Clock, Floor

Object/Artifact

-

Wayland Museum

Name/Title

Clock, Floor

Entry/Object ID

1958.30.1

Description

Grandfather clock Material: mahogany (no veneer), brass works. 8 day; weight driven; does not operate or strike at present (5/92); standard design of hands; finials (boxed) stored separately (Stone Room closet 3/97); George Washington figure and name, Indian figure and year 1792 on face of peace medal at top; wood pendulum rod; engraved brass disk. Description: Case: Mahogany case (no veneer), brass works, 8-day weight-driven movement, wood pendulum rod. Finials stored separately. Medal: 1792 Indian Peace Medal showing President Washington meeting with a Native American leader. The imagery depicts Washington before a farming scene and the Native leader beneath a tree with a tomahawk on the ground—symbolic propaganda presenting U.S. expansion as peaceful and civilizing, distributed during treaty negotiations that often resulted in land dispossession and forced removal of Indigenous peoples. Provenance Story: Original owner thought to be William Penton, immigrated from England and settled near Salem, NJ. Clock passed through descendants to Mrs. Amos Bissell, then to her daughter Minnie Van Rensselaer. Van Rensselaer's first husband was Eli Parker, a Native American who served as secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant and later as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The clock was given to their daughter, Maude Parker Bullard, in 1911. Maude and her husband Arthur Bullard lived on Glezen Lane in Wayland. Helen Emery observed the clock in the Bullard house in the late 1940s.

Context

Commemorates the 1792 Indian Treaty. Picture on face is George Washington. Flowers in the corner represent the four seasons.

Cataloged By

Goeselt, Jo

Acquisition

Accession

1958.30

Source or Donor

Codman, Ann Bullard

Acquisition Method

Abandoned Loan

Made/Created

Date made

1792

Lexicon

Other Names and Numbers

Other Name

Clock, Grandfather

Other Numbers

Number Type

Other Number

Other Number

CL 3

Number Type

Old Number

Other Number

CL 3

Dimensions

Dimension Notes

Size: 86", plus finial height; 20" wide; 10 1/2" deep

Condition

Overall Condition

Good

Date Examined

Jan 4, 1990

Examined By

Goeselt, Jo

Maintenance

Maintenance History

Date

Jan 4, 1990

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Codman, Ann Bullard, Bissell, Sarah Ann (Penton), Bissell, Mrs. Amos, washington, george

Person or Organization

Perry, Madge (Bullard)

Person or Organization

Challick-Perry, Anne

Person or Organization

Bullard, Arthur Bennett

Person or Organization

Bullard, Maud Theresa (Parker)

Person or Organization

Parker, Eli

Person or Organization

Penton, William

Person or Organization

Bissell, Mrs. Amos

Person or Organization

Van Rensselaer, Minnie

Person or Organization

Hitchner, Daniel

Web Links and URLs

https://www.waylandmuseum.org/the-traveling-case-clock/

Provenance

Notes

This clock was loaned in 1958 by Ann Bullard Codman and Madge Bullard Perry, both of whom had died by the late 1980s. On 7/5/89 a daughter (or granddaughter?) of Madge Perry came from California (Anne Challick-Perry, Piedmont, CA (Tel. 415-654-8586) to claim it and ask us to help her have it appraised and have it ready to be packed and transported to her home. Nothing has been heard since it was appraised that summer. Helen Emery remembers seeing this clock in the Arthur Bullard house on Glezen Lane (overlooks Baldwin's Pond) when she and her husband, George, rented from Bullard in the late 1940s. She suspects that the clock came in to the Bullard family c.1906 when Maude Parker, daughter of Eli Parker, the Native American from upstate New York, who was secretary to Gen. Ulysses S.Grant and later his minister of Indian Affairs, married Arthur Bullard and that the 1792 Indian Peace Medal on it may have a connection to Eli Parker. However, a note in the clock says that Maude (Madge) was a great, great, great granddaughter of William Penton, original owner, who came from England and settled in or near Salem, NJ. One of Penton's grandsons had a granddaughter, Mrs. Amos Bissell, who bought the clock from another of his grandsons. It then went to her daughter, Mrs. Minnie Van Rensselaer, whose first marriage was to the Indian, Eli Parker, after the Civil War and who had one child, Maude Parker, who married Arthur Bullard and lived in Wayland. Mrs. Van Rensselaer gave it to her daughter Maude in 1911. The number of generations described on the note in the clock indicate that William Penton would have been born c.1700 and thus at the very least the 1792 George Washington/Indian peace medal painted on the face would have to have been added later, perhaps at the time of Daniel Hitchner or Mrs. Amos Bissell. It could not have been original to the clock if this genealogy is correct. (Jo Goeselt note 3/97)

General Notes

Note

Notes: This clock was loaned in 1958 by Ann Bullard Codman and Madge Bullard Perry, both of whom had died by the late 1980s. On 7/5/89 a daughter (or granddaughter?) of Madge Perry came from California (Anne Challick-Perry, Piedmont, CA (Tel.415-654-8586)) to claim it and ask us to help her have it appraised and have it ready to be packed and transported to her home. Nothing has been heard since it was appraised that summer. Status: OK Status By: Ives, George Status Date: 2013-11-19