Luman Watson was an early Cincinnati

clockmaker A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly t ...

. He worked in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

from 1819 to 1834. His

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...

s had

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

en works. He made both tall clocks and shelf clock

Luman Watson, son and grandson of prosperous farmers, was born at

Harwinton, Connecticut Harwinton is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,484 at the 2020 census. The high school is Lewis S. Mills. History The town incorporated in 1737. The name of the town alludes to Hartford and Windsor, Con ...

, on October 10, 1790. He spent his boyhood in the center of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

's clock making country, and between chores on the farm probably slipped away to follow his natural bent for mechanics. By the time he was nineteen years old, Watson had moved to Cincinnati and established the clock making partnership of Read and Watson with the Read brothers, Abner, Ezra, and Amassa. The sale of a Read and Watson clock is recorded as early as 1809 in

Clark County, Ohio Clark County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,001. Its county seat is Springfield. The county was created on March 1, 1818, and was named for General Georg ...

. At that time there was a severe shortage of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

, American manufacturers used

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

for making clock movements. This proved to be an adequate substitute for short duration clocks. Wheels had to have large teeth for strength so a running time of more than 30 hours was not possibl

By the 1820s eighteen workmen were employed producing first wooden and, after 1830, brass shelf clocks. The opening of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

in 1825 however also opened the door to great numbers of cheaper Connecticut made clocks which by the time of Watson’s death had put an end to Ohio clockmakin

The Watson firm was prolific. It is estimated that between 1815 and 1834, more than 30,000 tall case clocks were manufactured. This figure is staggering considering that after about 1820 tall case clocks began to fall out of favor. By about 1830, the firm had begun making many clocks designed to sit on a mantel or special shelf.

Hiram Powers Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''. ...

was an assistant to Luman Watson, Powers was “skilled in modelling figures... he went on to become one of America’s first great sculptors.�

Luman Watson and J. Bonsall were founders of the Ohio Mechanics Institute in 182

Watson died in Cincinnati November 28, 183

A Luman Watson tall case clock is on display in the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

Cincinnati Wing and in the Old State Capitol in Iowa.

External links

Old State Capitol Clock IowaLuman Watson-Elijah Warner ClockGrandfather Clocks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Luman People from Cincinnati American clockmakers 1790 births 1834 deaths Clark County, Ohio People from Harwinton, Connecticut