and praising his
old case. He finally gave up making the Scroll
Top and made my new kind altogether.
52 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
Samuel Terry, a brother of Eli, came to Bris-
tol about this time, and commenced making this
kind of clock.
Several others began to make them — Geo.
Mitchell and his brother in-law llollin Atkins
went into it, also liiley Whiting of Winsted.
The business increased very rapidly between
1827 and 1837. During these ten years Jeromes
and Darrow made more than any other company.
The two towns of Plymouth and Bristol grew
and improved very rapidly ; many new houses
were built, and every thing looked prosperous.
In 1831, a new church was built in Bristol,
and, it is said, through the introduction of this
Bronze Looking Glass Clock. Jeromes and Dar-
row paid one-third of the cost of its erection.
The writer obtained every dollar of the subscrip-
tion. The Hon. Tracy Peck and myself first
started this project, which ended in building
this fine church which was finished and dedica-
ted in August, 1832. The Be v. David Lewis
Parmelee preached the dedication sermon, and
was the settled minister there. I was greatly inter-
ested in his preaching for ten years. He has for
the last nineteen years preached at South Farms
now the town of Morris. This Mr. Parmelee
was a merchant till he was thirty years old, and
was then converted in some mysterious manner,
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 53
as St. Paul was, and left his business to preach
the gospel. He proved to be one of the soundest
preachers in the land, and I have no doubt but he
will be one of the bright and shining lights in
heaven. Oh! what happy days I saw during
those ten years, little dreaming of the great
troubles that were before me, or that I should
experience in after life, which are now resting
so heavily upon me, many times seeming greater
than I can bear. But such is life.
About this time, also, Chauncey and Lawson C.
Ives, two highly respectable men, built a factory
in Bristol for the purpose of making an eight
day brass clock. This clock was invented by
Joseph Ives, a brother of Chauncey, and sold
for about twenty dollars. The manufacture of
these was carried on very successfully for a few
years by them, but in 1836, their business was
closed up, they having made about one hundred
thousand dollars. Soon after this, in 1837, came
the great panic and break-down of business
which extended all over the country. Clock
makers and almost every one else stopped business.
I should mention that another company made the
eight day brass clock previous to 1837, Erastus
and Harvey Case and John Birge. Their clocks
were retailed mostly in the southern market.
They made perhaps four thousand a year. The
54 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
Ives Co., made about two thousand, but both
went out of business in 1837, and it was thought
that clock making was about done with in Conn.
The third chapter, as I have divided it, was
now closing up. Wood clocks were good for time,
but it was a slow job to properly make them,
and difficult to procure wood just right for
wheels and plates, and it took a whole year to
season it. No factory had made over Ten thou-
sand in a year ; they were always classed with
wooden nutmegs and wooden cucumber seeds,
and could not be introduced into other countries
to any advantage. But this was not the only
trouble ; being on water long as they would have
to be, would swell the wood of the wheels and
ruin the clock. Here then we had the eight
day brass clock costing about twenty dollars ;
the idea had always been that a brass clock
must be an eight day, and all ofie day should be
of wood, and the plan of a brass one day had
never been thought of.
In 1835, the southern people were greatly
opposed to the Yankee pedlars coming into their
states, especially the clock pedlars, and the licen-
ces were raised so high by their Legislatures that
it amounted to almost a prohibition. Their laws
were that any goods made in their own States
could be sold without licence. Therefore clocks
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 55
to be profitable must be made in those states.
Chauncey and Noble Jerome started a factory
in Richmond Va., making the cases and parts at
Bristol, Connecticut, and packing them with the
dials, glass &c. We shipped them to Richmond
and took along workmen to put them together.
The people were highly pleased with the idea
of having clocks all made in their State. The
old planters would tell the pedlars they meant to
go to Richmond and see the wonderful machin-
ery there must be to produce such articles and
would no doubt have thought the tools we had
there were sufficient to make a clock.* We car-
ried on this kind of business for two or three
years and did very well at it, though it was un-
pleasant. Every one knew it was all a humbug
trying to stop the pedlars from coming to their
State. We removed from Richmond to Ham-
burg, S. C, and manufactured in the same way.
This was in 1835 and '36.
There was another company doing the same
kind of business at Augusta, Geo., by the name
Case, Dyer, Wadsworth & Co., and Seth Thomas
was making the cases and movements for them.
The hard times came down on us and we really
thought that clocks would no longer be made.
Our firm thought we could make them if any
body could, but like the others felt discouraged
56 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
and disgusted with the whole business as it was
then. I am sure that I had lost, from 1821 to this
time, more than one hundred thousand dollars^
and felt very much discouraged in consequence.
Our company had a good deal of unsettled busi-
ness in Virginia and South Carolina, and I start-
ed in the fall of 1837 for those placesi Arriving
at Richmond, I had a strong notion of going into
the marl business. I had been down into Kent
county, the summer before, where I saw great
mountains of this white marl composed of shells
of clams ftnd oysters white as chalk. I had sent
one vessel load of this to New Haven the year
before. At Richmond I was looking after our
old accounts, settling up, collecting notes and
picking up some scattered clocks.
One night I took one of these clocks into my
room and placing it on the table, left a light
burning near it and went to bed. While think-
ing over my business troubles and disappoint-
ments, I could not help feeling very much de-
pressed. I said to myself I will not give up yet,
I know more about the clock business than any-
thing else. That minute I was looking at the
wood clock on the table and it came into my
mind instantly that there could be a cheap one
day brass clock that would take the place of the
wood clock. I at once began to figure on it ;
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 57
the case would cost no more, the dials, glass, and
weights and other fixtures would be the same, and
the size could be reduced. I lay awake nearly
all night thinking this new thing over. I knew
there was a fortune in it. Many a sensible man
has since told me that if I could have secured the
sole right for making them for ten years, I could
easily have made a million of dollars. The
more I looked at this new plan, the better it ap-
peared. My business took me to South Carolina
before I could return home. I had now enough
to think of day and night ; this one day brass
clock was constantly on my mind ; I was draw-
ing plans and contriving how they could be
made best. I traveled most of the way from
Richmond by stage. Arriving at Augusta, Geo.,
I called on the Connecticut men who were finish-
ing wood clocks for that market, and told Mr.
Dyer the head man, that I had got up, or could
get up something when I got home that would
run out all the wood clocks in the country,
Thomas's and all; he laughed at me quite heartily.
I told him that was all right, and asked him to
come to Bristol when he went home and I would
show him somethin g that would astonish him. He
promi^d that he would, and during the next
summer when he called at my place, I showed
him a shelf full of them runniner, which
58 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
he acknowledged to be the best he had ever
seen.
I arrived home from the soutli the 28th of
January, and tokl my brother who was a first-
rate clock maker what I had been thinking about
since I had been gone. He was much pleased
with my plan, thought it a first rate idea, and
said he would go right to work and get up the
movement, which he perfected in a short time so
that it was the best clock that had ever been
made in this or any other country. There have
been more 'of this same kind manufactured than
of any other in the United States. What I origi-
nated that night on my bed in Richmond, has
given work to thousands of men yearly for more
than twenty years, built ujj the largest man-
ufactories in New England, and put more than a
million of dollars into the pockets of the brass
makers, — " but there is not one of them that re-
members Joseph^
CHAPTER Y.
SUCCESS OF THE NEW INVENTION. INTRODUCTION OF
CLOCKS IN ENGLAND. TERRY FAMILY, ETC.
We went on very prosperously making the
new clock, and it was admired by every body.
In the year 1839, some of my neighbors and
a few of my leading workmen had a great desire
to get into the same kind of business. We
knew competition amongst Yankees was almost
sure to kill business and proposed to have them
come in with us and have a share of the profits.
An arrangement to this effect was made and we
went on in this way until the fall of 1840. I
found they were much annoyance and bother to
me, and so bought them all out, but had to give
them one hundred per cent, for the use of their
money. Some of them had not paid in anything,
but I had to pay them the same profits I did
the rest, to get rid of them. One man had put
in three thousand dollars for which I paid
him six thousand. I also bought out my brother
Noble Jerome, who had been in company with
me for a long time, and carried on the whole
5
GO AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
pro\...^
business alone, which seemed to be rapidly im-
ing.
I made iu 1841, thirty-five thousand dollars
clear profits. ^len would come and deposit
money with me before their orders were finished.
This successful state of things set all of the wood
clock makers half crazy, and they went into it
one after another as fast as they could, and of
course run down the price very fast — ''Yankee-
like." I had been thinking for two or three
years of introducing my clocks into England,
and had availed myself of every opportunity to
get posted on that subject ; when I met English-
men in New York and other places, I would try
to find out by them what the prospects would
be for selling Yankee clocks ih their country.
1 ascertained that there were no cheap metal
clocks used or known there, the only cheap time-
piece they had was a Dutch hang-up wood clock.
In 1842, I determiued to make the venture of
sending a consignniQiit of brass clocks to Old
England. I made a bargain with Epaphroditus
Peck, a very talented young man of Bristol, a
son of Hon. Tracy Peck, to take them out, and
sent my son Chauncey Jerome, Jr. with him.
All of the first cargo consisted of the 0. G. one
day brass clocks. As soon as it was known by
the neighboring clock-makers, they laughed at
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 61
me, and ridiculed the idea of sending clocks to
England where labor was so cheap. They said
that they never would interfere with Jerome in
that visionary project, but no sooner had I got them
well introduced, after spending thousands of dol-
lars to effect it, than they had all forgotten wdiat
they said about my folly, and one after another
sent over the same goods to compete with me
and run down the price. As I have said before,
wood clocks could never have been exported to
Europe from this country, for many reasons.
They would have been laughed at, and looked
upon with suspicion as coming from the wooden
nutmeg country, and classed as the same. They
could not endure a long voyage across the water
without swelling the parts and rendering them
useless as time-keepers ; experience had taught
us this, as many wood clocks on a passage to the
southern market, had been rendered unfit for use
for this very reason. Metal clocks can be sent
any where without injury. Millions have been
sent to Europe, Asia, South America, Australia,
Palestine, and in fact, to every part of the world ;
and millions of dollars brought into this co.untry
by this means, and I think it not unfair to claim
the honor of inventing and introducing this low-
price time-piece which has given employment to
so many of our countrymen, and has also, been
X
62 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
SO useful to the world at large. No family is so
poor but that they can have a time-piece which
is both useful and ornamental. They can be
found in every civilized portion of the globe.
Meeting a sea captain one day, he told me that
on landing at the lonely island of St. Helena,
the first thing that he noticed on entering a
house, was my name on the face of a brass clock.
^Many years ago a missionary (Mr. Ruggles,)
at the Sandwich Islands, told me that he had
one of my clocks in liis house, the first one that
had ever been on the islands. Travelers have
mentioned seeing them in the city of Jerusalem,
in many parts of Egypt, and in fact, every
where, which accounts could not but be interest-
ing and gratifying to me.
It was a long and tedious undertaking to in-
troduce my fii-st cargo in England. Mr. Peck
and my son wrote me a great many times the
first year, that they never could be sold there,
the prejudice against American manufactures
was so great that they would not buy them.
Although very much discouraged, I kept writing
them to 'stick to it.' They were once turned out
of a store in London and threatened if they of-
fered their '' Yankee clocks " again to the En-
glish people "who made clocks for the world ;"
" they were good for nothing or they could not
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 63
be offered SO cheap." They were finally intro-
duced in this way ; the young men persuaded a
merchant to take two into his store for sale. He
reluctantly gave his consent, saying he did not
believe they would run at all ; they set the two
running and left the price of them. On calling
the next day to see how they were getting along,
and what the London merchant thought of them,
they were surprised to find them both gone.
On asking what had become of them, they were
told that two men came in and liked their looks
and bought them. The merchant said he did
not thilik any one would ever buy them, but told
them they might bring in four more ; " I will see "
he says, *^ if I can sell any more of your Yankee
clocks." They carried them in and calling the
next day, found them all gone. The merchant
then told them to bring in a dozen. These went
off in a short time, and not long after, this same
merchant bought two hundred at once, and other
merchants began to think they could make some
money on these Yankee clocks and the business
began to improve very rapidly. There are al-
ways men enough who are ready to enter into
a business after it is started and looks favorable.
A pleasing incident occurred soon after we first
started. The Revenue laws of England are (or
were, at that time) that the owner of property
64 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
passing through the Custom-house shall put such
a price on his goods as he pleases, knowing that
the government officers have a right to take the
property by adding ten per cent, to the invoiced
price.
I had always told my young men over there
to put a fair price on the clocks, which they did ;
but the oflicers thought they put them altogeth-
er too low, so they made up their minds that
they would take a lot, and seized one ship-load,
thinking we would put the prices of the next
cargo at higher rates. They paid the cash for
this cargo, which made a good sale for tis. A
few days after, anotlier invoice arrived which
our folks entered at the same prices as before ;
but they were again taken by the officers paying
us cash and ten per cent, in addition, which was
very satisfactory to us. On the arrival of the
third lot, they began to think they had better
let the Yankees sell their own goods and passed
them through unmolested, and came to the con-
clusion that we could make clocks much better
and cheaper than their own people. Their per-
formance has been considered a first-rate joke
to say the least. There will, in all probability,
be»millions of clocks sold in that country, and
we are the people who will furnish all Europe
with all their common cheap ones as long as
time lasts.
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 65
All of the spring and eight day clocks have
grown out of the one day weight clock. There
can now be as good an eight day clock bought
for three or four dollars, as could be had for
eighteen or twenty dollars before I got up the
one day clock. Mr. Peck, who went to England
with my son, died in London on the 20th, Sep-
tember, 1857 ; my son died in this country in
July, 1853 : so they have gone the way of all
the earth, and I shall have to follow them soon.
They were instrumental in laying the foundation
of a large and prosperous business which is
now being successfully carried on. The duties
on clocks to England have been recently removed,
which will result to the advantage of persons now
in the business. The many difficulties which we
had to battle and contend with are all overcome.
When I invented this one day brass clock, 1 for
the first time put on the zinc dial which is now
universally used, and is a great improvement on
the wood dial, both in appearance and in cost.
This simple idea has been of immense value to
all clock-makers.
In the year 1821, when I moved to Bristol,
no one was making clocks in that town ; the
busine^ had all passed away from there and^was
carried on in Plymouth. The little shop I had
put up had no machinery in it at that time. I
/
66 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
soon began to make so many cases that I wanted
some better way to get my veneers than to saw
them by hand. I found a small building on a
stream some distance from my shop which I se-
cured, with the privilege of putting a circular
saw in the upper part, but which I could not
use till night — the power being wanted for the
other machinery during the day. I have worked
there a great many nights till twelve o'clock and
even two in the morning, sawing veneers for my
men to use the next day. I sawed my hand
nearly oif one night when alone at this old mill,
and was so faint by the loss of blood that I could
hardly reach home. I always worked hard my-
self and managed in the most economical man-
ner possible. In 1825, we built a small factory
on the stream below the shop where I sawed my
veneers two or three years before, but there was
no road to it or bridge across the stream. I had
crossed it for years on a pole, running the risk
many times when the water was high, of being
drowned, but it seems I was not to die in that
way, but to live to help others and make a slave
of myself for them. In 1826, we petitioned
the town to lay out a road by our factory and
build a bridge, which was seriously objected to.
We finally told them that if they would lay out
the road, we would build the bridge and pay for
i
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 67
one half of the land for the road, which, after a
great deal of trouble, was agreed to, and proved
to be of great benefit to the town. Our business
was growing very rapidly and a number of
houses were built up along the new road and
about our factory. I should here mention that
Mr. Eli Terry, Jr., when I had got the Bronze Look-
in g-Glass Clock well a going, moved from Ply-
mouth Hollow two miles east of Plymouth Cen-
tre, (now the village of Terry ville,) where he
built another factory and went into business.
His father retiring about this time, he took all of
his old customers. He was a good business man
and made money very fast. He was taken sick
and died when about forty years old, leaving an
estate of about $75,000. His brother, Silas B.
Terry, is now living, a christian gentleman, as
well as a scientific clock-maker, but he has not
succeeded so well as his brother in making
money. Henry Terry of Plymouth, who is
another son of Mr. Eli Terry, was engaged in
the clock business thirty years ago, but left it
for the woolen business. I think that he is sor-
ry that he did not continue making clocks. He
is a man of great intelligence and understands
the principles of a right tariff as well as any
man in Connecticut. His father was a great
man, a natural philosopher, and almost an Eli
68 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKIXG.
Whitney in mechanical ingenuity. If lie had
turned his mind towards a military profession,
he would have made another General Scott, or
towards politics, another Jefferson ; or, if he had
not happened to have gone to the town of Plym-
outh, I do not believe there would ever have been
a clock made there. He was the great originator
of wood clock-making by machinery in Connecti-
cut. I like to see every man have his due. Thomas
and many others who havQ made their fortunes
out of his ingenuity, were very willing to talk
against him, for they must, of course, act out
human nature. Seth Thomas was in many re-
spects a first-rate man. He never made any im-
provements in manufacturing ; his great success
was in money making. He always minded his
own business, was very industrious, persevering,
honest, his word was as good as his note, and he
always determined to make a good article and
please his customers. He had several sons who
are said to be smart business men.
I knew Mrs. Thomas well when I was a boy,
fourteen years old. She is one of the best of
women, and is now the widow of one of
the richest men in the state. The families
of Terry and Thomas are extensively known,
throughout the United States. Mr: Thomas died
two years ago at the age of seventy-five. He
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 69
was born in West Haven, about four miles from
New Haven, and learned the joiners' trade in
Wolcott, and worked in that region and in Ply-
mouth five or six years, building houses and
barns. I waited on him when he built a barn in
Plymouth, carrying boards and shingles. He
soon after went into the clock business in which
he remained during life. Mr. Terry died in
1853, at the advanced age of eighty-one. .
CHAPTER YI.
OPERATIONS OF FRANK MERRILLS — A SAD HIS-
TORY.— BUSINESS TROUBLES, ETC.
In the fall, of the year 1840, a young man by
the name of Franklin Merrills was introduced to
me as one the smartest and likeliest business
men in the whole country. It was said that he
could trade in horses, cattle, sheep, wool, flour,
or any thing else, and make money. He be-
longed to one of the first families in Litchfield
county. I thought by his appearance and re-
commendations that he would be a good customer
for me and I sold him a thousand dollars worth
of clocks to begin with. He gave me his four
months' note which was promptly paid when
due. He hired three pedlars and went with
them into Dutchess county New York, where,
they sold the clocks very fast. The one-day
O. G. brass clock was a new thing to them, first-
rate for time, and they readily went off for fif-
teen and twenty dollars apiece. I sold them to
him for six dollars apiece, and it appeared, at this
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 71
rate, that he could make a fortune in a few years.
His credit became established for any amount, and
he soon began to want clocks about twice as fast
as at first. A man by the name of Bates trans-
ported them for him in a large two-horse wagon
from my place to Washington Hollow, about
twelve miles east of Poughkeepsie. Mr. Bates
lived in the same neighborhood where Frank was
brought up in New Hartford, Conn. Every week
or two he would go out with a load. Things moved
on in this seemingly prosperous way for some
time. One day I accidentally heard that parties
in New York with whom 1 had never dealt, were
selling my clocks at very reduced prices, and I
began to mistrust that Frank had been selling
to them at less than cost. On seeing him, he
told me I was greatly mistaken and smoothed
down the matter so that it appeared satisfactory
to me. He had at this time got into debt about
eighteen thousand dollars. One day he went to
Hartford and bought seven thousand dollars
worth of cotton cloth from a shrewd house in
that city, telling them a very fine story that he
had a vessel which would sail for South America
the next day, and that the cloth must go down
immediately on the boat. He told them who
his father was, and promised to bring his endorse-
ment in a few days, which was satisfactory to
72 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
them, and they let him have the goods. But the
paper did not come. One of the firm went to
New York and there found some of the goods in
an Auction store, and a part of them sold. He
got out a writ and arrested Frank. His father
was sent for, and settled this matter satisfoctorily.
I thought I would go up to New Hartford and
see Capt. Merrills about Frank's affaii's — he told
me all about them, and said he had been looking
over Frank's business very thoroughly, and found
that a large amount was owing him and that
Frank had shown him on his book invoices of a
large amount of goods that he had shipped to
South America, besides several large accounts
and notes — one of eight thousand dollars. He
told me that he thought after paying me and
others whom he owed, there would be as much
as twenty thousand dollars left. This was very
satisfactory to me, though I knew nothing about
the cotton cloth speculation at that time. If I
had, it would have saved me a great deal of
trouble. This was in February, 1844. There
was a note of his lying over, unpaid, in the Ex-
change Bank in Hartford, of two thousand dol-
lars. T had moved a few weeks before this to
New Haven. In the latter part of February, I
went down to New York to see if he could let
me have the two thousand to take up the note ;
LIFE OE CHAUNCEY JEROME. 73
lie said he could in a day or two. I told him I
would stay till Saturday. On that day he was
not able to pay me, but would certainly get it
Monday, and urged me to stay^ over, which I
did. He took me into a large establishment
with him, and, as I have since had reason to be-
lieve, talked with parties who were interested
with him, about consigning to them a large
quantity of talloAV, beeswax and wool which he
owned in the West. He told me that he had
some trouble with his business, and that all he
wanted was a little help ; he said he had a great
deal of property in New York State, and that if
he could raise some money, he could make a very
profitable speculation on a lot of wool which he
knew about. He told me that if I would give him
my notes and acceptances to a certain amount, he
would secure me with the obligations of Henry
Martin, one of the best farmers there was in
Dutchess county. He also gave the names of
several merchants in New York who were ac-
quainted with the rich farmers. I called on them
and all spoke very highly of him. I thought,
there could be no great risk in doing it, for my
confidence in Frank was very great. I thought,
of course, this would insure my claim of eigh-
teen thousand dollars, but it eventually , proved
to be a deep-laid plot to swindle me. Frank
74 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
had no notes or accounts that were of any value ;
they were all bogus and got up to deceive his
poor old fiither and others. He had no property
shipped to South America. It was all found
out, when too late, that he had ruined himself
by gambling and bad company, often losing a
thousand dollars in one night. He was arrested,
t<aken before the Grand Jury of New York, com-
mitted to jail for swindling, and died in a few
months after. He ruined his lather, who was a
very cautious man, ruined three rich farmers of
Dutchess county, and came very near ruining
me. It was a sad history and mortifying to a
great many. I was advised by my counsel, Seth
P. Staples of New York, to contest the whole
thing in law. I had five or six suits on my
hands at one time, and it was nine years before
I was clear from them. What he owed me for
clocks, and what I had to pay on notes and ac-
ceptances and the expenses of law, amounted to
more than Forty Thousand Dollars. Nine years
of wakeful nights of trouble, grief and mortifi-
cation, for this profligate young man ! There
never was a man more honest than I was in my
intentions to help him in his troubles, and I am
quite sure no man got so badly swindled.
Every clock maker in the state would have been
glad to have sold to him as I did. This young
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 75
man was well brought up, but bad company
ruined him and others with him. This life seems
to be full of trials. In latter years I have re-
membered what an old man often told me when
a boy. " Chauncey," he says, " don't you know
there are a thousand troubles and difficulties ? " I
told him I did not know there were ; " well," he
says, " you will find out if you live long enough. "
I have lived long enough to see ten thousand
troubles, and have found out that the saying of
the old man is true. I have narrated but a small
part of my business troubless in this brief history.
One of the most trying things to me now, is to
see how I am looked upon by the community
since I lost my property. I never was any bet-
ter when I owned it than I am now, and never
behaved any better. But how different is the
feeling towards you, when your neighbors can
make nothing more out of you, politically or pe-
cuniarily. It makes no difference what, or how
much you have done for them heretofore, you
are passed by without notice now. It is all
money and business, business and money which
make the man now-a-days ; success is every thing,
and it makes very little difference how, or what
means he uses to obtain it. How many we see
every day that have ten times as much property
as they will ever want, who will do any thing
6
76 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
but steal to add to their estate, for somebody to
fight about when they are dead. I see men
every day sixty and seventy years old, building
up and pulling down, and preparing, as one
might reasonably suppose, to live here forever.
Where will they be in a few years? I often
think of this. My experience has been great, — I
have seen many a man go up and then go down,
and many persons who, but a few years ago,
were surrounded with honors and wealth, 'have
passed away. The saying of the wise man is
true — all is ''vanity of vanities "here below. Itis
now a time of great action in the world but not
much reflection.
An incident of my boy-hood has just come in-
to my mind. When an apprentice boy, I was at
work with my "boss" on a house in Torringford,
very near the residence of Rev. Mr. Mills, the
father of Samuel J. Mills the missionary. This
was in 1809, fifty-one years ago. This young man
was preparing to go out on his missionary voyage.
How wickedly we are taught when we are young !
I thought he was a mean, lazy fellow. He was
riding out every day, as I now suppose, to add to
his strength. An old maid lived in the house
where I did who perfectly hated him, calling him
a good-for-nothing fellow. * I, of course, supposed
that she knew all about him and that it was so. I am
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 77
a friend to the missionary cause and have been so
a great many years. How many times that wrong
impression which I got from that old maid has pas-
sed through my mind, and how sorry I have always
been for that prejudice. The father of Samuel
J. Mills was a very eccentric man and anecdotes
of him have been repeatedly told. I attended his
church the summer I was in Torringford. He was
the strangest man I ever saw, and would say so
many laughable things in his sermon that it was
next to impossible for me to keep from laughing
out loud. His congregation was composed most-
ly of farmers, and in hot weather they appeared
to be very sleepy. The boys would sometimes
play and make a good deal of noise, and one
Sunday he stopped in the middle of his sermon
and looking around in the gallery, said in a loud
voice, '' boys, if you don't stop your noise and
play, you will certainly wake your parents that
are asleep below!" I think by this time the
good people were all awake ; it amused me very
much and I have often seen the story printed.
Many a time when I think of Mr. Mills, an
anecdote of him comes into my mind, and I
presume that a great many have heard of the
same. He was once traveling through the town
of Litchfield where there was at that time a famous
law school. Two or three of the students were
78 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
walking a little way out of town, when who
should they see coming along the road but old
Mr. Mills. They supposing him to be some old
*' codger," thought they would have a little fun
with him. When they met him one of them
asked him ^' if he had heard the news ? " ^' No,"
he says, '' what is it ? " " The devil is dead."
^'Ishe?" says Mr. Mills, "I am sorry for you —
poor fatherless children, what will become of
you ? " I understand that they let him pass
without further conversation. He was a good
man and looked very old to me, as he always
wore a large white wig.
CHAPTEE VII.
REMOVAL TO NEW HAVEN. — FACTORY AT BRISTOL
In the winter of 1844, I moved to the city of
New Haven with the expectation of making my
cases there. I had fitted up two large factories
in Bristol for making brass movements only the
year before, and had spared no pains to have
them just right. My factory in New Haven
was fitted up expressly for making the cases and
boxing the finished clocks ; the movements were
packed, one hundred in a box, and sent to New
Haven where they were cased and shipped. Busi-
ness moved on very prosperously for about one
year. On the 23d of April 1845, about the middle
of the afternoon one of my factories in Bristol
took fire, as it was supposed by some boys playing
with matches at the back side of the building,
which set fire to some shavings under the floor.
It seemed impossible to put it out and it proved
to be the most disastrous fire that ever occurred
in a country town. There were seven or eight
buildings destroyed, together w^ith all the ma-
80 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
chinery for making clocks, which Avas very cost-
ly and extensive. There were somewhere be-
tween fifty and seventy-five thousand brass move-
ments in the works, a large number of them fin-
ished, and worth one dollar apiece. The loss was
about fifty thousand dollars and the insurance
only ten thousand. This was another dark day
for me. I had been very sick all winter with
the Typhus fever, and from Christmas to April
had not been able to go to Bristol. On the
same night of the fire, a man came to tell me of
the great loss. I was in another part of the
house when he arrived with the message, but
my wife did not think it prudent to inform me
then, but in the latter part of the night she in-
troduced a conversation that was calculated to
prepare my mind for the sad news, and in a cau-
tious manner informed me. I was at that time
in the midst of my troubles with Frank Merrills,
had been sick for a long time, and at one time
was not expected to recover. I was not then
able to attend to business and felt much depres-
sed on that account. It was hard indeed to
grapple with so much in one year, but I tried to
make the best of it and to feel that these trials,
troubles and disappointments sent upon us in
this world, are blessings in disguise. Oh ! if we
could really feel this to be so in all of our
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 81
troubles, it would be well for us in this world and
better in the next. I never have seen the real total
depravity of the human heart show itself more
plainly or clearly than it did when my factories
were destroyed by fire. An envious feeling had
always been exhibited by others in the same
business towards me, and those who had made
the most out of my improvements and had in-
jured my reputation by making an inferior ar-
ticle, were the very ones who rejoiced the most
then. Not a single man of them ever did or
could look me in the face and say that I had
ever injured him. This feeling towards me was
all because I was in their way and my clocks at
that time were preferred before any others.
They really thought I never could start again,
and many said that Jerome would never make
any more clocks. I learned this maxim long
ago, that when a man injures another unreason-
ably, to act out human nature he has got to keep
on misrepresenting and abusing him to make
himself appear right in the sight of the world.
Soon after the fire in Bristol I had gained my
strength sufficiently to go ahead again, and com-
menced to make additions to my case factory in
New Haven (to make the movements,) and by the
last of June was ready to commence operations
on the brass movements. I then brought my
82 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
men from Bristol — the movement makers — and
a noble set of men as ever came into New Haven
at one time. Look at John Woodruff; he was
a young man then of nineteen. When he first
came to work for me at the age of fifteen, I be-
lieved that he was destined to be a leading man.
He is now in Congress (elected for the second
time,) honest, kind, gentlemanly, and respected
in Congress and out of Congress. Look at him,
young men, and pattern after him, you can see
in his case what honesty, industry and persever-
ance will accomplish.
There was great competition in the business
for several years after I moved to New Haven,
and a great many poor clocks made. The busi.
ness of selling greatly increased in New York,
and within three or four years after I intro-
duced the one day brass clock, several com-
panies in Bristol and Plymouth commenced
making them. Most of them manufactured an
inferior article of movement, but found sale for
great numbers of them to parties that were
casing clocks in New York. This way of
managing proved to be a great damage to
the Connecticut clock makers. The New
York men would buy the very poorest move-
ments and put them into cheap 0. G. cases
and undersell us. Merchants from the country,
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 83
about this time, began to buy clocks with their
other goods. They had heard about Jerome's
clocks which had been retailed about the coun-
try, and that they were good time-keepers, and
would enquire for my clocks. These New York
men would say that they were agents for Jerome
and that they would have a plenty in a few days,
and make a sale to these merchants of Jerome
clocks. They would then go to the Printers and
have a lot of labels struck off and put into their
cheap clocks, and palm them off as mine. This
fraud was carried on for several years. I finally
sued some of these blackleg parties, Samuels
& Dunn, anti Sperry k Shaw, and found out to
my satisfaction that they had used more than
two hundred thousand of my labels. They had
probably sent about one hundred thousand to
Europe. I sued Samuels & Dunn for twenty
thousand dollars and when it came to trial I proved
it on them clearly. I should have got for dam-
ages fifteen thousand dollars, had it not been
for one of the jury. One was for giving me
twenty thousand, another Eighteen, and the oth-
ers down to seven thousand five hundred. This
one man whom I speak of, was opposed to giv-
ing me anything, but to settle it, went as high as
two thousand three hundred. The jury thought
that I had a great deal of trouble with this case
I
84 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
and rather than have it go to another court, had
to come to this man's terms. The foreman told
me afterwards that he had no doubt but this
man was bought. New York is a hard place to
have a law suit in. This cheat had been carried
on for years, both in this country and in Eu-
rope,— using my labels and selling poor articles,
and in this way robbing me of my reputation
by the basest means. After this Sperry, who
was in company with Shaw, had been dead a
short time, a statement was published in the
New York papers that this Henry Sperry was a
wonderful man, and that he was the first man
w^ho went to England with Yankee clocks. Af-
ter I had sent over my tAvo men and had got my
clocks well introduced, and had them there more
than a year, Sperry & Shaw, hearing that we
were doing well and selling a good many, thought
they would take a trip to Europe, and took
along perhaps fifty boxes of clocks. I have
since heard that their conduct was very bad
while there, and this is all they did towards intro-
ducing clocks. There is no one who can claim any
credit of introducing American clocks into that
country excepting myself After I had opened
a store in New York, we did, in a measure, stop
these men from using my labels.
I have said that when I got up this one day
, LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 85
brass clock in 1838, that the fourth chapter in
the Yankee clock business had commenced.
Perhaps Seth Thomas hated as bad as any one
did to change his whole business of clock mak-
ing for the second time, and adopt the same
thing that I had introduced. He never invented
any thing new, and would now probably have
been making the same old hang-up wood clocks
of fifty years ago, had it not been for others and
their improvements. He was highly incensed
at me because I was the means of his having to
change. He hired a man to go around to my
customers and offer his clocks at fifty and seven-
ty-five cents less than I was selling. A man by
the name of J. C. Brown carried on the business
in Bristol a long time, and made a good many
fine clocks, but finally gave up the business. Eli-
sha Monross, Smith & Goodrich, Brewster & In-
graham were all in the same business, but have
given it up, and the clock making of Connecti-
cut is now mostly done in five large factories in
different parts of the State, about which I shall
speak hereafter.
CHAPTER Yin.
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS IX CHEAP TIME-KEEPERS.
THE PROCESS OF CLOCK MAKING.
It would be no doubt interesting to a great
many to know what improvements have been
made in manufacturing clocks during the past
twenty years. I recollect I paid for work on
the 0. G. case one dollar and seventy-five cents;
for the same work in 1855, I paid twenty cents,
and many other things in the same proportion.
The last thing that I invented, which has proved
to be of great usefulness, was the one day time-
piece that can be sold for seventy-five cents, and
a fair profit at that. I remember well when I
was about to give up the job, of asking the
man who made the cases for the factory what he
would make this case for. He said he could not
do it for less than eight cents, I told him I knew
he could make them for five cents, and do well,
but he honestly thought he could not. He was
to make two thousand per month — twenty-four
thousand a year. After getting the work well
systematized, 1 told him if he could not make
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 87
them at that price, I would make it up to him at
the end of the year. When the time was up, he
told me that it was the best part of his job, and
that he would make them the next year for four
cents ; it will be well understood that this was
for the work alone, the stock being furnished.
When I got up this new time-keeper, as usual all
the clock-makers were down on me again ; Jerome
was going to ruin the business, and this cheap
thing would take the place of larger ones.
I told them there were ten thousand places
where this cheap time-piece would be useful, and
where a costly striking one would never be used.
There is a variety of places where they are as
useful as if they struck the hour, and there are
now more of the striking clocks wanted than
there were when I got up this one daytime-piece.
When I first began to make clocks, thousands
would say that they could not afford to have a
clock in their house and they must get along
without, or with a watch. This cheap time-
piece is worth as much as a watch that would
cost a hundred dollars, for all practical purposes,
as far as 'the time of day or night is concerned.
Since I began to make clocks, the price has
gradually been going down. Suppose the cheap
time-keeper had been invented thirty years ago,
when folks felt as though they could not have a
r
88 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
clock because it cost so much, but must get
along with a watch which cost ten or fifteen
dollars, what would the good people have thought
if they could have had a clock for one dollar, or
even less ? Tliis cheap clock is much better
adapted to the many log cabins and cheap dwell-
ings in our country than a watch of any kind,
and it is not half so costly or difficult to keep in
order. I can think of nothing ever invented
that has been so useful to so many. We do not
fully appreciate the value of such things. I
have often thought, that if all the time-pieces were
taken out of the country at once, and every fac-
tory stopped making them, the whole com-
munity would be brought to see the incalculable
value that this Yankee clock making is to them.
The little octagon marine case which is seen al-
most every where, was originated and first made
by me. I think it is the cheapest and best look-
ing thing of the kind in the market, and all the
work on the case of that clock costs but eight
cents. All of the large hang-up octagons and
time-pieces were made at our factory two or
three years before any other parties ma'de them
at all. As usual, after finding that it was a good
thing and took well, many others began to make
them. I will say here a little more about hu-
man nature and what I have seen and experi-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 89
enced, during the last forty-five years. Let an
ingenious, thinking man invent something that
looks favorable for making money, and one after
another will be stealing into the same business,
when they know their conduct is very mean to-
wards the originator who may be one of the
best men in the community ; still, nine out of ten
of those who are infringing on his improvement
will begin to hate and abuse him. I have seen this
disposition carried out all my life-time. Forty-
five years ago, Mr. Eli Terry was the great man
in the wood clock business. As I have said be-
fore, he got up the Patent Wood Shelf Clock and
sold a right to make it to Seth Thomas for one
thousand dollars. After two or three years, Mr.
Terry made further improvements and got them
patented. Mr. Thomas then thought as he had
paid a thousand dollars, he would use these im-
provements; so he went on making the new pa-
tent. Mr. Terry sued him and the case was in
litigation for several years. The whole Thomas
family, the workmen and neighbors, felt envious
towards Mr. Terry, and I think they have never
got entirely over it. There was a general pre-
judice and hatred towards Mr. Terry amongst
all the clock-makers at that time, and for noth-
ing only because they knew they were infringing
on his rights; and to act out human nature,
90 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
they must slander and try to put him down.
This principle is carried out very extensively in
this Avorld, so that if a man wants to live and
have nothing said against him, he must look out
for, and help no one but himself If he succeeds
in making money, it matters but little in what
way he obtains it, whether by gambling or
any other unlawful means ; while on the other
hand, if he has been doing good all his life, and
by some mishap is reduced to poverty in his old
age, he is despised and treated with contempt
by a majority of the community.
It may not be uninteresting to a great many
to know how the brass clocks at the present day
are made. It has been a wonder to the world
for a long time, how they could possibly be sold
so cheap and yet answer so good a purpose.
And, indeed, they could not, if every part of their
manufacture was not systematized in the most per-
fect manner and conducted on a large scale.
I will describe the manner in which the OG.
case is made, (the style has been made a long
time, and in larger numbers than any other,)
which will give some idea with what facility the
whole thing is put through. Common merchant-
able pine lumber is used for the body of the
case. The first workman draws a board of the
stuff on a frame and by a movable circular saw
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 91
cuts it in proper lengths for the sides and top.
The knotty portions of it are sawed in lengths
suitable for boxing the clocks when finished,
and but little need be wasted. The good pieces
are then taken to another saw and split up in
proper widths, which are then passed through
the planeing machine. Then another workman
puts them through the 0-G. cutter which forms
the shape of the front of the case. The next
process is the glueing on of the veneers — the work-
man spreads the glue on one piece at a time and
then puts on the veneer of rosewood or mahog-
any. A dozen of these pieces are placed togeth-
er in hand-screws till the glue is properly hard-
ened. The 0-G. shapes of these pieces fit into
each other when they are screwed together.
When the glue is sufficiently dry, the next thing
is to make the veneer smooth and fit for var-
nishing. We have what is called a sand paper
wheel, made of pine plank, its edge formed in
an 0-G. shape, and sand-paper glued to it.
When this wheel is revolving rapidly, the pieces
are passed over it and in this way smoothed
very fast. They are then ready to varnish, and
it usually takes about ten days to put on the
several coats of varnish, and polish them ready
for mitering, which completes the pieces ready
for glueing in shape of the case. The sides of
7
92 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
the case are made much cheaper. I used to
have the stuff for ten thousand of these cases
in the works at one time. With these great fa-
cilities, the labor costs less than t^yenty cents
apiece for this kind of case, and with the stock,
they cost less than fifty cents. A cabinet maker
could not make one for less than five dollars.
This proves and shows what can be done by sys-
tem. The dials are cut out of large sheets of
zinc, the holes punched by machinery, and then
put into the paint room, where they are painted
by a short and easy process. The letters and
figures are then printed on. I had a private
room for this purpose, and a man who could
print twelve or fifteen hundred in a day. The
whole dial cost me less than five cents. The
tablets were printed in the same manner, the
colors put on afterwards by girls, and the whole
work on these beautiful tablets cost less than one
and a half cents : the cost of glass and work
was about four cents. Every body knows that
all of these parts must be made very cheap or
an 0-G. clock could not be sold for one dollar
and a half, or two dollars. The weights cost
about thirteen cents per clock, the cost of box-
ing them about ten cents, and the first cost of
the movements of a one- day brass clock is less
than fifty cents. I will here say a little about the
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 93
process of making the wheels. It will no doubt,
astonish a great many to know how rapidly they
can be made. I will venture to say, that I can
pick out three men who will take the brass
in the sheet, press out and level under the
drop, there cut the teeth, and make all of the
wheels to five hundred clocks in one day ; there
are from eight to ten of these wheels in every
clock, and in an eight-day clock more. This
will look to some like a great story, but is one
of the wonders of the clock business. If some
of the parts of a clock were not made for almost
nothing, they could not be sold so cheap when
finished.
The facilities which the Jerome Manufactur-
ing Company had over every other concern of
the kind in the country, and their customers in
this and foreign countries, are worth to the pres-
ent company more than one hundred thousand
dollars. Their method of making dials, tablets
and brass doors was a saving of more than ten
thousand dollars per year over any other com-
pany doing the same amount of business ; and I
know that the present company would not give
up the customers of the Jerome Manufacturing
Company for ten thousand dollars per year : they
could not afford to do it. The workmen who
came with me from Bristol, were an uncommonly
94 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
energetic and ingenious set of men. Many years
they had large and profitable jobs in the differ-
ent branches, which encouraged them to invent
and get up improvements for doing the work
fast, and in a great many things they far surpass
the workmen in similar establishments — all of
which have resulted to the benefit of the present
manufacturing company of New Haven.
In the year 1850, I Avas induced by a proposi-
tion from the Benedict & Burnham Co., of Wa-
terbury, to enter into a joint-stock company at
my place in New Haven, under the name of the
Jerome Manufacturing Co. They were to put
in thirty-five thousand dollars, audi was to furnish
the same amount of capital. We did so, and
went on very prosperously for a year or two,
making a great many clocks, and selling about
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth
per year in England, at a profit of twenty thou-
sand dollars. They were very thorough in look-
ing into the affairs of the company, which was
all right of course, but did not suit all of the in-
terested parties. My son was Secretary and fi-
nancial manager of the company. He seemed to
have a desire to keep things to himself a little
too much, which also did not suit many of the
interested parties. My son told me he thought
we had better buy the company out, and said
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 95
that we could do so without difficulty, and he
thought it would be a great advantage to us.
Some were willing to sell, and others were not.
Mr. Burnham made an offer what he would sell
for, which the secretary accepted, others of the
stock-holders made similar propositions and the
bargain closed, we paying them the capital they had
advanced and twenty-one per cent, profits, and
buying, in the mean time, seventy-five thousand
dollars worth of brass — the profits on which
were not less than twenty thousand dollars, which
they had the cash for in the course of the year.
About this time a man by the name of Lyman
Squires bought stock in the company, and took
a great interest in the business. A wealthy broth-
er of his bought, I think, ten thousand dollars
worth of stock. The stock was increased in this
way to two hundred thousand dollars. The fi-
nancial affiiirs were managed by the Secretary,
Mr. Squires, and a man by the name of Bissell.
They made a great many additions to the fac-
tory which I thought quite unnecessary, enlarg-
ing the buildings, putting in a new engine and
a great deal of costly machinery. They laughed
at me because I found fault with these things
and called me an old fogy. I was not pleased
with the management at all times, and although I
had retired from active busines, I felt a deep in-
96 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
terest in the affairs of the company, and owned
a large amount of the stock. The Secretary
thought I was always looking on the dark side
and prophesying evil, because I frequently remon-
strated with him on the many extravagancies
which were constantly being added to the estab-
lishment. I frequently told him that if the com-
pany should fail, I should have to bear the
whole blame, because my name was known all
over the world. He always told me in the
strongest terms that I need give myself no un-
easiness about that, as the company was worth a
great deal of money. Things went on in this
way till the year 1855, and while I was absent
from the State, P. T. Barnum was admitted as
a member of our company. Within six months
from that time, the Jerome Manufacturing Com-
pany failed, the causes of which, and the results,
I have clearly and truthfully narrated in another
part of this book. The causes were not fully
understood by me at that time. I have found
them out since, and deem it an act of justice to
myself to make them public. I was hopelessly
ruined by this failure. The company had used
my name as endorser to a large amount, many
times larger than I had any idea of.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW HAVEN CLOCK COMPANY, AND OTHER
CLOCK MANUFACTURERS IN CONNECTICUT.
I will here . give a brief account of the firms
carrying on this important business in Connecti-
cut. The New Haven Clock Company, which
succeeded the Jerome Manufacturing Company,
are now making more clocks than any three oth-
er makers in the state. As I speak of the dif-
ferent manufactories, I will give the outlines and
standing of the men connected with them. As
their goods go all over the world, it is natural
and pleasant for men who are dealing in their
goods to know what kind of men they are at home,
and what the community think of them. The
New Haven company is a joint-stock company-
The head man in this concern, is the Hon. James
English, who is second to no business man in the
State — high minded, clear sighted, and very
popular with all who deal with him. He was,
when a boy, remarkable for industry, prudence
and good behavior. He was an apprentice at
the house-joiner trade, but soon got into other
business which gave him a greater chance to de-
98 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
velope and become more useful to himself and
the community. He began in life without a
dollar, but is now said to be worth three hun-
dred thousand dollars His age at this time is
about forty-eight. He is a Democrat in politics ;
has been elected to many important offices, and
has been the first select man of New Haven for
many years ; he has been elected State Senator
for three years in succession, and all of these
offices he has filled with ability. In the spring
of 18 GO, he was nominated as candidate for
Lieutenant Governor on a ticket with Col. Thomas
H. Seymour of Hartford, for Governor, which
made the most popular Democratic ticket that
has ever been run in the State. Had it not
been for the great anti-slavery feeling there was
at this canvass, Mr. English would have been tri-
umphantly elected. Many of the opposing par-
ty would been glad to have seen him elected,
and would have voted for him, had it not been
for the influence they thought it would have on
the Presidential election. We heard many Re-
publicans say this in New Haven, and many did
vote that ticket.
H. M. Welch, who has for a long time been
connected with Mr. English in business, is large-
ly interested in this clock company. He gives
most of his attention to other kinds of manufac-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 99
turing, in which Messrs. English and Welch, are
very extensively engaged. Mr. Welch is one of
the most intelligent, upright, and kind hearted
business men in the whole State, and is admired
as such by all who know him. He is also a
Democrat in politics, very popular in his party,
and is well qualified for any offices. He would
make a good candidate for Governor or member
of Congress. He is about forty-six years old,
worth perhaps, two hundred thousand dollars ;
he has held many important offices, has been a
Representative to the State Legislature for many
years, and State Senator a number of times. He
has recently been elected Mayor of the city, and
has filled all of these offices with much talent.
John Woodruff, a member of Congress, elec-
ted for the second time from this district, is the
next largest owner in this great brass clock busi-
ness. He commenced to work at clocks with
me when a boy only fifteen years old. He was
a very uncommon boy, and is now an uncommon
man, very popular among his fellow workmen,
popular with Democrats, popular with Republi-
cans, popular every where, and can be elected
to Congress when there is five hundred majority
against his party in his district.
Hiram Camp who is the next largest stock-
holder in this clock company, is forty-nine years
100 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
old. He commenced making clocks with me
at the age of seventeen, and is now President of
the company. He is a Republican in politics,
and has been chosen Representative from New
Haven to the Legislature of the State. At this
time he is Chief Engineer of the Fire Department,
is very popular with his workmen, and highly
respected by the whole community in which he
lives. Many others who hold prominent posi-
tions in this great business in New Haven, first
came here with me when I moved from Bristol.
I should mention Philip Pond, an excellent man
who left the business two or three years since,
on account of his health, but who is now connec-
ted in the wholesale grocery business of the firm
of Pond, Greenwood & Lester, in this city.
Also Charles L. Griswold, now a bit and augur
maker in the town of Chester, who began to
work for me twenty years ago, when a boy.
He was once a poor boy, but now is a talented
and superior man. He has been a member of
the Legislature, and has held many of&ces of
trust.
L. F. Root, now a leading man in New Haven,
came to work with me when quite young, near-
ly twenty years ago. He also has held many
offices of trust, and filled them with great ability.
I could mention many others, but cannot in this
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. ' 101
brief work speak of them as their merits deserve. '
It gives me pleasure to know that the business
of the Jerome Manufacturing Company has fallen
into such good hands.
The Benedict and Burnham Company, now
making clocks in the city of Waterbury, under
the name of the Waterbury Clock Company, is
composed of a large number of the first citizens
of that place. In politics nearly all of them are
Republicans. The oldest man of the company
is Deacon Aaron Benedict, now about seventy-
five years old — a real '' old Puritan, Christian
gentleman." He has been Representative and
State Senator many times — Mr. Burnham of
New York, another member of this company, is
well known to almost every body as one of the
richest men in whole country. My brother.
Noble Jerome, who is an excellent mechanic and
as good a brass clock maker as can be found, is
now making the movements for this company,
and Edward Church, a first rate man and an ex-
cellent workman, is making their cases. He
worked with me seventeen years at case making,
and can do a good job. I cannot pass without
speaking about another man of this company,
Arad W. Welton Esq. He was one of my soldier
companions in Capt. John Buckingham's com-
pany, which went to fight the British in 1813, at
102 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
New London, and in 1814 at New Haven. He
stood very near me in the ranks. I shall never
forget what pluck and courage he showed one
night when the news was brought into camp
that the enemy were landing from their ships.
Our whole regiment was mustered in fifteen
minutes, and on the way to pitch battle with the
British and defend our shores. This Mr. Welton,
who is now an old man, as stout and large as
Gen. Cass, and looking something like him, was
then a young man nineteen years old, and with-
out exception the funniest and drollest fellow
that I ever saw. He kept us all laughing while
we were going down to fight that awful battle,
which, however, proved to be bloodless. This
incident occurred at New London, and I have
often thought of it in latter days. Mr. Welton
is said to be a great business man, and the com-
pany with which he is connected is doing a
good business.
The next clock company which I shall speak
of, is that of Seth Thomas & Co., of Plymouth
Hollow, Connecticut. As I have mentioned be-
fore, the senior Thomas is not living. The busi-
ness is carried on by a company, the members of
which are all Republicans in politics and respect-
able men. Fifty years ago this spring, Heman
Clark built the factory which Seth Thomas, two or
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 103
three years afterwards, bought, and in which he
carried on business until his death, about two
years since. It was never Mr. Thomas' practice
to get up any thing new. He never would
change his patterns or mode of manufacturing,
until he was driven to it to keep his customers.
At the time when I invented the one-day brass
clock in 1838, he said much against it, that it
was not half so good as a wood clock, and that
he never would take up any thing again that
Jerome had adopted ; but he was compelled to, in
a year or two, to keep his customers. He sent
his foreman over to Bristol, where I was then
carrying on business, to get patterns of move-
ments and cases and take all the advantage he
could of my experience, labors, and improve-
ments which I had been studying upon so long.
I allowed my foreman to spend more than two
days with his, giving him all the knowledge and
insight he could of the business, knowing what
his object was. A friend asked me why I was
doing this, and said that if I should send my
man to Thomas' factory he would be kicked out
immediately. 1 told him I knew that perfectly
well, but that if Mr. Thomas set out to get into
the business, he certainly would find out, and
that the course I was taking was wisest and more
friendly. I have thought since how quickly
104 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
such kind treatment as I showed towards his
man can be forgotten ; yes ; this company have
all forgotten the service that I rendered them
twenty years ago, and as I have said before,
would probably have been making the old wood
clock to this day, had it not been for other par-
ties. There always has been a great deal of
jealousy among the Yankee clock-makers, and
they all seemed to hate the one who took the
lead. The next establishment of which I shall
speak, is that of William L. Gilbert, of Winsted,
Connecticut. He is said to be miserly in feeling,
and is quite rich ; not very enterprising, but has
made a great deal of money by availing himself
of the improvements of others.
The next one in the business to whom I shall
allude is E. N. Welch, of Bristol, Connecticut.
He is about fifty years of age, and has been in
many kinds of business. He was deeply inter-
ested in the failure of J. C. Brown a few years
ago, and succeeded him in the clock business.
He is a leading man in the Baptist church, and
has a great tact for making money ; but he says
that all he wants of money is to do good with it.
He is a Democrat in politics, and never wants an
ofl&ce from his party.
These five companies which I have named,
make nearly all of the clocks manufactured in
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 105
Connecticut ; though movements are made by
three other companies. Beach and Hubbell of
Bristol, are largely engaged in manufacturing
the movements of brass marine clocks. Also
two brothers by the name of Manross, in Bristol,
are engaged in the same business. Noah Pome-
roy of Bristol, is also engaged in making pendu-
lum movements for other parties. I should,
however, mention Ireneus Atkins, of Bristol,
who is making a first-rate thirty-day brass clock,
and I am told there is no better one for time in
the country. The movement for this kind of
clock was invented by Joseph Ives, who has
spent most of his time for the last twenty-five
years in improving on springs and escapements
for clocks, and who has done a great deal for
the advancement of this business. Mr. Atkins,
who is making this thirty-day time-piece, is an
excellent man to deal with. The five large
companies which I have named, manufacture
about a half a million clocks per annum ; the
New Haven company about two hundred thou-
sand ; and the others about three hundred thou-
sand between them.
CHAPTER X.
BARNUm's connection with the JEROME CLOCK
CO. CAUSES AND RESULTS OF ITS FAILURE.
The connection of Barnum with the Jerome
Manufacturing Company of New Haven, and the
faihire of the Company have been the subject of
much speculation to the whole world, and has
never been clearly understood. Barnum claimed
that he was cheated and swindled by this com-
pany, robbed of his property and name, and re-
duced to poverty. But before giving any state-
ments, I call attention to the following article
taken from the New York Daily Tribune^ of
March 24th, 1860:
The Great Showman. — P. T. Barnum, " the great Ameri-
can showman," as he loves to hear himself called, who fur-
nishes more amusement for a quarter of a dollar than any
other man in America, is, we are happy to announce, himself
again. He has disposed of the last of those villainous clock
notes, re-established his credit up on a cash basis, and once more
comes forward to cater for the public amusement at the Ameri-
can museum. To day, between the acts of the play, Mr.
Barnum will appear upon his own stage, in his own costly char-
acter of the Yankee Clockmaker, for which he qualified him-
self, with the most reckless disregard of expense, and will
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 107
" give a brief history of his adventures as a clockmaker,
showing how the clock ran down, and how it was wound up ;
shadowing forth in the same the future of the museum." Of
coarse, Barnum's benefit will be a bumper. Next week the
Museum will be closed for renovation and repairs, and the
week after it will reopen lyider the popular P. T. B,, once
more.
I will now give the true statement of facts
and particulars of his connection with the Jerome
Manufacturing Company — which, however, was
not his first experience in clock-making. Some
time before this, he was interested in a Company
located in the town of Litchfield, Connecticut,
and, I believe, owned about ten thousand dollars
worth of stock. They made a very poor article
Avhich was called a marine clock, if I am rightly
informed. That Company failed, and Barnum
took the stock as security for endorsiug and fur-
nishing them with cash. I do not suppose the
whole of the effects were worth transporting to
Bridgeport, although estimated by him at a large
amount. About this time Theodore Terry's
clock factory, at Ansonia, was destroyed by fire.
A large portion of the stock was saved, though
in a damaged condition, much of which was
worth nothing — the tools and machinery being
but little better than so much old iron. Terry
knowing that Barnum was largely interested in
real estate in East Bridgeport, and anxious to
8
108 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING,
have it improved, thought he could make a good
arrangement with him for building a flictory
there for the manufacture of clocks, and did so.
Terry had a large quantity of old clocks in a
store in New York — many^f them old-fashioned
and unsaleable, and thousands of these were not
worth fifty cents apiece. Terry and Barnum
now proposed forming a joint-stock company,
putting in their old rubbish as stock, and esti-
mating it, most likely, at four times its value in
cash. They built a factory in East Bridgeport,
and made preparations for manufacturing. Ter-
ry knew ten times as much about the business as
Barnum did, and knowing, also, that the old stock
was comparatively worthless, held back while
Barnum was urging him to push ahead with the
manufacturing. Terry made a great bluster,
saying that he was going to hire men and do a
great business, while, unknown to Barnum, he
was trying to sell the stock he held in the com-
pany. They finally cooked up a plan to sell
their Xew York store and the Bridgeport fac-
tory and machinery, if they could, to the Jerome
Manfacturing Company, taking stock in that
company for pay, and — the Jerome Company
stock being issued to the owners of the Terry
& Barnum stock — thus merge the two companies
into one. This transaction was made and closed
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 109
without my knowledge, (I being at the time
from the State,) though the " old man " has had
to bear all the blame. As I afterwards found
out, Barnum told my son, the Secretary of the
Company, that Terr^ & Barnum owed about
twenty thousand dollars : this was the amount
Terry had drawn for on the New York store.
They made a written agreement with the Jerome
Manufacturing Company, to this effect ; — that
our Company should assume the liabilities of
their old Company, which were stated at twenty
thousand dollars, and Barnum was to endorse to
any extent for the Jerome Company. It after-
wards proved that the entire debts of Terry &
Barnum amounted to about seventy-two thousand
dollars, which the Jerome Company were obliged
to assume. The great diff'erence in the real and
supposed amount of their indebtedness and the
unsaleable property turned in as stock were
enough to ruin any company. It is a posi-
tive fact that the stock of the Jerome Company
was not worth half as much, three months after
Barnum came into the concern as it was before
that time. Some of the stock-holders did not
like to have Terry own stock, and Barnum to
satisfy them, bought him out, paying him twelve
thousand dollars in cash — he in the end, making
a grand thing out his Ansonia remains. It is
110 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
well known that the Jerome Manufacturing Com-
pany failed in the fall of 1855, to the wonder
and astonishment of myself and of every body
else. The true causes of this great failure never
have been made public. I myself did not know
them at that time, but have found them out from
time to time since, and I now propose to make
them public, as it has been the general impres-
sion almost every where that Barnum and my-
self were associated in defrauding the communi-
ty. I loisli to have it understood that I never
saw P. T. Barnum^ while he was connected with
the Company of which I was a member,
have never seen him but once since, and that was
in February after the failure. About this time
law suits were being brought against him, and
as some supposed, by his friends. He was called
upon, or offered himself as a witness, and I be-
lieve testified that he was worth nothing. The
natural effect of this testimony was to depreciate
the paper which his name was on. At the time
when I saw him, he told me that the Museum
was his just as much as it ever was, and that
he received the profits, which had never been
less than twenty-five thousand and were some-
times thirty thousand dollars per annum;
and yet, he was publicly stating that he was
worth nothing ! He also, as I supposed, held
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. Ill
securities of the Jerome Manufacturing Com-
pany, to a large amount, (as I suppose about
one hundred thousand dollars,) for I know that
such papers had been in his hands. There were
many persons who were interested in the reviv-
al of the business, who were in some way flat-
tered into the belief that Barnum would re-pur-
chase the whole clock establishment and put
them back into the business again. Several
men were sent by some one to examine the prop-
erty and estimate its value, and those persons
who were anxious for a restoration of the busi-
ness V, ere in some way led to believe that Bar-
num intended to re-commence the business of
clock-making. For myself, I do not suppose
that Barnum ever seriously contemplated any
such thing ; but the belief that he did, made
some men quiet who might otherwise have been
active and troublesome.
The manner in which this matter has been
represented would reflect dishonesty upon the
Secretary, which would be untrue. No one who
knows him will, or can accuse him of dishonesty.
Hove truth, honesty and religion ; I do not mean,
however, the religion that Barnum believes in :
(I believe that the wicked are punished in an-
other world.) I ask the reader to look at my
situation in my old age. I think as much of a
112 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
good name, as to purity of character and honesty
at heart, as any man living ; and very often read-
ing in the New York papers of speeches that
Barnum has made, alluding to his being defraud-
ed by the Jerome ManuAicturing Company, I
wish the world to know the whole facts in the
case, and what my position was in the Company
which bore my name. After many years — years
of very active business life — I had retired from
active duty in the Company, although I took a
deep interest in every thing connected with it,
and also a great pride, as it was a business that I
had built up and had been many years in per-
fecting. The manufacturing had been systema-
tized in the most perfect manner and every thing
looked prosperous to me. I owned stock as
others did, but did not know of its financial
standing, and was always informed that it was
all right, and that I should be perfectly safe in
endorsing. I wish to have it understood that I
did not sign my name to any of this paper, it
being done by the Secretary himself, that there-
fore I could not know of the amounts that were
raised in that way, that I did not find out till
after the failure, and then the large amounts over-
, whelmed me with surprise.
It will be remembered that Barnum made two
or three trips to Europe to provide in some way
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 113
for the support of his "poor and destitute"
family, which as he claimed, had been robbed
and ruined by the Connecticut clock-makers.
At one time he was stopped on a pier in New
York, just as he was starting for Europe, by a
suit brought against him. Thus the news went
abroad that poor Barnum was hunted and
troubled on every side with these clock notes.
It was reported that he was quite sick in Eng-
land and could not live, and, at another time,
that being much depressed and discouraged on
account of his many troubles, he had taken to
drinking very hard, and in all probability would
live but a short time ; while at the same time,
he was lecturing on temperance to the English
people, and was in fact a total-abstinence man.
These stories were extensively circulated ; the
value of his paper was depreciated in the market,
and was, in several instances bought for a small
sum.
Since writing the foregoing with regard to
his coming into the Company, and, as he states,
being ruined by it, I have ascertained to my
own satisfaction, that our connection with him
was the means of ruining the Company. A few
days since I was talking with a man who has
been more familiar than myself with the whole
transaction, and he told me it was his opinion
114 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
that if we had never seen Barnum we should still
have been making clocks in that factory. It was
a great mystery to me, and to every body else,
how the Company could run down so rapidly
during the last year. I think I have found out,
and these are my reasons. Instead of having
an amount of twenty thousand dollars to cancel
of the Terry & Barnum debts and accounts
(which the Secretary foolishly agreed to do,) it
eventually proved to be about seventy thousand ;
(this I have found out since the failure.) This
great loss the Secretary kept to himself, and it
involved the Company so deeply that he became
almost desperate ; for knowing by this time that
he had been greatly embarrassed, he was deter-
mined to raise money in any way that he could,
honestly, and get out of the difficulty if possible.
He had, as he thought, got to keep this an en-
tire secret, because if known it would ruin the
credit of the Company. When these extra
drafts and notes of Terry & Barnum were added
to the debts of the Company, he was obliged to
resort to various expedients to raise money to
pay them. This led him to the exchange of notes
on a large scale, which proved to be a great
loss, as many of the parties were irresponsible.
There was a loss of thirty thousand dollars
by one man, and I am sure that there must have
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 115
been more than fifty thousand dollars lost in this
way. He was also obliged to issue short drafts
and notes and raise money on them at fearful
rates. The Terry & Barnum stock which was
taken in at par, was not worth twenty-five per cent.
which had a tendency to reduce the value of the
stock of our Company, though I have recently
heard that the Secretary bought stock at par for
the Jerome Company of some former owners in
the Terry & Barnum Company, in Bridgeport,
only a short time before the failure. To show
the confidence the Secretary had in the standing
of the Company, he recommended one of his
own brothers, not more than one month before
the Company failed, to buy five thousand dollars
worth of the stock, which he did. It was
owned by a Bridgeport man and he paid par
value for it in good gold and silver watches at
cash prices. All of these transactions were
made without my knowledge, and I have found
them out by piece-meal ever since. I do fully
believe that if the Secretary had been worth
half a million of dollars, he would have sacri-
ficed every dollar, rather than have had the Com-
pany failed under his management as it did.
It has been publicly stated that Mr. Barnum
endorsed largely on blank notes and drafts and that
he was thus rendered responsible to a far greater
116 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
extent than he was aware of; such,' however,
was not the case.
The troubles that have grown out of the fail-
ure of this great business, have left me poor and
broken down in spirit, constitution and health.
I was never designed by Providence to eat the
bread of dependence, for it is like poison to me,
and will surely kill me in a short time. I have
now lost more than forty pounds of flesh, though
my ambition has not yet died within me.
CHAPTER XI.
EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE ON MYSELF. REMOVAL
TO WATERBURY AND ANSONIA. UNFORTUNATE
BUSINESS CONNECTIONS, ETC.
After saying so much as I have about my mis-
fortunes in life, I must say a few words about
what has happened and what I have been through
with during the last four years.
When the Jerome Manufacturing Company
failed, every dollar that I had saved out of a
long life of toil and labor was not enough to
support my family for one year. It was hard
indeed for a man sixty-three years old, and my
heart sickened at the prospect ahead. Perhaps
there never was a man that wanted more than I
did to be in business and be somebody by the
side of my neighbors. There never was a man
more grieved than I was when I had to give up
those splendid factories with the great facilities
they had over all others in the world for the
manufacture of clocks both good and cheap, all
of which had been effected through my untiring
efforts. No one but myself can know what my
AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
feelings were when I was compelled, through no
fault of my own, to leave that splendid clustre of
buildings with all its machinery, and its thou-
sands of good customers all over this country
and Europe, and in Aict the whole world, which
in itself was a fortune. And then to leave that
beautiful mansion at the head of the New Haven
bay, which I liad almost worshipped. I say to
leave all these things for others, with that spirit
and pride that still remained within me, and at
my time of life, was almost too much for flesh
and blood to bear. What could have been the
feelings of my family, and my large circle of
friends and acquaintances, to see creditors and
officers coming to our house every day with
their pockets full of attachments and piles of
them on the table every night. If any one can
ever begin to know my feelings at this time, they
must have passed through the same experience.
Yet mortified and abused as I was, I had to put
up with it. Thank God, I have never been the
means of such trouble for others. I had to move
to Waterbury in my old age, and there com-
mence again to try to get a living. I moved in
the fall of 1856, and as bad luck would have it,
rented a house not two rods from a large church
with a very large steeple attached to it, which
had been built but a short time before. In one
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 119
of the most terrific hurricanes and snow storms
that I ever knew in my life, at four o'clock in
the morning of January 19th, 1857, this large
steeple fell on the top of our house which was a
three story brick building. It broke through
the roof and smashed in all the upper tier of
rooms, the bricks and mortar falling to the lower
floor. We were in the second story, and some
of the bricks came into our room, breaking the
glass and furniture, and the heaviest part of the
whole lay directly on our house. It was the
opinion of all who saw the ruins that we did not
stand one chance in ten thousand of not being
killed in a moment. I heard many a man say
he would not take the chances that we had for all
the money in the State. One man in the other
part of the house was so frightened that he was
crazy for a long time. Timbers in this steeple,
ten inches square, broke in two directly over my
bed and their weight was tremendous. I now be-
gan to think that my troubles were coming in a
different form ; but it seems I was not to die in
that way. The business took a different shape
in the spring, and I moved (another task of
moving!) to Ansonia. Here I lived two years,
but very unfortunately happened to get in with
the worst men that could be found on the line of
Rail-road between Winsted and Bridgeport. In
120 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
another part of this book I have spoken of them ;
I do not now wish to think of them, for it makes
me sick to see their names on paper. I had
worked hard ever since I left New Haven — one
year at Waterbury, and two at this place (An-
sonia,) — but got not one dollar for the whole time.
I was robbed of all the money which Mr. Stev-
ens, (my son-in-law,) had paid me for the use of
my trade-mark in England, for the years 1857-
'58. This advantage was taken of me, because
I could collect nothing in my own name.
I should consider my history incomplete, un-
less I went back for many years to speak of
the treatment which I received from a cer-
tain man. I shall not mention his name, and
my object in relating these circumstances is to
illustrate a principle there is in man, and to cau-
tion the young men to be careful when they get
to be older and are carrying on business, not to
do too much for one individual. If you do, in
nine cases out of ten, he will hate and injure
you in the end. This has been my experience.
Many years ago, I hired two men from a neigh-
boring town to work for me. It was about the
time that I invented the Bronze Looking-Glass
Clock, which was, at that time, decidedly the
best kind made. After a while these two men
contrived a plan to get up a company, go into
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 121
another town, and manufacture the same kmd of
clock. This company was formed about six
months before I found it out, and much of their
time was spent in making small tools and clock-
parts to take with them. This was done when
they were at work for me on wages. They in-
duced as many of my men as they could to go
with them, and took some of them into company.
When they had finished some clocks, they went
round to my customers and under-sold me to
get the trade. This is the first chapter. When
I invented the thirty-hour brass clock in 1838,
one of these men had returned to Bristol again,
and was out of business ; but he had some money
which he had made out of my former improve-
ments. I had lost a great deal of money in the
great panic of 1837. After 1 had started a lit-
tle in making this new clock, he proposed to
put in some money and become interested with
me, and as I was in want of funds to carry on
the business, I told him that if he would put in
three thousand dollars, he should have a share
of the profits. I went on with him one year,
but got sick of it and bought him out. I had
to pay six thousand dollars to get rid of him.
He took this money, went to a neighboring
town, bought an old wood clock factory, fitted
it up for making the same clock that I had just
122 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
got well introduced, and induced several of my
workmen to go with him, some of whom he took
in company with him. As soon as I had the
clock business well a going in England, he sent
over two men to sell the same patterns. He has
kept this up ever since, and has made a great
deal of money.
After the failure of the Jerome Manufacturing
Company, as I have already stated, I went to
Waterbury to assist the Benedict & Burnham
Company. After I had been there six or eight
months, and had got the case-making well start-
ed, (my brother. Noble Jerome, had got the
movements in the works the year before,) this
same man I have been speaking about, came to
me and made me a first-rate offer to go with him
into a town a short distance from Waterbury,
and make clocks there. I accepted his offer,
but should not have done so, had it not been for
the depressed condition to which I had been
brought by previous events. I accordingly
moved to the town where he had hired a factory.
He was carrying on the business at the same time
in his old factory, and came to this new place
about twice a week. My work was in the third
story, and it was very hard for an old man to go
up and down a dozen times a day. About this
time I obtained a patent on a new clock case,
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 123
and as I was to be interested in the business, I
let the Company make several thousand of them.
We could make forty cents more on each clock
than we could on an 0-G. clock. As I was fa-
vorably known throughout the world as a clock-
maker, this Company wanted to use my label as
the clocks would sell better in some parts of the
country than with his label. They were put
upon many thousands. Soon after we com-
menced, I told him I would make out a writing
of our bargain because life was uncertain. He
said that was all right, and that he would attend
to it soon. As he always seemed to be in a hur-
ry when he came, I wrote one and sent it to him,
so that he might look it over at his leisure and
be ready to sign it when he came down again.
The next time I saw him, I asked him if the
writing was not as we agreed ; he said he sup-
posed it was, but that he had no time to look it
over and sign it then, but would do so when he
had time. I paid into the business about one
thousand nine hundred dollars in small sums, as
it was wanted from time to time, and worked at
this man for eight months to get a writing from
him, but he always had an excuse. He had
agreed to give the case-maker a share of the
profits if he would make the cases at a certain
price, but put him off in the same way. We
9
124 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
both became satisfied that he did not mean to
do as he had agreed, and I therefore left him.
The money which I had paid in was what I had
received for the use of my name in England. I
had the privilege of paying it in as it was want-
ed, working eight months, keeping the ac-
counts which I did evenings, and giving this
man a home at my house whenever he was in
town. All of this which I liad done, he refused
to give me one dollar for, and it was with great
difficulty tliat I got my money back. I had to
put it into another man's hands, as his property,
to recover it. This man, probably, had two ob-
jects in view when he went to Waterbury to
flatter me away. lie did not want me to be
there with my name on the movements and cases,
and therefore he made me a first-rate offer. I
had been broken up in all my business, and felt
very anxious to be doing something again. I
was a little afraid when he made the offer, but
knew that he had made a great deal of money
out of my improvements and was very wealthy,
and I did think he would be true to me, knowing
as he did my circumstances. Look at this miser,
with not a child in the world, and no one on earth
that he cares one straw about, and yet so grasp-
ing ! Oh ! what will the poor creature do in
eternity !
CHAPTEH XII.
3I0RE MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. ANOTHER UNFOR-
TUNATE PARTNERSHIP.
Before closing the history of the many trials
and troubles which I have experienced during
my life, I will here say that I have never found,
in all my dealings with men for more than forty
years, such an untruthful and dishonest a man as
^' * *^* of a certain town in Connecticut. In 1858,
he induced me to come into his factory to cany
on a little business. My situation was such, in
consequence of the failure of the Jerome Manu-
facturing Company, that I could do nothing in
my own name, as he knew. I had a little money
that had been paid me for the use of my trade-
mark in England, and I felt very anxious, as old
as I was, to make a little money so that I could
pay some small debts wliich my family had made
a short time before the company failed. I had
also two children who looked to me for some
help. This man said to me, "you may have the
use of my factory for 'so much,' and you may car-
ry on the business for one year in my name for
12G AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
SO 'mucli.' This was agreed to by both parties.
In a few days he came to me and said that he
had been talking with his nephew about having
the business carried on in his name " & Co. ;"
* '"* ^'' being the ^'Company" and he was to
keep his nephew harmless, as he had nothing for
the use of his name. The nephew came into
the factory a short time after, and I asked liim if
he had agreed to what * * * had stated to me ;
he said that he had, and that 1 could go on with
the business in the name of himself & Co. ; he
was quite sure that his uncle would keep him
harmless. I went on with the business in this
name from May to December, both of those men
knowing all the while just as much about the
business as I did, and they never said but that
it was all right as we had agreed. I paid in my
money from time to time as it was wanted. Late
in the fall, I paid in at one time, one thousand
nine hundred dollars, through a firm who owed
me that amount, and who gave their notes to
* "^ '^ on short time, which notes were paid. A
short time after this, knowing that I had no
more money to put into the business, he un-
doubtedly thought it time to do what he :had
intended to do at a suitable time from the be-
ginning. One day when I was unwell and con-
fined to the house, a man who had a claim
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 127
against the company, called on ^' '''* ^' to make a
settlement. Before this time he had made two
payments on this same accomit, but he now told
this man that there never had been such a com-
pany, and that he would never pay it — while at
the same time, he had the same property which
the man offered to take back but which he had re-
fused to give up, and said that I had no right to
use the name of & Co. This was after he had
been using the name for me in drafts and notes,
and all other business transactions, for more than
eight months. He said that he would have me
arrested for fraud and put in the State Prison.
This treatment was rather hard towards a man
who had never before been accused of dishones-
ty, and who had done business on a large scale
with thousands of men for more than forty years.
He at one time requested me to borrow a note
for him from one of my friends, which I did,
and which he paid promptly when due. He
did this, as I now suppose, because the business
was not in as good shape for him as it might be
in another three months ; so he wished me to
get the favor renewed, which I did. When it
became due, he denied that it was a borrowed
note, declared that I was owing him, and had
handed this note to him as one that was good
and would be paid. One of his best friends
128 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
has since told rae that there was more honor
among horse-thieves than this man had shown
towards mc. I put into the business between
four and live thousand dollars, worked hard al-
most a year, and have received about five hun-
dred dollars. " ^' "' is trying to scare me by
threatening to sue me for perjury ; so that if he
could make me fool enough to pay the debts of
& Co., he would have just so much more
to put into his own pocket. When he can get a
grand jury to find a true bill against me for
fraud or perjury, I will promise to go to Wethers-
field and stay there the remainder of my life,
without any further trial. After all that I have
said, I think of him just as all his neighbors
do ; for they have told me that it was the com-
mon talk among them, when I first went into
his factory, that he would in some way cheat
me out of every dollar that I put into his hands.
It would take just about as much evidence to
prove that young crows would be black when
their feathers are grown, as it would to satisfy
the community that these statements are true,
especially where he is known. For knavery, un-
truthfulness, and wickedness, I have never seen
anything, in all my business experience of forty
years, that will Compare with this. He would
not have taken such a course with me once, but
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 129
he took advantage of my age and misfortunes
to commit these frauds, thinking that I could
not defend myself, and that he could defraud and
crush me.
I had paid every dollar of my money into this
business which I had at that time, and had noth-
ing to live on through the winter. But John
WoodrufT in his kindness, raised money enough
for me to live on through the winter, and the fol-
lowing spring I moved to New Haven.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WOOSTER PLACE CHURCH. — GROWTH OF THE
DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS IN NEW HAVEN.
In order to have my history complete I must
give my reason for building the Wooster Place
Church, as my motives have been misconstrued
by many persons, I will make a short statement of
what I know to be true. It is well known that
wdth the exception of one, all the Congrega-
tional churches in New Haven, were located
west of the centre of the city. The majority of
the inhabitants lived in the eastern section.
^Meeting after meeting was called by the differ-
ent churches to consider the importance of build-
ing a church in the eastern part. It was strong-
ly advocated by the ministers and many others,
that this part of the city was rapidly filling up,
a great deal of manufacturing was carried on
there, and the strangers who were constantly
coming in would fall into other denominations.
I heard their speeches advocating this course
with great pleasure, as I lived in the eastern
part of the city, had a long distance to go to at-
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 131
tend church, and nearly all the workmen in my
employ lived in the same section. The church
which I have mentioned as the only one located
east of the centre, was in a very prosper-
ous condition. By the talent, popularity and
piety of its minister, as his church and congre-
gation believed, he had filled the church to over-
flowing. There were no slips to be bought in that
church. We heard this minister say that he
could spare thirty families from his congregation
to build up a new church. In view of all the
facts, I started a subscription paper, in as good
faith as I ever did anything in my life, for the
raising of funds to build an edifice. The sub-
scription was headed by myself with five thou-
sand dollars and many large sums were added to
it. A number of wealthy men lived near the
contemplated place of building the new church,
who belonged to other churches. It was sup-
posed, by what their ministers had said in public
and in private, that they would use their influ-
ence in advancing this good work, and to have
some of their members join in it ; but for some
reason they changed their minds. I heard that
the minister of the church located in the eastern
section (which I mentioned before,) had got up
a subscription paper to raise ten or twelve thou-
sand dollars to beautify the front of his church,
132 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
raise a higher steeple, and make some other altera-
tions that he thought important. I was told
that he called on the men who lived in the lo-
cality where we proposed erecting the new
church, with his subscription, and that they sub-
scribed to carry out his plans. Some of those
who had subscribed to build the new church, af-
ter he had made these calls, wrote me that they
wished their names crossed off from my paper —
Others came and told me the same thing, and
wished their names erased. I began at this time
to understand that there were influences work-
ing against our enterprise and that this way of
building a church must be given up. I how-
ever, went forward myself, as is very well known,
and built a church second to none in New Eng-
land. I should have built one that would
not have cost one half of the money, had I ac-
ted on my own judgement, but I was influenced
by a few others differently. I paid more than
twenty thousand dollars out of my own pocket
into this church.
Public opinion in the community was, that if
the several ministers had given their influence
in favor of this matter, a church would have
been built by subscription. They could very
easily have influenced their friends in that part
of the city to unite in this enterprise without
AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
detriment to their own congregation. Had this
course been taken, it is evident that by this
time it would have been a large and prosperous
church.
A correspondent of the Independent in writ-
ing upon the growth of Congregationalism, in
New Haven, had a great deal to say about the
Wooster Place church — calling the man that
built it, "a sagacious mechanic, who built it on
speculation etc." Yet; added "if they had
called a young man for its Pastor from New
England, it might have succeeded after all."
It is well known that the Congregational de-
nomination has made but very small advance-
ment compared with others for the last twenty
years. It is supposed that the inhabitants of
New Haven have doubled in number during that
time ; but only one small Mission church has
been added to the Congregational churches.
Four Episcopal churches have been built, and
filled with worshipers, many of whom formerly
belonged to Congregational families. The Meth-
odists have built two large churches, and more
than trebled in number. The Baptists have
more than doubled, and now own and occupy
the Wooster Place church. And to have kept
pace with the others, the Congregational denomi-
nation should now have as many as three more
large churches.
CHAPTER XIV.
NEW HAVEN AS A BUSINESS PLACE. GROWTH
EXTENSIVE MANUFACTORIES, ETC.
For many years I have extensively advertised
throughout every part of the civilized world,
and in the most conspicuous places, such a city
as New Haven Connecticut, U. S. A., and its
name is hourly brought to notice wherever
American clocks are used, and I know of no
more conspicuous or prominent place than
the dial of a clock for this purpose. More of
these clocks have been manufactured in this city
for the past sixteen years than any other one
place in this country, and the company now
manufacturing, turn out seven hundred daily.
I now propose to give a brief description of
New Haven and its inhabitants in the words of
a business man w^ho loves the town. New Ha-
ven, is to-day a city of more than forty thousand
inhabitants, remarkable as the New Englanders
generally are for their ingenuity, industry,
shrewd practical good sense, and their large
aggregate wealth ; and with forty thousand such
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 135
people it is not strange that New Haven is now
growing like a city in the west. It was settled in
1638, and incorporated as a city in 1784. Its
population in 1830, was less than eleven thou-
sand, and in 1840, but little more than fourteen
thousand, its increase from 1840 to 1850, was
about eight thousand, and from 1850 to 1860,
the population has nearly doubled. The asses-
sed value of property in 1830, amounted to
about two and a half millions. The amount at
the present time is estimated at over twenty
seven millions. New Haven is situated at the
head of a fine bay, four miles from Long
Island Sound, and seventy-six miles from New
York, on the direct line of Rail-road, and
great thoroughfare between that city and Bos-
ton, and can be reached in three hours by Rail-
road and about five by water from New York.
New Haven has long been known as the city of
Elms, and it far surpasses any other city in
America in the number and beauty of these no-
ble elm trees which shade and adorn its streets
and public squares. It is a place of large manu-
facturing interests, the persevering genius and
enterprise of its people having made New Haven
in a variety of ways, prominent in industrial pur-
suits. Mr. Whitney, the inventor of the Cotton
Gin, Mr. Goodyear of india rubber notoriety, and
136 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING,
many other great and good men who by their
ingenuity and perseverance have added millions
to the wealth of mankind, were citizens of New
Haven. Nearly every kind of manufactured
article known in the market, can here be found
and bought direct from the manufactory — such
as carriages and all kind of carriage goods, fire-
arms, shirts, locks, furniture, clothing, shoes, hard-
ware, iron castings, daguerrotype-cases, machi-
nery, plated goods, &c., &c.
The manufiicture of carriages is here carried
on, on a grand scale, and its yearly productions
are probably larger than of any other city in the
Union. There are more than sixty establish-
ments in full operation at the present time, many
of them of great extent and completeness, and
turn out work justly celebrated for its beauty
and substantial value wherever they are known.
I live in the immediate vicinity of the largest
carriage manufactury in the world, which turns
out a finished carriage every hour ; much of the
work being done by machinery and systematized
in much the same manner as the clock-making.
American carriages are fast following American
clocks to foreign countries, to the West Indies,
Australia and the Sandwich Islands, Mexico and
South America, and I believe the day is not far
distant when they will be exported to Europe in
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 137
large quantities, and the present prospect seems
far more favorable for them than it did for me
when I introduced my first cargo of clocks into
England.
When I first saw this city in 1812, its popula-
tion was less than five thousand, and it looked
to me like a country town. I wandered about
the streets early one morning with a bundle of
clothes and some bread and cheese in my hands
little dreaming that I should live to see so great
a change, or that it ever would be my home. I
remember seeing the loads of wood and chips
for family use lying in front of the houses, and
acres of land then in cornfields and valued at a
small sum, are now covered with fine buildings
and stores and factories in about the heart of the
city.
When I moved my case making business
to New Haven, the project was ridiculed by
other clock-makers, of going to a city to
manufacture by steam power, and yet it seems to
have been the commencement of manufacturers
in the country, coming to New Haven to carry
on their business. Numbers came to me to get
my opinion and learn the advantages it had over
manufacturing in the country, which I always
informed them in a heavy business was very
great, the item of transportation alone over-
138 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
balancing the difference between water and
steam power. The facilities for procuring stock
and of shipping, being also an important item.
Not one of the good citizens will deny that this
great business of clock-making which I first
brought to New Haven has been of immense
advantage and of great importance to the city.
Through its agency millions of money has been
brought here, adding materially to the general
prosperity and wealth, besides bringing it into
notice wherever its productions are sent. I have
been told that there is nothing in the eastern
world that attracts the attention of the inhabi-
tants like a Yankee clock. It has this moment
come into my mind of several years ago giving
a dozen brass clocks to a missionary at Jerusa-
lem ; tliey were shipped from London to Alex-
andria in Egypt, from there to Joppa, and thence
about forty miles on the backs of Camels to
Jerusalem, where they arrived safe to the great
joy of the missionary and others interested, and
attracted a great deal of attention and admira-
tion. I also sent my clocks to China, and two
men to introduce them more than twenty years
ago.
I will here say what I truly believe as to the
future of this business ; there is no place on the
earth where it can be started and compete with
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 139
New Haven, there are no other factories where
they can possibly be made so cheap. I have
heard men ask the question, " why can't clocks
be made in Europe on such a scale, where labor
is so cheap ? " If a company could in any part
of the old world get their labor ten years for
nothing, I do not believe they could compete with
the Yankees in this business. They can be made
in New Haven and sent into any part of the
world for more than a hundred years to come
for less than one half of what they could be
made for in any part of the old world. I was
many years in systematizing this business, and
these things I know to be facts, though it might
appear as strong language. No man has ever lived
that has given so much time and attention to
this subject as myself For more than fifty years,
by day and by night, clocks have been upper-
most in my mind. The ticking of a clock is
music to me, and although many of my experi-
ences as a business man have been trying and
bitter, I have the satisfaction of knowing that
I have lived the life of an honest man, and have
been of some use to my fellow men.
10
APPENDIX.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPING CLOCKS
IN ORDER.
Pendulum clocks are the oldest style, and are more general-
ly introduced than any other kind. I will give a few simple
suggestions essential for keeping this clock in good order as a
time-keeper. In the first place, a clock must be plumb (that
is level ;) and what I mean by plumb, is not treing up the
case to a level, but it is to put the case in a position so that
the beats or sounds of the wheel-teeth striking the verge are
equal. It is not necessary to go by the sound, if the face is
taken ojff so that you can see the verge. You can then no-
tice and see whether the verge holds on to the teeth at each
end the same length of time ; or (in other w^ords) whether
the vibrations are equal as they should be. Clocks are often
condemned because they stop, or because they do not keep
good time, while these points and others are not in beat, the
vibrations are not regular ; hence it will not divide the time
equally, and it is called a poor time-keeper, when the dif-
ficulty may be that it is not properly set up. A clock which
will run when it is much out of beat, is a very good one, and
it must run very easily, because it has a great disadvantage
to overcome, viz : a greater distance from a perpendicular
line one way than the other in order that the verge may es-
cape the teeth. A clock may be set up in perfect beat, but
the shelf is liable to settle or warp, and get out of beat so
gradually, that it might not be remarked by one not suspect-
ing it, unless special notice was taken of it. This matter
should be looked to when the clock stops.
142 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
I have explained the mode of setting up a clock with refer-
ence to putting it in beat, etc. Another essential point to be
attended to is that the rod should hang in the centre or very
near the centre of the loop in the crutch wire which is con-
nected with the verge, and for this reason, if it rubs the front
or back end of the loop, the friction will cause it to stop. To
prevent this, set the clock case so that it will lean back a little
or forward, as it requires. It sometimes happens that the
dial (if it is made of zinc) gets bent in, and the loop of the
crutch wire rubs as it passes back and forth. This should be
attended to. It should be noticed also, whether the crutch
wire gets misplaced so that it rubs any kind of a dial ; the
least impediment here will stop a clock. The centre of the
dial should next be noticed. It sometimes happens that the
warping moves it from its place, so that the sockets of the
pointers rub, and many times it is the cause of the clock's
stopping ; this can be remedied by pareing out the centre on
the side required.
Soft verges are no uncommon cause of clocks stopping,
and those who travel to repair clocks generally overlook this
trouble. A clock with a soft verge will run but a short time,
because the teeth will dent into the face of the verge and
cause a roughness that will certainly stop it. The way to
ascertain this, is to try a file on the end of the verge ; if you
can file it it is soft ; they are intended to be so hard that a
file will not cut them. They can be hardened without tak-
ing off the brass ears or crutch wires, if you are careful in
heating them ; but the roughness on the faces caused by the
teeth must be taken out in finishing. They must be poHshed
nicely, and the polish lines should run parallel with the verge :
this may not seem to some necessary, but if the polished
lines run crosswise you can hear it rub distinctly and it would
cause it to stop.
LIFE OF CHAUNCEY JEROME. 143
It is very common to hear a clock make a creaking noise,
and this leads inexperienced persons to think it has become
dry inside. This is not so, and you will always find it to be
caused by the loop of the crutch wire where it touches the
rod ; apply a httle oil and it will cure it.
Some tliink that a clock must be cleaned and oiled often,
but if the foregoing directions are carefully pursued it is not
necessary. I could show the reader several thirty-four hour
brass clocks of my first and second years' manufacture (about
twenty-two years since) which have been taken apart and
cleaned but once — perhaps some of them twice. I have been
told that they run as well as they did the first year. Now
these are the directions which I should lay down for you to
save your money, and your clocks from untimely wearing out.
If you see any signs of their stopping — such as a faint beat,
or if on a very cold night they stop, take tlie dial off, and the
verge from the pin, wipe the pin that the verge hangs on, the
hole in the ears of the verge, and the pieces that act on the
wheel ; also the loop of the verge wire where it connects
with the rod, and the rod itself where the loop acts. Pre-
vious to taking off the verge, oil all the pivots in front ; let the
clock be wound up about half w^ay, then take off the verge,
and let it run down as rapidly as it will, in order to work out
the gummy oil : then wipe off the black oil that has worked
out and it is not necessary to add any more to the pivots.
Then oil the parts as above described connected with the
verge and be very sparing of the oil, for too little is better than
too much. I never use any but watch oil. You may think
that the other oils are good because you have tried them ; but I
venture to say that all the good they effected was temporary
and after a short time the clock was more gummed up than it was
before. AVa^ch oil is made from the porpoise' jaw, and I have
not seen anything to equal it. You may say why not oil the
144 AMERICAN CLOCK MAKING.
back pivots ? They do not need it as often as the front ones,
because tliey are not so much exposed, and hence, tliey do not
catch the dust which passes through the sash and through tlie
key holes that causes the pivots to be gummy and gritty. The
front pivot lioles wear largest first. A few ]>cnnys' worth of
oil will last many years.
It is necessary to occasionally oil tlie pulleys on the top of
the cas6 which the cord passes over. If this is not done the
hole becomes irregular, and a part of the power is lost to the
clock. Common oil will answer for them. "With regard to
balance-wheel clocks, it is more difficult to explain the mode
of repairing, to the inexperienced. With reference to oilmg,
use none but watch oil.
c^L
/
OCT 1 8 1950
r..
.c;^'" ^^
f^^^^^ *-^
V
c^\^
.%^
.^'<
"'%.
.^".^ .A<l> <$^
^ 0 , V ^ .^
f:^^
^
^^ -c
<>
''^- ^
\
.^-^
V t ^ " ' "^
^o ^..^ ^^^^'^^^ %^^ :^'^
.V
?:^ ^
^-/
•^ ^
<i:^ °^
\\ ^'^''■^
10 .
>
s^ ^^.
cp^.^i:^'".<%; ' * " ~ 00^^.^1:1'"/% ' ' " co^oi:!'".
