By Ben Marks — In 1849, when word reached Ohio that gold had been discovered the year before in California, there was little to keep a young ship captain named Matthew Turner (1825-1909) close to the family homestead on the shores of Lake Erie. Eight years earlier, when Turner was just 16, his 36-year-old mother was taken by illness; in 1849, when Turner was a 24-year-old newlywed, his bride died, too. And so, in the winter of 1850, Turner bid adieu to his father, brother, and sisters and caught a...

The Care and Repair of 19th-Century American Clocks

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I was working as a jewelry department manager for a department store, and I had a customer who brought a clock in for repair. I was able to fix her clock very quickly and easily, and I didn’t charge her anything. It turned out she had a huge collection, and she asked me to see the rest of them. She had these amazing 18th-century bracket clocks and 18th-century tall-case clocks. She had a gorgeous skeleton clock and even an Atmos clock. So that planted the seed, but it was many years later...

The Timeless Appeal of the Westclock Big and Baby Bens

By Dave Margulius — How did I get interested in clocks? Something about them has always been ingrained in me. My mom’s father had a small collection of antique clocks and when I was a little boy he showed me how to wind them and regulate them. When I was eight we moved to a new house and my mom and I were looking in the attic and found an old octagon wall clock made by Waterbury, probably dated about 1880. That was the first antique clock I owned myself. I hung it on my wall and we tried to get it fixed...