While writing the Quaker Meeting piece for the book, I wrote this on the clocks It was too long for the book. I will post it here and in the Millville History Blog at: https://www.millvillepahistory.com/ where it will live longer and be found easier.

        The Quaker Meetinghouse Clocks

                For eighty years, two clocks have resided in the Quaker Meetinghouse in Millville, PA. One sets silently as the other takes up counting the passing of time.

                The silent one joined the old Regulator Style clock made by the Waterbury Clock Co. in the fall of 1944. It has ended a journey that started in England. Its clockworks were imported for John Eves, the settler, in the late 1790’s or early 1800’s. The mechanism was one of two that were purchased for the Eves family. The second was for John Eves’s oldest son Thomas. Both were installed in cases in this country.

                The last known location for the Thomas Eves clock was in Christiana, PA in the home of Eleanora Chandler. She and her husband are both deceased and their whereabouts are unknown. How it got there is unknown today.

The John Eves clockwork was built into a graceful wooden, upright, floor case. It has four hands. The usual second hand on its stem above the center, the minute and hour hands in the central position, and a stem with a hand below the center marking off the months.

                John’s clock had been handed down to his son Joseph, who lived then on the farm in Madison township today known as 41 Taylor Road. Joseph’s son Milton then inherited it and it remained there. Milton’s son Watson retained the clock till he left the farm. Watson sold the clock to Parvin Eves, Jr. ( reportedly for $0.75). Parvin’s ceiling was too low, so his brother Francis Eves took it home at sale for $ 2.00.

                The clock then traveled to Frances’s daughter, Matilda Parker, then to her son Wilson, and then to his daughter Margaret Bartlow. She sold it to Myra Eves in 1930. Myra’s niece Margaret Henderson then arranged the final move.

                On July 23, 1944, Margaret Henrie Henderson of Montgomery, West Virginia signed an agreement placing the John Eves clock in the Millville Quaker Meetinghouse. This document with the Trustees for the Monthly  Meeting of Friends held at Millville involved a “certain grandfather’s clock purported to be the clock at one time owned by John Eves, the original settler of the Village of Millville”. It was her desire “that the same shall be kept in the Borough of Millville”. She was to retain title to the clock and entrusted care and custody to the Meeting.

                The Meeting is not to “in any matter, change or repair said clock and permit no one to remove it from said premises for any purpose whatsoever, except upon written consent and agreement” of her. It is to remain on the premises so long as said Meeting remains active and regular meetings of worship are held there.

                She signed it as did Charles Eves, Jack Ruckle, C.H. Henrie, and Perry Eves as Trustees.  Taken from the original signed July 23, 1944.

                This clock stands 7 feet, 4 inches tall. It is made with three sections, the case housing, the weight shaft, and the base. It sits on four claw feet attached to the 11-inch deep by 18-inch wide base. Atop the base is the 8-inch deep by 12-inch wide shaft. Crown is the case housing at 9 inches deep by 16 inches wide. It is decorated with three small acorn cup adornments. It has a natural wood finish.

                The case housing holds the imported clockworks. Its face is a 12-inch square showing the four hands on a tan paper background. The hours are Roman numerals, with minutes marked off without numbers between the twelve hours. There is no pendulum. It is wound with ropes in the shaft. Because of its age and concern for the wear on the gears, it has not been operated for at least 70 years.

                The John Eves clock sits on the raised platform against the east wall. It is a reminder of the community's Quaker heritage and the source of the Quaker founding in England by George Fox.

                The Waterbury Clock Company clock hangs on the north wall, east of the second window. It is high enough that a grown individual must stand on the bench below for access. No record exists to determine how old it is. The company started production of clocks in 1927 and ceased in 1944. Sometimes in between the Meeting acquired its clock. In 1922 they purchased the R. H. Ingersoll & Brother company and changed the name to Ingersoll Waterbury Watch Company, thus this must have been manufactured before 1922. In 1942 they sold to a company that today is the Timex Watch.  https://theoldtimey.com/the-waterbury-clock-company/

                This clock is 37 inches long in a wooden case. About a third is face. The glass face itself is 12 inches in diameter and has a wooden halo around it that makes the width of the face 18 inches. The remainder of the case is the 12-inch wide, 25-inch long pendulum tower. This enclosure is class fronted as is the 12-inch face. The pendulum is weighted with a 4-inch brass disc. Two string hung, stone weights, one by three by six inches, drive the motion and are raised by two key wound, springs behind the face.

                This Waterbury clock is wound each First Day morning for a few inches of rise that will keep the time for several hours. It could be powered for several days if the weights were fully raised but they are not to reduce the wear on the gears. There are three hands, hour, minute, and second. The physical hand is missing. The numbers are Roman for the hours and minutes have marks in the circle around the exterior.

                The quiet tick-tock aids all in their medication.