When I was a child, the rock-tock of the clock in the dining room was a lull that, as I got older, I often found I had trouble sleeping without. An heirloom from my dads’ mother’s side of the family, she is a treasured piece of history.
In about 1896, my great-great grandmother and great-aunt Bertha went to town to purchase a new clock for the house. Below is Bertha’s elderly reminisce of the trip. Going to town was often an event, sometimes including the wearing of your finest clothes.
When Bertha writes of brother Gerrit and other siblings joining her to watch and listen to the clock, and that her older siblings were working out, she’s likely referring to only one other sibling, my great grandmother Elsie, who was about 16 at the turn of the century.
Made by the Gilbert Clock Company, she stands 24 inches high and strikes at the hour and the half hour. When new, she sold for under $4.00, with an additional charge for an alarm. I’m unsure if our clock ever alarmed in its early days. Similar models, all antiques, sell on sites like eBay for around $150, which is approximately the value of $4 in 1900.
Now residing with the 5th generation of the extended TenKley family, “Grandma” sits on a shelf at my brother’s home, with Aunt Bertha’s story and notecards from my dad explaining her model and the repairs he performed on her in 1985, tucked away behind her pendulum.
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