Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-25
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
The Popularity of Grandfnthers' Clocks
Hunting for Old Timepieces In Farm-
houses-Quaint Relfcs of Bygone Days

The Popularity of Grandchildren Clocks
Hunting for Old Timepieces In FARM
houses-Qunint Relics of Bygone Days
MIR. strnw's CoIIecrion--Odd Stories Of
Father Times HeraIds-
THE popularity of that sentimental ballad
"My Grandfather's Clock" has waned,
and generation is growing up to whom those
classical lines of exquisite beauty
"But it stopped Short never to go again.
When the old man died,
shall suggest nothing, absolutely nothing. Inls
is sad, but inevitable. Some 10 years ago the
English-speaking race heard hardly any other
air in the theater, in the street and even IN tne
parlor. The "Tick tick, tick tick" Of the re-
frain might have come from the "atcn oi
Father Time, so necessarily did it resound.
The craze for grandfathers' clocks is older
than the song. but in Pittsburg perhaps 1t has
known its greatest activity during the last dec
ade. Craze is not exactly the word either, for
that suggests mere fashionable fad or fancy,
and the desire to possess an old hall clock is
laudable enough. Simply, it were better to
say that old-fashioned clocks are in high favor
here.
In the summer of 1887, remember, there was
an extraordinary demand for old clocks
among the fashionable visitors at Bedford
opIluSs. AL Lue IdTmuOuscs WlLulu ~ lulleo
of that delightful resort were ransacked for
old clocks. The natives caught on, and very
soon you couldn't buy farmhouse clock of
the grandfather pattern for less than $50 to S75
L don't know whether prices have come down
since then, but do know that very few genu-
inc old upright clocks of the sort priced are to
be found in the farmhouses of Western Penn
sylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia or
Ohio. The real old-timers have been gobbled
up by dealers or amateur enthusiasts, for the
most part and there are more grandfathers
clocks in the cities than in rural places.
pERHAPs YOU NAV remember the curious dis
covery that Mr.. Gilbert A. Hays, Of this
city, made in a clock that he bought down IN
the Shenandoah Valley two years or more ago.
The story was told in this column at the time.
Mr.. Hays found the will of an old farmer In the
base of the clocks case, and he was able to find
the persons named in the will and to restore
the document to them. Mr.. Hays brought a
number of clocks from,the Shenandoah Valley,
and they now adorn several houses in this
county.
Since then other Pittsburgers have procured
hall clocks in the way Mr. Hays did, and cab
met makers and clock makers have made them
things OF beauty and reliable recorders of tune.
The works of these old-fashioned timepieces
are generally better preserved than the cases,
for the clock makers hundred years ago built
substantially if they did not have tenth part
of the devices and ingenious contrivances that
the workman Of to-day has to assist him.
COME of these old clocks have curious his
tories. For instance. in the Watson home
stead, in SewickleY. there stands clock that
came over from Scotland with one of the pio-
neers of this section. Mr. Robert Watson, father
of the gentleman of that name now living. At
that time its works were in an old "wag- -on-the-
wall" as the hanging clock is Familiarity termed.
When Mr. Watson returned to Scotland on a
visit he bought some mahogany and had it
made into sea chest, which he brought back
with him to this country. He got a cabinet
maker here to construct a clock case from the
mahogany in the chest and the old clock on the
wall was promoted to the dignity of which
Longfellow writes:
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all:
Forever-neveri
Never-forever!