GRAFTON – Did you know that one of the oldest standing structures in Grafton is the Willard House and Clock Museum located at 11 Willard Street?
This farmhouse, originally a Nipmuc settlement, was purchased by Major Joseph Willard and his wife Martha Clark Willard in the early 1700s. The residence would become the birthplace of the first Caucasian child born in Grafton, Benjamin Willard. Benjamin was the father of famous clockmaker Simon Willard. Benjamin and his wife Martha would go on to have 12 children, 90 grandchildren and 226 great-grandchildren that originated from the Willard farmhouse. As you can imagine, many longtime Grafton residents today can trace their family back to the Willard family.
Four of the Willard siblings, more notably Simon and Aaron, would begin clockmaking out of their farmhouse in Grafton. The brothers worked in the Grafton workshop until Simon moved to Roxbury in 1780. Aaron would soon follow, and each would start their own shops near one another. At this time, clockmakers typically operated out of their homes, working long and tedious hours. The early clockmakers made every piece of their clocks and would only be capable of creating about 50 clocks over a 20-year clockmaking career. This extreme loss, more time spent than money made, created issues with interest in a clockmaking career.
The Willard brothers recognized the issues and created solutions during this time of innovation in America. As noted, clockmakers traditionally worked alone, creating their clocks piece by piece. The brothers began outsourcing clock pieces, so they could build more clocks quicker.
Outsourcing individual clock pieces resulted in 20 different craftsmen’s positions. One craftsman would specialize in making only one individual clock part, rather than one person making every single part that is required in a clock. The Horological Society of New York posted on YouTube a lecture by Robert Cheney, executive director and curator of the Willard House and Clock museum. During that lecture, Cheney described discovering numbers on the “8-day clock” pieces created by Simon. They got their name because they could go about a week without rewinding. Cheney realized the numbers on these particular clocks indicated the amount of those clocks made. This indicated that Simon Willard made almost 1,600 “8 Day Clocks,” while also producing over a dozen other styles of clocks out of his Roxbury shop.
By 1802, Simon Willard would become famous for his patented “8-day time piece,” also known as a banjo clock. A “time piece” is a clock that does not “strike the hour” (make sound). It is still being discovered exactly how these clocks were actually built and put together, as the task is extremely complex. The Willards were masters of their trade, so much so that their clocks were requested in places like meeting houses, the Old Supreme Court chambers in Washington, Harvard University, the National Statuary Hall in Washington, and more. To this day, Willard clocks are sought out and cherished by avid clock collectors and horologists.
If you would like to see the Willard home and their unique collection of Willard family portraits, official documents, clockmaking tools and of course their world-famous clocks, schedule a visit so you can experience history frozen in time. The Willard House and Clock Museum was made possible by the efforts and generosity of Willard family fans and horology enthusiasts such as Dr. and Mrs. Robinson of Grafton. In the late 1960s the Robinsons began their efforts to repair and fill the museum with their personal Willard artifacts. The home was finally established as a museum for the public to enjoy in 1971. The museum remains open to this day and features nearly 100 clocks.
Clockmaking is an art that is carried on to this very day and celebrated by those who have spent their lives devoted to the mystery that these pieces carry with them. There are still some unanswered questions about the techniques used to build such a complicated mechanism during such an early time in America. Some of those techniques may have died long ago with masters of the trade, such as the Willard brothers. Thanks are owed to the folks at the Willard House and Clock Museum for their dedication to preserving this amazing piece of Grafton history. The famous clock makers Simon and Aaron left their farmhouse in Grafton, but the Willard House and Clock Museum is where their story and three generations of clockmaking began.
