Kansas
Columbus
Maple Street
#100
Courthouse lawn
Working (bell rings every 30 minutes)
1919 Seth Thomas movement
Time and Time Again
By Anita Heistand – press release which appeared in the Kansas City Star, Sunday, June 9, 1991
Cherokee County past and present citizens have worked together to offer sight and sound of a giant, unusual antique clock. Though citizens bought the clock in 1919 as a courthouse tower clock memorial to the sacrifices of World War I soldiers, people of today have renovated and rededicated it, setting it in a new forty-foot tower with four-by-eight-foot windows on three sides so that passers-by can view the works.
The Women’s Civic Committee led in raising funds by private donation to be added to the $1,000 given by the county for purchase of a clock and bronze memorial tablet. The clock cost $20,000 and was the best of its kind, having four dials, one for each side of the courthouse tower, and an 800 pound bronze bell to strike on the hour and half hour. Extra money bought an angelus chime system to ring at 7 am, at noon, and at 6 pm. The dials were electrically lighted so they could be read at night. The clock, put into service Friday, the 13th of February, 1920, was probably the last of the five foot tall pedestal mounted clockworks made by the Seth Thomas Clock Company.
Shortly after the clock was installed, heavy storm winds vibrated the tower so ferociously that the works were thrown out of adjustment, stopping the clock. The works were adjusted and restarted. A month later, a similar storm vibration caused the chime motor to burn out, and it was not replaced. The mellow big bell tones each hour, though, were an appropriate reminder of time which had been extended to the citizens through the sacrifice of battle. The memorial later extended to county men involved in all the wars since that time.
Starr Smith established a jewelry store and clock and watch repair in Columbus in 1938, and was entrusted with...
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