NOVEMBER 2, 1814
200 years ago today in
Washington County, Indiana there was no standard time or daylight savings
time. In 1814 there was only local mean time
throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Local mean time was based upon noon when the
sum was at the zenith of its daily transit from horizon to horizon. This means that when Washington County was
being settled each locality had its own time.
As an example, noon at Cincinnati, Ohio would have occurred about 6
minutes before it occurred in the developing town of Salem, Indiana. Similarly, noon would have occurred in Salem
about 16 minutes before it occurred at St. Louis, Missouri Territory. In the days before the development of an
extensive transportation infrastructure, these differences in local mean time
were of no concern.
In 1814 there were not yet
industrial employers that demanded a starting time to a work shift. There was no stage line in Salem until 1830
so there was no departure time to miss or arrival time to await. Most people
awakened at dawn when the roosters crowed. However, local legal and civic affairs
were conducted on some type of schedule although there was undoubtedly a
considerable degree of latitude as to when events actually commenced. Persons were summoned to court to appear at a
set date with the understanding that one appeared at the start of the day and waited their turn. The Washington
Circuit Court probably had all appearances scheduled for the same implicit time and
dealt with each case when all were determined to be present. At the end of the day if someone did not
appear they were then determined to be in default on in violation of their appearance
bond. Each court session in 1814 adjourned until the "next morning" with no beginning time recorded.
The William Lindley home
where public business was being conducted until a court house was built must
have had a clock of some kind. In 1814
most clocks were tall casework (grandfather) clocks. The height of the clock cabinet accommodated the
pendulum mechanism which provided the momentum for the mechanical energy that
made the clock run. A longer pendulum kept
more accurate time but tall case clocks were expensive as most were made in Massachusetts
or Connecticut. The mechanical parts
were made of wood as brass was generally unavailable due to trade restriction of
the War of 1812. The mechanical power
for the clocks consisted of iron weights suspended from small cables and
pulleys. If a family had a grandfather clock, they probably had been former landowners
in Kentucky as settlers immigrating to Indiana directly from Virginia or North
Carolina often didn’t use valuable space or load capacity for such a large and
delicate item. Wall clocks were available for purchase in Louisville but were
not as accurate. By 1810 smaller shelf clocks
were being made and wore more affordable.
They had to be wound daily.
Pocket watches were possessed by some of the pioneer men of the Indiana
Territory. Watches of that era used a
cylinder escapement mechanism and were not terribly accurate. By 1820, pocket watches were being made with
a lever escapement which made them more accurate so that they only varied from
solar time by a minute a day.
200 years ago, it is not
known what clock was maintained by County or Town officials to determine the official
local mean time. One can speculate that
Thomas Beasley’s tavern on South High Street had a clock that may have been the
unofficial clock as Beasley was also on the first Board of Town Trustees. Interestingly, the new court house under
construction was not to have a clock mounted in its tower or on its exterior. When the second Washington County Court House
was built in 1826, it didn’t have a clock tower either. It wasn’t until 1888 when the present Court
House was built that Salem had its iconic Court House clock tower. Five years previously, the railroad industry
had lobbied for the establishment of standard time so that train schedules
could be made uniform and travel and commerce made more efficient. Therefore, the Court House clock has always
been set on Standard or Daylight Savings time and never was set on local solar
time.
Imagine this conversation when John DePauw came to town from his home on the hill southeast of Salem to collect lot payments and stopped at Beasley's Tavern:
DePauw: Tom, what time is it?
Beasley: You mean now?
Imagine this conversation when John DePauw came to town from his home on the hill southeast of Salem to collect lot payments and stopped at Beasley's Tavern:
DePauw: Tom, what time is it?
Beasley: You mean now?
TALL CASE PENDULUM CLOCK
TRADITIONAL ALARM CLOCK
WASHINGTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE CLOCK TOWER
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