Tower Clock Installation Records
based on
Early American Tower Clocks©

by Frederick M. Shelley


Section I — 1717 - 1839

City            State           Clock?          Building                Date
Joseph Phillips Clocks
New York NY N __ 1717
William James Clocks
Newport RI N -- 1717
Benjamin Bagnall Clocks
Boston MA N Brick Meeting House 1718
William Claggett Clocks
Newport RI N (Dial exists) Trinity Church 17??
Ebenezer Parmelee Clocks
Guilford CT Y (Mus.) First Church 1726 Milford CT N Meeting House 1740
Christopher Witt Clocks
Ephrata PA Y (Mus.) Ephrata Cloister 1735 (Attributed to Witt)
Macock Ward Clocks
Wallingford CT N Third Meeting House 1738
Augustine Neisser Clocks
Bethlehem PA Y Bell House 1746
John Whitear Clocks
Stratford CT N Christ Church 1748
Aaron Miller Clocks
Elizabethtown NJ N First Presbyterian Church1759
Thomas Stretch Clocks
Philadelphia PA N State House 1759
Edward Duffield Clocks
Philadelphia PA N Shop 1760
Johann Ludwig Eberhardt Clocks
Salem NC Y Orange County Courthouse1766
Valentine Urletig Clocks
Reading PA N Berks County Courthouse 1767
Obadiah Frary Clocks
Deerfield MA Y (Mus.) Meeting House 1768
Gawen Brown Clocks
Boston MA Y Old South Church 1770 (Clock is likely of English make, therefore attributed.)
Samuel Luscomb Clocks
Salem MA N (2 clocks) Meeting House 1773
John Eberman, Jr. Clocks
Lancaster PA Y (Mus.) Court House 1785 Nazareth PA Y (Mus.) Manor House 1799 Harmony PA Y (Mus.) Church 1801
Nathaniel Hamlen Clocks
Augusta ME N House gable 178?
Benjamin Dudley Clocks
Newport RI Y (Mus.) Colony House 1786
Thomas Harland Clocks
New London CT N First Congregational Church 1790 Norwich CT N ND 1797
Daniel Burnap Clocks
South Hadley MA N Meeting House 1802 Suffield CT Y (Mus.) Meeting House 1791 (Clock is attributed to Burnap, but there is serious question as to whether Burnap made the clock.)
Frederick Heisely Clocks
Frederick MD Y Evangelical Lutheran Church 1791 Columbia PA N Town Hall 1829 Chambersburg PA Y Market House 1829
Luther Smith Clocks
Keene NH N Fourth Meeting House 1794
Johann Jacob Loesch Clocks
Salem NC N Community House 1797
Asa Baldwin Clocks
East Haven CT N Old Stone Church 1798
Simeon Jocelin Clocks
Madison CT Y Church 1799 Branford CT Y Museum 1804
Abel Stowell Clocks
Worcester MA N Old South Meeting House 1800 Hubbardston MA Y (United, now Federated) Church 1807
James Huston Clocks
Trenton NJ N First Presbyterian Church 1800
Simon Willard Clocks
Newburyport MA N North Church 1785 Portland ME Y North Church Meeting House 1802 Roxbury MA N First Church (Repl. by Howard) 1806 Boston MA N Old Boyleston Market -- (May now be in Calvary Church, Arlington, MA.) Boston MA N Park Street Church -- Dedham MA N First Church Meeting House 1820 New York NY N St. George's Church 1820 Univ. Of Va. VA N Rotunda (Burned) 1826 Boston MA Y Old State House 1831 Cambridge MA Y First Parish Unitarian Church 1832 Boston MA Y Commercial Wharf Bldg. 1833 Falmouth MA ? First Congregational Church 1840 (Signed B. F. Wllard)
George Holbrook Clocks
Leicester MA N Meeting House 1803 Chester NH N Congregational Church 1804 East Windsor CT Y Scantic Meeting House 1810
Gardner Parker Clocks
Westborough MA Y (Mus.)Meeting House 1806 Shrewsbury MA N Meeting House -- West Cambridge MA N First Parish Church 1808 (Now Arlington)
James Ridgeway Clocks
Groton MA Y First Parish Meeting House 1809
Samuel Terry Clocks
East Windsor CT N Church 1811 Windsor CT N First Church 1811 Norfolk CT N -- 1813 -- MA N -- 1833 Peekskill NY N -- 1829 Litchfield CT N -- 1830 Bristol CT Y -- 1832 Goshen CT Y -- 1832 Sag Harbor, L.I.NY N 1834 Waterbury CT N Baptist Church 1845 Surviving clocks, original installation locale unknown: Smithsonian Museum Ford Museum Verdin Museum
Isaiah Lukens Clocks
Hatboro PA Y Loller Academy 1812 Philadelphia PA Y Head House Market 1819 Philadelphia PA Y Second National Bank 1820 Camden SC Y Town Clock 1824 Norfolk VA Y Church 1827 Philadelphia PA Y Independence Hall 1828 West Chester PA Y Town Clock 1837 York PA Y Court House -- (Two more clocks by Lukens may be in Flemingsburg and Mayfield, Kentucky. The local legend has it that a Samuel Feemster (Feamster) travelled to Europe (when he was 50) to "learn clockmaking." He is then alleged to have returned to Flemingsburg where he made the two clocks in question.)
John Hughes Clocks
York PA N (Coll.?)County Courthouse 1815
Thomas Woolson, Jr. Clocks
Amherst NH Y Meeting House 1815 Claremont NH N Town Hall 1827 Concord NH N - ND Lebanon NH N - ND Northwood NH Y Northwood Baptist Church ND Bethel NH N - ND May have made other clocks, but they are not recorded. Luther Elliot of Amherst made the Amherst clock to Woolson's design.
Stephen Hasham Clocks
Windsor VT Y** Old South Church 1817 Norwich VT Y Congregational Church 1817 Alstead NH Y** Alstead Congregational Church 1822 Pittsfield MA Y**** First Congregational Church 1822 Charlestown NH N* South Parish Church 1824? Troy NY Y***** First Baptist Church 1824 Charlestown NH Y*** South Parish Church 1843 Cornish Flat NH Y Baptist Church 1844? Haverhill NH Y*** Congregational Church 1844 Springfield VT Y*** Methodist Church 1844 * Burned in 1843. ** Now in a private collection *** Electrified **** Now in the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. ***** The clock has been removed from the steeple, restored to running condition, and is ticking and striking in Winthrop, New York.
Jehiel Clark, Sr. Clocks
Cazenovia NY N Methodist Church 1820
Elisha Hotchkiss, Jr. Clocks
Burlington CT Y Burlington Congregational Church1820
Aaron Willard, Jr. Clocks
Kennebunkport ME Y South Congregational Church 1824 Hagerstown MD Y Town Hall 1836 Grafton MA Y Congregational Church 1839 (Now in the Willard House Collection) Grafton MA Y 1840
Barzillai Davison Clocks
Milford CT N First Church Congregational 1825
Asa Washburn Clocks
Louisville KY N (Burned) Presbyterian Church 1825
Harmony Society Clocks
Harmony PA Y On display. 1811 (See Eberman, 1811 installation.) Harmony PA Y St. John's Lutheran Church 1827
Joel Curtis Clocks
Cairo NY N Presbyterian Church 1828
David Brown Clocks
Pawtucket RI N Congregational Church 1829 New Bedford MA N North Congregational Church 1836 Taunton MA N Trinitarian Church 1836
John Whitehead Clocks
Bridgeton NJ N Cumberland Nail & Iron Co. 1830
George Heisely Clocks
Columbia PA N Town Hall 1830 (See Frederick Heisley above.) Chambersburg PA N Market HouseãTown Hall 1831
Samuel & Benjamin Demilt Clocks
New York NY N City Hall 1831
George Handel Holbrook Clocks
Holliston MA Y* Church 1832 West Townsend MA Y First Baptist Church 1834 Amherst MA N Replaced by Seth Thomas 1888 1834 Eastport ME Y Congregational Church 1836 East Machias ME Y Congregational Church 1836 Keene NH N Replaced by Stevens 1867 1839 Chelsea VT Y Federated Church 1840 Medway (Millis) MA Y Village Church 1850 A clock in a private collection, initial installation and date unknown. There is an unsubstantiated rumor that a Holbrook was installed in Rahway, New Jersey. * Only the frame and the fan-fly remain in the church.
Eli Terry Clocks
New Haven CT N Centre Church 1825 (May be the clock now in Plymouth, CT.) Terryville CT N Congregational Church 1838
Benjamin Morrill Clocks
Dover NH Y* First Parish Church 1835 Henniker NH Y** Congregational Church 1835 Orford NH Y*** West Street Church 1850 Sugar Hill NH Y**** Congregational Church 18?? May have made other clocks, but they are not recorded. * The clock is now a jumble of bits and pieces in the attic of the church. ** The clock is now in the American Clock & Watch Museum, Bristol, CT. *** The clock was installed in the early 1850's. The actual date is not known. It may have been moved to this location from another building. ****The clock was removed from the church sometime in the early 1900's. It is
now running in the Sugar Hill Historical Society Museum---time only, no
strike.
Jacob Custer Clocks
Philadelphia PA Norristown PA -- Court House 1822 Norristown PA -- Town Clock Uniontown PA Danville PA Phoenixville PA Coatesville PA Waynesboro PA -- Town Clock 1861 Schuylkill FallsNY Burlington NJ Y Glassboro NJ -- AL -- SC -- OH The NAWCC Museum has a Custer clock on display--source unknown.
Chase & Quimby Clocks
Belfast ME Y First Church 1836
George W. Russell Clocks
New Holland PA Y School (Rebuilt by Stevens q.v.)1830-40 [This date does not match the date and position in Part 3 of the index page. / Ed.]
Josiah Green Clocks
Salisbury NH Y Baptist Church 1837 Salisbury NH Y Salisbury Heights 1839 Baptist Church
Ephraim Niles Byram & Sherry & Byram Clocks
Sag Harbor, L.I. NY N Methodist Church 1838* Sag Harbor, L.I. NY Y (Elec'd.)Presbyterian Church 1845 Elmhurst, L.I. NY N St. James' Episcopal Church 1850** Lagrange GA N (remains)Lagrange Female Institute1851 Hempstead NY Y St. George's Church 1852 New York NY N City Hall 1853*** Louisville KY N Walnut Street Baptist Church 1855**** Rochester NY N Plymouth Church 1856***** West Point NY ?? West Point Military Academy 1858 McConnellsburg PA Y (remains)-- -- Belvidere NJ Y Warren County Court House º Lexington VA N Virginia Military Institute 1852 St. George UT Y St. George Tabernacle 1872 º There is the possibility that the Belvidere clock came from Lexington, Virginia.
Civil War history records that Major General David Hunter (who was born in
Princeton, New Jersey) left Virginia Military Institute a "gutted ruin" after his
raid in 1864, and the history of the Belvidere clock is rather unclear. * The steeple and the clock were demolished in the 1938 hurricane. ** Burned, 1975 *** Burned, 1858. **** The church and the clock were torn down in 1917. ***** Demolished 1953, because of street reconstruction.
Andrew Meneely Clocks
New Paltz NY Y Church 1839 Eaton NY Y Town Hall 1848 Salem NY Y -- 1841 Trumansburg NY Y -- 1849 There were other installations for which data is not available.

End of Section I.

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