American Clock & Watch Museum

by Chris H. Bailey

Historically, the Ansonia Clock Company did not have its roots in Ansonia, the Connecticut town after which it was named, but some 35 miles northeast in the great clockmaking town of Bristol. In 1841, Theodore Terry, nephew of Eli Terry, the man who had started the manufacture of inexpensive clocks in the first decade of the 19th century, formed a partnership with Franklin C. Andrews. The new firm of Terry & Andrews was formed to tool up and manufacture inexpensive brass clocks.

In 1850 Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy industrialist from New York who operated large foundry operations at Birmingham (now Derby), Connecticut, persuaded Terry & Andrews to leave Bristol and become allies with his foundry operations. On May 7, 1850, Anson G. Phelps, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews formed a joint stock corporation known as the “Ansonia Clock Company” for the manufacture and sale of clocks, movements and related wares. The new location, Ansonia, was a village in the town of Derby, Connecticut, which Anson Phelps had named after himself.

Historically, the Ansonia Clock Company did not have its roots in Ansonia, the Connecticut town after which it was named, but some 35 miles northeast in the great clockmaking town of Bristol. In 1841, Theodore Terry, nephew of Eli Terry, the man who had started the manufacture of inexpensive clocks in the first decade of the 19th century, formed a partnership with Franklin C. Andrews. The new firm of Terry & Andrews was formed to tool up and manufacture inexpensive brass clocks.

In 1850 Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy industrialist from New York who operated large foundry operations at Birmingham (now Derby), Connecticut, persuaded Terry & Andrews to leave Bristol and become allies with his foundry operations. On May 7, 1850, Anson G. Phelps, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews formed a joint stock corporation known as the “Ansonia Clock Company” for the manufacture and sale of clocks, movements and related wares. The new location, Ansonia, was a village in the town of Derby, Connecticut, which Anson Phelps had named after himself.

Historically, the Ansonia Clock Company did not have its roots in Ansonia, the Connecticut town after which it was named, but some 35 miles northeast in the great clockmaking town of Bristol. In 1841, Theodore Terry, nephew of Eli Terry, the man who had started the manufacture of inexpensive clocks in the first decade of the 19th century, formed a partnership with Franklin C. Andrews. The new firm of Terry & Andrews was formed to tool up and manufacture inexpensive brass clocks.

In 1850 Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy industrialist from New York who operated large foundry operations at Birmingham (now Derby), Connecticut, persuaded Terry & Andrews to leave Bristol and become allies with his foundry operations. On May 7, 1850, Anson G. Phelps, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews formed a joint stock corporation known as the “Ansonia Clock Company” for the manufacture and sale of clocks, movements and related wares. The new location, Ansonia, was a village in the town of Derby, Connecticut, which Anson Phelps had named after himself.

Historically, the Ansonia Clock Company did not have its roots in Ansonia, the Connecticut town after which it was named, but some 35 miles northeast in the great clockmaking town of Bristol. In 1841, Theodore Terry, nephew of Eli Terry, the man who had started the manufacture of inexpensive clocks in the first decade of the 19th century, formed a partnership with Franklin C. Andrews. The new firm of Terry & Andrews was formed to tool up and manufacture inexpensive brass clocks.

In 1850 Anson G. Phelps, a wealthy industrialist from New York who operated large foundry operations at Birmingham (now Derby), Connecticut, persuaded Terry & Andrews to leave Bristol and become allies with his foundry operations. On May 7, 1850, Anson G. Phelps, Theodore Terry and Franklin C. Andrews formed a joint stock corporation known as the “Ansonia Clock Company” for the manufacture and sale of clocks, movements and related wares. The new location, Ansonia, was a village in the town of Derby, Connecticut, which Anson Phelps had named after himself.

The Ansonia Clock Company’s business proceeded well until about November of 1854, when the factory was reduced to ashes. The loss was estimated at $120,000. Thereafter, Theodore Terry became involved with P.T. Barnum, the great showman, in a clock venture called the Terry & Barnum Manufacturing Company. That company went bankrupt in March of 1856. In addition, for the fifteen years following the 1854 fire, Phelps, Dodge & Co. manufactured movements for the trade and a few cased clocks. Although the history of clockmaking at Ansonia is more difficult to follow during this time, clocks from this period are labeled “Ansonia Brass Company” or “Ansonia Brass & Battery Company”. However, the clockmaking business once again became a major operation after the Ansonia Brass & Copper Company was organized on February 11, 1869.

After eight years, another reorganization took place which separated the foundry operations from the clockmaking operations. On December 21, 1877, a joint stock corporation was formed at New York City adopting the original name, “Ansonia Clock Company”. Two years later, in April of 1879, a large factory was commenced at Brooklyn, New York and its new machinery was installed in the spring of 1880. The incorporators of the new company were primarily the officers of Phelps, Dodge & Co., with one important exception, Henry J. Davies. Henry J. Davies of Brooklyn was a man whose influence and leadership would be strongly felt in coming years. Davies designed figurine clocks, swing clocks and other unusual novelties highly regarded by today’s clock collectors.

On October 27, 1880, the Brooklyn factory of the Ansonia Clock Company was totally destroyed by fire. Despite the setback, a new building was immediately erected and within a few years the entire clockmaking operation was centered at Brooklyn.

By January of 1883 Ansonia had sales offices in New York, Chicago and London. By 1886 they offered 228 clocks and by 1914 this number had grown to almost 450! They had become known for their iron-cased clocks often made with white metal figurines, clocks with imported china cases and crystal regulators. Non-jeweled watches were added to their line before 1894 and by 1929 they produced an estimated 10 million of these watches.

By the mid-1920’s the company was definitely in trouble. The end culminated with the sale of the firm to Soviet Russia’s Amtorg Trading Corporation. After the sale, some workmen from Brooklyn went to Russia for up to 18 months to get the machinery in operation and train the Russian workers.

E. Ingraham & Company was formed in 1860, succeeding several earlier clock-manufacturing firms in which casemaker Elias Ingraham had been involved, notably Brewster & Ingrahams (1843-1852), E. & A. Ingrahams (1852-1856) and Elias Ingraham & Company (1857-1860). The firm originally rented, and later purchased, a shop on Birge's Pond in Bristol, which had been used by a number of clockmaking firms since 1820.

Having originally purchased their movements from various sources, in 1865 the firm decided to establish their own movement making facility. A hardware shop was moved onto a piece of land owned by the firm and veteran clockmaker Anson L. Atwood, former superintendent of the Birge and Manross clock shops set up the movement department for Ingraham and was its superintendent for some years.

Elias Ingraham (1805-1885) designed a variety of popular cases and case features for the firm, receiving 17 patents between 1857 and 1873. Many of his cases utilized an unusual figure "8" door design for which he had received a patent in 1857. Rosewood veneered case models with names such as "Doric", "Venetian", and "Ionic" were made in several sizes and held their popularity with the public for many years.

Elias Ingraham's son Edward Ingraham (1830-1892) succeeded his father as head of the business in 1885. Edward had also received an important patent in 1884 for a method of applying black enamel paint (Japan) to wooden clock cases. Using this method to produce cheaper imitations of French marble mantel clocks was a great success. Though the process was soon imitated by most other clock manufacturers, the Ingraham firm became a leading maker of "black mantel" clocks, introducing 221 models plus special order styles in the following three decades.

In 1887, the firm had its first great expansion with the erection of a 300-foot long, 4 story case shop. A new office building and movement shop was built between 1902 and 1904. In 1913, they began to manufacture a non-jeweled pocket watch and added wrist watch models to the line in 1932, producing more than 65 million pockets watches and 15 million wrist watches by the time this production ceased in the 1960's.

Ingraham's clock and watchmaking ceased totally during World War II and pendulum clock production did not resume after the war. After the war, electric clocks, added to the line about 1930, were then a major part of their product line as were watches, alarm clocks, fuses and timers (the latter two were established during war-time production).

In 1964, a modern and much smaller factory was constructed in the southern part of Bristol and the old complex was abandoned and later demolished. Little if any clock production was done at the new factory, as it was almost totally devoted to manufacture of more profitable fuses. The firm was sold to McGraw-Edison, a conglomerate, in 1967 and the Bristol factory presently produces Bussman fuses. Production of electric clocks with the Ingraham trademark continues at a plant, which the firm built at Laurinburg, North Carolina in 1959.

The E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company was a joint stock corporation formed July 6, 1864 to succeed an older private firm making clocks under the name of E. N. Welch. Elisha N. Welch (1809-1887) had been making clocks at a factory site on East Main Street at Forestville, Connecticut since taking over the bankrupt business of J. C. Brown about 1856.

A new movement shop was fitted up in 1869, adding to the two factories already in use by the firm. Between 1868 and 1884, a subsidiary firm called Welch, Spring & Company was formed to produce a more expensive line of clocks. The Welch firm was well known for its handsome rosewood cases, though in 1885, with changing styles in furniture, the surviving firm began to introduce new models with solid walnut cases and discontinued some of the older rosewood veneered cases.

After the death of Elisha Welch in 1887, the firm began to decline fast, selling off some of its assets and issuing new stock to raise capital. A new line of clocks was introduced for the year 1893, which appeared to be of much cheaper quality than their discounted line. In May of that year the factory was closed down and a receiver was appointed who spent nearly two years selling off stock and settling the debts of the firm. It was not for another year that the firm resumed production. John Humphrey Sessions (1828-1899), a wealthy Bristol foundry owner, became a stockholder of the E. N. Welch Mfg. Co. in 1897, serving on a nominating committee for new directors in January of that year.

In 1899, two fires, one in March and a second in December reduced most of the Welch manufacturing complex to ashes. A new brick factory was built and occupied and by April 1900, they could meet their liabilities with the interruption in their cash flow. Members of the wealthy Sessions family were busy at this time buying out former stockholders and eventually took control of the firm in 1902 and changed the name to the Sessions Clock Company on January 9, 1903. William E. Sessions, son of John Humphrey Sessions was chosen president. The Sessions Clock Co. immediately expanded their facility with two new brick buildings in 1903 and others in 1914 and 1917. By 1907 the firm manufactured over 556,000 clocks, an average of about 2,000 per working day.

On August 27, 1920, William E. Sessions died at his Bristol mansion, “Beleden,” and leadership of his clock company passed to his second son, William Kenneth Sessions, (1886-1969). The firm began to manufacture synchronous electric clocks in 1928 and by 1941 electric clocks accounted for 80% of their production.

After World War II profitability of the Sessions Clock Company was on a steady decline and the family gave up ownership and sold controlling interest to Consolidated Electronics Industries on March 20, 1958. After another decade of financial decline, the clock division of the company was sold to United Metal Goods Company of Brooklyn, New York and clock manufacturing ceased by the end of 1968.

 (by Chris Bailey)