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The Engle Monumental Clock

The Museum staff was immediately assembled and assigned various responsibilities for the task that lay ahead. The numerous steps in the restoration process were identified, evaluated, and prioritized. It was obvious that we would need the help of several experts for such tasks as re-gilding, dial painting, cleaning the backdrop scenery paintings, restoring the organ bellows and movements, and restoration of the 48 figures, several of which are articulated. It was also obvious that if we had not had an enormous pool of talented expert NAWCC members to draw from to help in these tasks, we would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle. A list of volunteers (unbeknownst to them) was assembled and the delicate process of enlistment began.

Another thorny question, which had to be addressed, was: Now that we have the clock, how do we pay for it and the restoration expenses? I had received approval for the project on the premise that the chapters and members would support the idea and donate the funds needed for such an undertaking, and I started to get the uneasy feeling that I was standing on a three-legged chair with a noose around my neck.

With the help of the Museum Acquisitions Committee and with hat in hand, we started contacting the chapters. Spirits were greatly lifted when Philadelphia Chapter #1 responded with a $9,000 donation, and the support started to roll in. Virtually every chapter I spoke to, and every potential volunteer we contacted, agreed to help in whatever capacity they were needed, and the Engle clock's phoenix-like resurrection began to take shape.

Besides the fundraising and restoration activities, another important aspect needing attention was the gathering of as much historical background as possible on Mr. Engle and his clock. A plethora of newspaper accounts existed describing the functions of the clock and where and when it was exhibited, but we had very little insight regarding Engle himself and the subsequent owners and exhibitors of the monument clock. Fortunately, direct descendants of Engle still reside in the Hazleton area, and when contacted, furnished us with a wealth of written and oral history on Stephen D. Engle. The following biographical sketch is a compilation of the information we were able to gather from these and other sources.

Stephen Decatur Engle was born in Sugarloaf Township, near Sybertsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1837. His ancestors came from Holland d n 1683, and settled at Germantown, near Philadelphia. He was raised on a farm, but his father was also a watch tinkerer, as were two of Stephen's brothers. Engle grew up with a fascination and knack for metal crafting and carpentry, which he employed to earn extra spending money. When he was twelve, he could turn wagon hubs, mortise them, and finish a hand wagon complete from the crude material.

People in his neighborhood nicknamed him "Stuffle," a name first dubbed on an old "crazy" fellow that occasionally came to Hazleton. According to Engle who claimed, "I don't know why, unless they thought me a little `off.' I did not think so, however, if I was." Perhaps it was due to his gaunt and Ichabod Crane-type of build, as much as his early precociousness (Figure 1)

Engle. was educated in a county freeschool, three months of the year, and according to him; "This was all the education I received at that time; but I had begged, borrowed and stole a great deal since, which all must do to gain knowledge." Engle adds, somewhat immodestly, "Little did I think at that time that I should surpass the Great Strasburg Clock, which the Germans told me so much about."

At the age of sixteen, Engle departed to Scranton with his brother to learn the "watch-tinkers" trade. He remained there for two and a half years until his sister Lizzie died. After her death he returned to Hazleton and worked for his brother, Sylvester. A few months later Engle moved to White Haven to commence business for himself. There he married Martha Ann Greenawalt on July 8, 1860. "The best day's work I ever did," Engle attests. At White Haven, Engle states he began experimenting on clocks. He returned to Hazleton where he practiced self-taught dentistry, made watch cases and jewelry, and kept experimenting with mechanical organs and timepiece movements.

According to several newspaper accounts, Engle began his monument clock in 1857, three years before he was married, and spent all of his spare time for the next twenty years working on it. However, it appears the clock was actually made in stages, and construction of the last stage seems to have begun in earnest in 1875, with the expectation of exhibiting it at the Philadelphia exposition in 1876. Engle missed his completion date by several months, which reportedly threw him into a depression for missing his chance to unveil his monumental clock at the centennial exposition.

Engle's depression was fairly short lived, apparently, since in 1877 newspaper accounts describe a Capt. Jacob Reid and his wife, who managed and exhibited the clock in various cities along the Atlantic seaboard. It is not clear whether Engle sold the clock to Reid, or whether Reid had a contract to manage and exhibit the clock. Also the clock did not reach its final stage until 1878, over one year after Reid began exhibiting it. One newspaper article quotes Reid as saying he paid Engle $5,000 for it (York County Independent, Saco ME, February 12, 1878), but the fact that Engle continued to improve on the clock after Reid came on the scene seems to contradict that statement.

Engle continued his inventive career after building his monument clock with several patents ranging from a tellurian in 1879 to a telephone transmitter in 1901. Several other inventions he patented included a dust-proof watch case, ` a process for bonding artificial dentures, an engraving machine, and an air rifle that, according to his grandson Dr. John Engle, "he had taken off the market because it was so powerful that the pellet would go through two inches of pine with just a couple of pumps."

Engle's reputation as an inventor spread, and visitors to his workshop included such luminaries as Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. One account given by Engle relatives describes Engle and Firestone being chased out of the family kitchen by Mrs. Engle for smelling up the house while testing vulcanizing techniques on the kitchen stove.

Figure 2. Stephen Engle a few months before his death.

Engle was involved in several business ventures during his checkered career, including a copper and silver mine in Honduras, the S. D. Engle Chewing Gum Co., the S. D. Engle Engraving Machine Co., and the manufacture of eyeglasses at his primary place of business, which included dentistry, in Hazelton. The copper mine, embarked on in 1889, was rather short lived, however, as a revolution overthrew the government, and the mine and its assets were seized by the new regime in Honduras.

The many facets of Engle's fascinating life seemed to revolve a great deal around his family. In spite of his myriad diversions, Engle managed to have nine children, and one can only imagine the patience Mrs. Engle had to develop in coping with that size family, and a husband that can best be described as "somewhat eccentric." All recollections of the family, however, describe Engle as a gentle, unassuming man, who enjoyed such things as taking rides in the new horseless carriages, but becoming nervous and agitated if the new invention's speed exceeded 20 mph. He liked to smoke strong tobacco out of a corncob pipe, and was remembered being constantly at odds with the antics of the family pet, a monkey named "Jocko".