Description:
Tall case clock made by Seth Thomas (1785-1859) and Silas Hoadley (1786-1870) of Plymouth, Connecticut, which descended in the Frary family in Deerfield. The clock is inscribed in graphite: “This clock was bought in Shutesbury [MA.] in July 1878 of a Mr. Hayden for $2.00. The works repaired in the fall and the case finished Feb 1879 by CF Frary Leverett [MA.].” and in a different hand: “paid $2.00/This clock was grained/May 1878 by Colburn[?] Hobart.” The 1807 Embargo on British imports to the United States, followed by the War of 1812, stimulated the manufacture of a wide range of household goods in America and the development of thousands of “factory hollows” along the millstreams of New England. Plymouth was no exception, and there, Eli Terry (1772-1852) became the father of the Connecticut clock industry, which grew to provide the world with inexpensive timekeeping during the first half of the 19th century. A genius at the workbench and in the counting house, Terry nevertheless could not control the competition of others even with regular mailings to the Patent Office, and often his competition came from within. He had hired Silas Hoadley (1786-1870), a carpenter, to transform his newly-purchased gristmill in Plymouth into a clock manufactory in 1808 so that he could undertake an ambitious contract to mass produce 4,000 30-hour wood tall clock mechanisms within three years. A year later, he hired another young man in his 20s, Seth Thomas (1785-1859), to help with their construction. In 1810, Thomas and Hoadley formed a partnership to produce inexpensive wood clock movements without cases to be sold by peddlers throughout New England. They produced this clock movement before ending their partnership in 1813. Clocks like theirs had most of the household presence of a costly 8-day brass movement housed in an expensive hardwood case of mahogany or cherry, and cost between fifty and seventy dollars in 1810. With the concession of having to wind the clock everyday, many more householders in New England and throughout the eastern United States could now purchase with pride a tall clock for their parlors. Families who purchased the movements often commissioned local cabinetmakers to make inexpensive cases that could be paint decorated. In this instance, “Thomas & Hoadley Mechanics in Company” retailed clock movements like this example for seven dollars; the pine case might cost an additional ten or twelve. When Cephas F. Frary (1858-1932) of Leverett, Massachusetts, bought this clock from a Mr. Hayden of Shutesbury 70 yrs. later in 1878 for two dollars, it was old-fashioned and out-of-repair. Frary fixed it up, and commissioned his second cousin, Colburn Hobart, to embellish the case with its current grain-painted decoration - the spiffy maple grain-painting over the original dark red paint stain - topped off by the Renaissance Revival metal hinges to secure the waist door. One can only speculate whether Frary knew that his great-great grandfather, Obadiah Frary (1717-1777) of Deerfield and Southampton, Massachusetts, was the expert clockmaker who built the tower clock for the Deerfield meeting house in 1765, which is now in the collection of Memorial Hall Museum.

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