By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
Early last week, a crew of workers arrived at the United Methodist Church on Lincklaen Street to begin the multi-phased restoration of Cazenovia’s community clock.
Housed in the tower of the United Methodist Church, the clock is one of Cazenovia’s little known historical treasures.
Russ Oechsle, an expert on historic tower clocks, described the timepiece as “one of the finest 19th century clocks made in America.”
According to Oechsle, the Village of Cazenovia was once home to a school of at least six tower clockmakers/firms whose collective work spanned 55 years.
The line of expert clockmakers began with Jehiel Clark, Sr., who created the “iron town clock” originally placed in the tower of the Presbyterian Church and later moved to the Methodist “Old Stone Church.”
Upon his retirement, Clark, Sr. passed his business to his son Jehiel Clark, Jr., who was in turn succeeded by Austin W. Van Riper — the designer of the current community clock.
Born in 1825 in Cazenovia, Van Riper was one of the country’s most prolific tower clock designers of the period.
According to Oechsle, evidence suggests that Van Riper worked under or with Clark, Jr. prior to 1852, at which point he established his own town clock firm.
“His first movements [clock mechanisms] were a lot like the Clark, Jr.’s movements,” said Oechsle. “But by about 1854, he really branched out and started to make clocks that were distinctive on a national level.”
One of Van Riper’s major innovations was his development of “duplex movements” involving separate time and strike mechanisms.
“In terms of American makers, he was certainly among the first to do that.” Oechsle said. “He made a number of them, and I believe three or four are still in existence.”
According to Oechsle, Van Riper’s situated his business, “Empire Works,” along Chittenango Creek where Buyea’s True Value stands today.
His factory complex included several acres of tillable land, a machine shop with an office, a blacksmith shop, a foundry, a planing mill and woodworking shop, pattern rooms, a chair and cabinet shop, and a lumberyard.
While most of Van Riper’s clocks were sold in Upstate New York, sales were also reported in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Michigan and northern Alabama.
Prior to his death in 1859, the clockmaker designed two highly sophisticated and elegant clocks, one of which remained in Cazenovia.
“They were both the same and they really represented his ‘master’ clocks,” said Oechsle. “The one in Cazenovia has incredible embellishments. He used ruby stone on little caps over the pivots where the gears stick out of the plates just to keep the dust off. [The clocks] are beautifully painted, extremely well executed, and in terms of their time keeping ability, they are among the finest ever made at that time in the United State.”
Both designs were executed by Van Riper’s mechanics and successors, John Stone and Justice Marshall.
The first of the two clocks was installed in Nashville, TN.
The second clock sat in the factory until 1862, when Stone & Marshall sold it to the Village of Cazenovia to replace the iron town clock in the Old Stone Church.
In the early 1870s, the clock was relocated to the newly constructed Methodist Church, known as “The Yellow Brick Church,” where it remains today.
Though located inside the church tower, the clock remained village property.
According to Dr. Milton Sernett — a local historian and head of the trustees of the United Methodist Church — the village turned over the clock maintenance to the Methodists in 1969, but the ownership was never formally transferred.
Keeping the clock functional throughout the years has been a financial burden for the congregation, Sernett said.
A group of Methodists and clock restoration experts brought the clock back to working order in 1997, but it has since gone back out of commission.
“I think I — along with a few other people — have voluntarily refurbished the clock at least three times over the past 35 years,” said Oechsle. “We’ve gotten it running only to see it go back down again [for a variety of reasons]. It’s actually still in excellent shape, but now the tower is so deteriorated that the clock just sits there, which is an absolute shame . . . Once these clocks are abandoned and start to go down hill, they [eventually] become irreparable or too expensive to fix. The Cazenovia clock is really in excellent condition and could be running tomorrow if the tower were in any kind of shape.”
In an effort to help restore and maintain the clock and clock tower, Ralph Monforte, owner of Cazenovia Jewelry, spearheaded the creation of The Cazenovia Clock Heritage Foundation, Inc.
“For the last 35 years that I’ve owned my business, we have always been involved with watch and clock repair,” Monforte said. “It just seemed natural, considering the condition of that clock, that I, or Cazenovia Jewelry, should take a lead in making sure it’s operational and in maintaining it.”
According to Monforte, the current project involves installing new clock faces and hands, restoring the interior clock movements, and coming up with a plan to wind the clock every seven days — a task that Sernett said requires both strength and dedication.
“The clock movement inside the tower is owned by the village, and the tower is owned by the church,” explained Monforte. “Because there were two entities involved, we decided to create the [nonprofit] foundation. We are currently accepting donations; those monies will initially be used to finish the restoration project, and all additional funds will go toward maintaining the clock in the future.”
Monforte added that the foundation’s board of directors — which he heads — will be responsible for making sure the clock remains operational going forward.
The foundation aims to raise about $50,000.
According to Monforte, the village has been supportive, but not financially connected to the project.
“The village has been in the background and knows what is going on,” Monforte said. “They’ve agreed to let us do the work that needs to be done to restore the movement, since it’s theirs, but at this time they have not made any contribution.”
Village Mayor Kurt Wheeler commented that he looks forward to “working with Mr. Monforte and others to restore this element of our community’s history.”
Work began on the clock faces and hands on Sept. 15 using construction lifts paid for by the United Methodist Church.
“The faces are what the public sees externally, but the most important, historic and valuable part of the clock is its ‘engine’ or ‘heart,’” Sernett said. “This is a historical treasure that has to be preserved. Stone and Marshall made the best clocks in the nation, and we have the ‘Cadillac’ version.”
The foundation hopes to have the clock fully operational by Dec. 31, 2020 — in time to ring in the New Year.
“The work would proceed a lot quicker and better if we had as many donations made to the foundation as possible,” Monforte said. “We thank everyone who has made contributions so far, but now we really need to push to the finish line.”
Anyone wishing to make a contribution to the maintenance of the community clock can mail or deliver checks to The Cazenovia Clock Heritage Foundation, 49 Albany St., Cazenovia, NY 13035. Checks should be made out to The Cazenovia Clock Heritage Foundation.
