One of my most cherished family heirlooms is Grandpa Porter`s mantel clock . He didn`t even have a mantel - just a wooden shelf beside the chimney for the pot belly stove. We got our Saturday night bath in a big wash tub in front of that stove. Water from the pump out front was heated on the gas range in the kitchen and Mom added it as it was needed.

The clock always fascinated me from the time we moved into Grandpa`s small stucco house on Main Street in Stockport. I loved to watch the steel striker hit the big spring and always counted the number of times it struck. Grandpa not only taught my sister Marie and me to count that way, he also taught us the Roman numerals from the face.

The Seth Thomas clock was made in the late 1800s and I think it probably was a wedding present to Grandpa and Grandma when they were married in 1896. My father, Walter Porter, was born in 1907 and his story of the history of the clock is this: he said when they moved to another farm in 1908 or 1909 in a farm wagon, they put their two most prized possessions (him and the clock) on top of the furniture wrapped in blankets. Somewhere along the rutted dirt road the wagon hit a big bump and they both fell off and rolled down a bank.
He said neither one was hurt so they were gathered up and resumed the trip.

The clock was passed on to Dad when Grandpa died. Dad gave it to me before he died and said he wanted it to go down to the eldest son. I used it for awhile but it was in sad shape. Somewhere along the line Grandpa must have decided it should be "brightened up" so he gave it a coat of varnish, right over the brass trim and everything.

After it sat in the attic for a while, I decided to "restore" it. The brass trim was cleaned up but as I started taking it apart, I noticed how the walnut veneer was peeling and missing in several places and quickly lost interest. I put it back in the attic where it stayed for about 35 more years.

A couple of years ago I got to thinking about it and decided if I was ever to finish it I`d better get moving so I started again. I was able to remove some veneer from the back where it wouldn`t show and replaced the missing pieces. The old finish was carefully removed, then sanded and refinished The project is now complete, right down to the original "salt cellar" inside the clock that Grandpa kept filled with "coal oil." He said the vapor from it kept the clock mechanism lubricated. He must have had something there since when I cleaned it up and put it back together it ran.

The ends of the shafts are worn enough that it doesn`t keep real good time but it works. My oldest son, Jeff, now has it and will save it for my grandson, Mark. It looks like new again and with a little "TLC" it may last three or four more generations.

Bernie Porter