I recently had several people ask me if I had ever heard of a company that made clocks in Columbus back in the 1800s. I was asked that same question 12 years ago and answered it in a column. Out of my dusty archives I have pulled that column and updated it with additional information.
Sometimes clocks are found in antique shops or at estate sales that contain a label stating that they were made in Columbus, Mississippi. These labels usually refer to the Davis Clock Company or the Columbus Clock Company. Many people do not realize it but in the late 1800s there was a clock manufacturing firm located in Columbus.
About 1880, Noah Lee Davis established a clock company at Factory Hill in Columbus. The 1890 Sanborn Insurance map of Columbus shows a clock repair business about where Zachary’s Tavern is now located just east of Trotter Convention Center. When Davis opened his business, he purchased clock cases from companies such as Seth Thomas and clock works from Wm. L. Gilbert Company of Winsted, Connecticut. The clocks would then be assembled with a label placed on them saying they were made by the Davis Clock Company or The Columbus Clock Company of Columbus Mississippi.
Davis’ company went by the name of both the Davis Clock Company and the Columbus Clock Company. A company called the Southern Clock Company made clocks that looked like Davis’ clocks, but the actual location of that firm is not known. However, Davis may have had a branch operation in Texarkana, Arkansas.
The late Millard Long, of West Point, was a clock collector, and we once had a discussion about the Davis Clock Company. He had an interesting view as to what was going on with Davis. After the Civil War ended there were still hard feelings between the North and South. Products made in the North were not selling very well in the South. New England clock makers were looking for ways in which to expand into Southern markets. They believed that their clocks would sell better if they appeared to have been made in the south. They accomplished that by replacing New England labels with Southern Labels and marketing. Davis was not the only southern clock firm to put clock works from the north in cases with a local label and market them as made in the South.
Records show that Davis purchased around 8,000 ogee clock works from the Wm. L. Gilbert Company. Both 30-hour and eight-day calendar movements are found in the Davis clocks. Davis also purchased about 8,000 clock cases, probably from Seth Thomas or Gilbert. Each of the cases had a “D” for Davis Clock Company stamped on top. Many of the clocks produced by Davis were called ogee clocks. These were weight driven shelf clocks whose wooden case had a double curved molding around the front edge that in cross section resembled the letter S. Davis also made a more ornate eight-day mantel clock.
Although all Davis did was assemble the clocks, he placed his label in each one stating that it had been manufactured in Columbus.
His clocks appear to have been marketed exclusively in the South. Based on the Sanborn Insurance map identification of Davis’ building being used for clock repair he may well have had that as a sideline. Davis probably closed his business in 1908 or 1909 as Columbus post office records show unclaimed mail addressed to the Davis Clock Company being reported by the spring of 1909.
On rare occasions clocks are found with other Columbus labels. These are generally what are called “over paste labels.” That means that it is a clock made elsewhere but a local merchant has pasted his own label over the manufacturer’s label.
When working on columns I often fall down rabbit holes. In my column 12 years ago, I mentioned that a salesman for the Davis Clock Co was reported robbed in Greenwood in 1891. While updating my old column I decided to search newspaper archives for Mississippi and see if there was any other account of what had happened in the robbery.
The robbery was only mentioned in the Nov. 17, 1891, Columbus Index. It is an article datelined Greenwood, Nov. 13 and headlined “Robbed by a Highwayman” the newspaper reported that “A young man named Taylor, collector for the Davis Clock Works of Columbus, Miss., was held up and robbed on a public road about two miles and a half from this city yesterday about 4 o’clock.”
Taylor was struck on his head with a gun by a man “who had evidently been waiting for him and had slipped up behind him.” The robber was armed with a “Winchester” and took $22.50 and a silver watch. Taylor’s wounds were described as “painful but not serious.” He reported that there had been two previous attempts “to rob him in that section.”
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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