CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.—MY EARLY HISTORY.—Birthplace; nail making; death of my Father; leaving home; work on a farm; hard times; the great eclipse; bound out as a carpenter; carry tools thirty miles; work on clock dials; what I heard at a training; trip to New Jersey in 1812; first visit to New York; what I saw there; cross the North River in a scow; case making in New Jersey; hard fare; return home; first appearance in New Haven; at home again; a great traveller; experiences in the last war; go to New London to fight the British in 1813; incidents; soldiering at New Haven in 1814; married; hard times again; cottton [sic.] cloth $1 per yard; the cold summer of 1816; a hard job; work at clocks.

CHAPTER II.—EARLY HISTORY OF YANKEE CLOCK MAKING.—Mr. Eli Terry the father of wood clocks in Connecticut; clocks in 1800; wheels made with saw and jack-knife; first clocks by machinery; clocks for pork; men in the business previous to 1810; [ ] a new invention; the Pillar Scroll Top Case; peddling clocks on horseback; the Bronze Looking Glass Clock.

CHAPTER III.—PERSONAL HISTORY CONTINUED.—1816 to 1825; work with Mr. Terry; commence business; work alone; large sale to a Southerner; a heap of money; peddle clocks in Wethersfield; walk twenty-five miles in the snow; increase business; buy mahogany in the plank; saw veneers with a hand saw; trade cases for movements; move to Bristol; bad luck; lose large sum of money; first cases by machinery in Bristol; make clocks in Mass.; good luck; death of my little daughter; form a company; invent Bronze Looking Glass Clock.

CHAPTER IV.—PROGRESS OF CLOCK MAKING.—Revival of business; Bronze Looking Glass Clock favorite; clocks at the South; $115 for a clock; rapid increase of the business; new church at Bristol—Rev. David L. Parmelee; hard times of 1837; panic in business; no more clocks will be made; wooden clocks and wooden nutmegs; opposition to Yankee pedlars in the South; make clocks in Virginia and South Carolina; my trip to the South; discouragements; "I won't give up;" invent one day Brass clock; better times ahead; go further South; return home; produce the new clock; its success.

CHAPTER V.—BRASS CLOCKS—CLOCKS IN ENGLAND.—The new clock a favorite; I carry on the business alone; good times; profits in 1841; wood clock makers half crazy; competition; prices reduced; can Yankee clocks be introduced into England; I send out a cargo; ridiculed by other clock makers; prejudice of English people against American manufacturers; how they were introduced; seized by custom house officers; a good joke; incidents; the Terry family.

CHAPTER VI.—THE CAREER OF A FAST YOUNG MAN.—Incidents; Frank Merrills; a smart young man; I sell him clocks; his bogus operations; a sad history; great losses; human nature; my experience; incident of my boyhood; Samuel J. Mills, the Missionary; anecdotes.

CHAPTER VII.—REMOVAL TO NEW HAVEN—FIRE—TROUBLE.—Make cages at New Haven; factories at Bristol destroyed by fire; great loss; sickness; heavy trouble; human nature; move whole business to New Haven; John Woodruff; great competition; clocks in New York; swindlers; law-suit; ill-feeling of other clock makers.

CHAPTER VIII.—THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING—THE JEROME MANUFACTURING COMPANY.—Benefit of manufacturing by system; a clock case for eight cents; a clock for seventy-five cents; thirty years ago and to-day; more human nature; how the Brass clock is made; cost of a clock; the facilities of the Jerome Manufacturing Company; a joint stock company; how it was managed; interesting statements; its failure.

CHAPTER IX.—MEN NOW IN THE BUSINESS.—The New Haven Clock Co.: Hon. Jas. E. English, H.M. Welch, John Woodruff, Hiram Camp, Philip Pond, Charles L. Griswold, L.F. Root. Benedict & Burnham Company of Waterbury: Arad W. Welton. Seth Thomas & Co. Wm. L. Gilbert. E.N. Welch. Beach & Hubbell. Ireneus Atkins.

CHAPTER X.—BARNUM'S CONNECTION IN THE CLOCK BUSINESS.—Barnum and the Jerome Manufacturing Co.; Terry & Barnum; interesting statements; causes of the failure; the results.

CHAPTER XI.—EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE ON MYSELF.—My prospects; leave New Haven; move to Waterbury; a frightful accident; a practical story.

CHAPTER XII.—ANOTHER UNFORTUNATE PARTNERSHIP.—More misplaced confidence; a dishonest man threatening to imprison me for fraud; every dollar gone; kindness of John Woodruff, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.—THE WOOSTER PLACE CHURCH.—Reasons for building it, and how it was built; growth of different denominations, etc.

CHAPTER XIV.—NEW HAVEN AS A BUSINESS PLACE.—growth, extensive manufactories, facilities for manufacturing, population, wealth, etc.

APPENDIX.—General directions for keeping clocks in order, etc.