Harwinton Historian

Hopkins and Alfred Clock Shop

Edward Hopkins and Agustus Alfred were partners around 1834 in the clock making business. The business that these two industrialists ran was a classic example of Yankee Ingenuity. Waterpower from the Naugatuck River, held back by a dam and channeled through a canal to the great waterwheel, powered the machine tools. These included one engine lathe (large lathe), three smaller turning lathes and two pinion lathes. When Alfred's estate was processed after his death in 1864, he also owned a large number of hand tools. Screw plates, dies, drills, files etc were all coveted in his collection. He had special tools for making rifles and carpenter tools and even blacksmith tools.

A press, specially built in 1855 by Alfred and used for stamping out small clock parts, survives today and is owned by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

Hopkins (Edward) and Alfred (Augusta) were brothers in law and were in partnership from 1834 to 1841 in Harwinton, CT. They sold their business to Seth Thomas. Dials were hand painted by Alfred's two sisters, Louisa Sperry and Cynthia Gunn. A quit-claim deed on file in Harwinton shows the sale of the land, including the clock shop, from Ed Hopkins to Augustus Alfred in 1841. This historian believes that Alfred stopped making clocks here about that time but continued to manufacture clock faces here through at least 1845.

Various sources of unverified historical data show a conflict in the dates in which Hopkins and Alfred were producing clocks in Harwinton. Some dates listed are 1820-1827 and 1831-1844.