HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 1913 
A timepiece with many of the character¬ 
istics of Willard s work 
clocks, choosing, instead, a gilded ball or acorn as decoration. 
But while ‘Massachusetts had her distinguished makers, Con¬ 
necticut was the great clock-making State. Many of her silver¬ 
smiths were clock-makers also, these two trades providing luxuries 
which could well be done without by the hardy men and women 
who were occupied in wresting a living from her rocky hills. The 
greatest name in American 
clock-making annals is Eli 
Terry, and he was a Con¬ 
necticut man. But before 
I gpeak of him, mention 
must be made of his in¬ 
structor in the trade, 
Thomas Harland. He was 
an English clock - maker, 
who came to this country 
and settled in Norwich, 
Conn., in 1773, that historic 
year which saw the great 
tea party in Boston Har¬ 
bor. He had many ap¬ 
prentices, some of whom 
achieved greater fame than 
their master. The clocks 
he made—“spring, musical 
and plain clocks,” accord¬ 
ing to his advertisement— 
all had brass works, with 
pendulums forty inches 
long, and they were put in 
tall cases, as was the usage 
in England. A fine speci¬ 
men of his work still in go¬ 
ing order stands in the 
home of his descendants in 
Norwich ; it is shown in the 
lower right-hand picture on 
this page. 
In the latter part of the 
Eighteenth Century there 
came a demand for cheaper 
house clocks. People no 
longer wished to depend on 
the church clock or on the 
uncertain noon - mark cut 
on the kitchen window-sill, 
■which every passing cloud 
obscured. The clocks with 
brass works were the only 
kind known and were ex¬ 
pensive, being cast and 
wrought. At this period, 
Eli Terry made what was 
known as the woodworks 
clocks, which were, it is 
true, first cut out and sawed 
bv band, but which were 
quickly and cheaply made, 
and good timekeepers. 
The history of Connecticut has much to do with wooden ob¬ 
jects—clocks, knot-bowls, woodenware, and, her detractors say. 
wooden nutmegs. However that may be, her woodworks clocks 
were a great success, and through them Eli Terry and his family 
achieved fame and fortune. He made his first woodworks clock 
in 1792, a tall case clock, which is still going in the home of one 
of his descendants. I11 1793 he commenced to make regularly 
these wood clocks. Three or four were made at a time, loaded 
Two tall thirty-hour clocks, both with 
wood works 
per- 
They 
shelf 
The dials were often made by companies 
which did nothing else 
on horseback and peddled through the country. The local car¬ 
penter or the village handy man made the cases, but, later, case¬ 
making became a regular business. 
Many of the clocks were sold uncased and hung up just as they 
were, and were known as “wag-on-the-walls.” There are few 
of them left!: for they became clogged with dust and refused to 
go. 1 have seen one made 
by Silas Hoadley, a famous 
clock-maker of Plymouth, 
Conn., a contemporary of 
Eli Terry and for a short 
time his partner. This 
clock still goes and is own¬ 
ed in Massachusetts. It is 
the only one of this kind I 
have known of, marked 
with the maker’s name. 
In 1814, Terry made 
what he called his 
fected wood clock.” 
were called short 
clocks, to distinguish them 
from the long case clocks. 
The cases of mahogany 
were made in sections and 
then put together. The 
movements were wood, 
one-day time, bell strike. 
The cords ran in top and 
bottom pulleys, doubling 
the time the clocks would 
run if only top pulleys were 
used. A splendid clock by 
Terry, with brass works, is 
shown in the right-hand 
corner of page 303, made 
at about the same time. 
One of the most interesting 
things about these old 
clocks is the clock papers 
found within the cases of 
so many. The Terry clocks 
had “Patent clocks made 
and sold by Eli Terry. Ply¬ 
mouth, Con. Warranted if 
well used.” The earliest 
all had Con. spelled with 
one n. A clock of the style 
shown sold for $15 when 
first manufactured, but the 
price dropped to $12, com¬ 
petition was so keen. 
The town of Plymouth, 
Conn., has an interest all 
her own, while less historic 
than her Massachusetts sis¬ 
ter. The town was incor¬ 
porated in 1795. and in 
1895 celebrated her hun¬ 
dredth anniversary. On that occasion, examples of her early 
industries were exhibited. Early clocks made by the Terrys, Seth 
Thomas, Chauncev Jerome and others were shown, and a group 
Made by Thomas Harland. 
case, brass works 
Mahogany 
of them included what remains of one of the wag-on-the-walls 
the figures of the 
and an interesting one by Terry without a dial 
hours being painted on the glass. 
Terry’s designs and inventions were seized upon without 
(Continued on page 326) 
