Newspaper Item Daily Post-Tribune, 15 February 1999 Copyright 1999 M Smith THE DAILY POST-TRIBUNE, LA SALLE, ILLINOIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1936 PAGE SEVEN PERUVIAN, OLDEST WESTCLOCKER, TELLS OF PLANT’S GROWTH IN HALF CENTURY "EARLY DAYS" INTERESTING RECENT HONOR BESTOWED CAME AS SUPRISE TO ROBERT PATON BY LAVERN WALTMAN Growth of the Western Clock company from its inception in 1885, when there were only four employees, to the present time when the payroll includes more than 3,000 names, was recalled to the Daily Post-Tribune today by Robert Paton, 2227 Seventh Street, Peru, who has been associated with the company for more than fifty years. Mr. Paton, who is 63 years old, is the oldest employee of Westclox in terms of years of service, but still has two years to go before reaching pension age. At the annual meeting of the Westclox Quarter-Century club, members of which are those employees who have been on the payroll for at least 25 years. Mr. Paton was presented with a check for $1,000 as a token of appreciation from the company. "WESTCLOX FAMILY" The Patons are a real "Westclox family." Even before Robert Paton obtained employment there, shortly before he was 13 years of age, his father, William Paton, was one of four men sent to Peru from Waterbury Conn., to arrange the establishment of the United Clock company, forerunner of the present Westclox concern. Children of Robert Paton have also been employed at the plant. It was by accident that the Patons ever came to Peru. In 1881 William Paton and his wife and children left their home in Glasgow, Scotland, with the intent of going to Australia, where Mr. Paton was to become associated with his brother in the operation of a hotel. They reached New York, only to be greeted there by a message advising them not to continue to Australia because the hotel owned by the brother had burned to the ground. Through good fortune, however, the elder Mr. Paton, through the influence of a cousin in Waterbury, Conn., Archibald Bannatyne, secured a position in the Waterbury Clock factory, employed in the tool department. There he remained until 1885, when Charles Stahlberg, inventor of the original clock which became the product of Westclox, organized the united Clock company. Mr. Paton was one of four men selected by Stahlberg to go to Peru to set up a factory, building the tools which were to be used in the manufacture of clocks. JOINED HUSBAND Mrs. Paton and her children remained in Waterbury until April, 1886, when they joined Mr. Paton in Peru. Robert Paton attended the Lincoln school from April to June, but instead of returning to school at the end of the vacation period, he obtained employment at the clock factory on August 15. At that time the boy who was later to become a 50-year man, was employed as a storekeeper, handing out supplies to the four men who were constructing the tools. "All the machinery was stored in a house on the side of the hill now covered by the engine room," Mr. Paton recalled. "That house was the old Christopher home." "For some time the clocks remained in the experimental stage, and were known as ‘lead clocks’ because Stahlberg had patented a process which made use of an alloy of lead, tin and antimony for the parts of the works." It was in December, 1886, that Stahlberg presented each of his few employees with a completed clock. On the back of each was inscribed, "One of 100 that cost $10,000." Mr. Paton said his mother possessed one of the clocks for many years, but that he did not believe any of the original 100 was still in existence. FIRST CLOCK "THE LA SALLE" By the following year clocks manufactured by the new process were ready for the market. Most of them were sold in Peru and La Salle. The original clock was known as "The La Salle," the name "Big Ben" not being adopted until later years. In early days of manufacture the alloy was melted in a pot and the molten metal was drawn up in a "pistol," made of gas pipe. A mold was held in a vice, and in the top of the mold was an aperature through which the molten metal was shot from the "pistol." This method of manufacture was in use for a year, at the end of which time a firm in Indianapolis was employed to make up some molds which could be operated more easily. The plant at that time, Mr. Paton said, had no more than 25 employees, including the four men originally employed by Stahlberg. Mr. Paton recalled that two of the men, in addition to his father, were named Davis and Durner. The name of the fourth man he cannot remember. STAHLBERG LEFT Following a disagreement at the plant, Stahlberg left Peru and his place was taken by a Mr. Cartwright, who had been Stahlbergs secretary. Cartwright remained for a year as manager of the plant, and Charles Willett was then hired as plant manager, holding the position for two years, when F.W. Mathiessen took over the plant in 1889. "By that time the plant had probably 80 employees," Mr. Paton said. "The name of the plant was changed to Western Clock company. It was then that the late E.C. Roth, who had been a civil engineer for the C. B. and Q. railroad, became associated with the factory as plant manager. He immediately made certain improvements in the clock and also in the tools." The factory had one screw machine to turn out small parts. Mr. Roth added a larger one to make case legs, case head bows and other parts. The first automatic screw machine was added in a few years. Mr. Paton's father remained at the plant until 1895, when he left Peru to accept a position with the Lang Manufacturing company at Racine, Wis. Otto Senftleben was then put in charge of the tool department. He had been associated with the plant since 1891, with William Paton as plant superintendent at that time. SERVED APPRENTICESHIP Getting back to his own history, Mr. Paton said he had taken a position in the tool department a year after he had started work at the plant. He served an apprenticeship, and after his father had left for Racine he installed machinery of the casting department in the old building, which had been built in 1885 and 1886. Mr. Paton remained in the casting department until about 1898, when he was transferred back to the tool department and given the position of assistant foreman under Mr. Senftleben. There he remained until 1925, when Senftleben became master mechanic and Paton became foreman of the tool department, a position he holds at the present time. Hand casting molds originally built in Indianapolis were operated in the early days by Mr. Paton, who improved them and built all of the models until 1925, when foreman of the tool room and other men were "broken in" to operate the casting machinery. RECALLS PROGRESS Although reluctant to talk about himself, Mr. Paton recalled that in 1896 he was required to remain at home because of an infected hand. He was the only man in the plant able to take care of the casting molds at that time, and a telephone was placed in the Paton home so he could be called upon for information when it was needed at the plant. Mr. Paton also recalled that Andrew Neureuther, who became associated with Westclox after he completed his college engineering course, had designed the first semi-automatic casting machine to produce clock wheels, and that later a full automatic machine had been developed to assemble all parts in the mold. ------------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organiza- tions or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contri- butor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ----------------------------------------------------------------- File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: M. Smith