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Hopkins and Alfred Clock
Shop
(Continued)
Numerous clocks
manufactured by Hopkins and Alfred exist today. One
quick search of the Internet and they readily show up
at many antique shops and auctions.

The above clock recently sold at auction in
Rochester New York for $5,500.
It has been said
that the dials on these unique clocks were hand painted
by Alfred's two sisters, Louisa Sperry and Cynthia Gunn.
American machinists needed to be, and were, skilled
in a variety of operational techniques. They were "jacks-of-all-trades"
and many could identify the need for a special machine,
design it and then build it to suit their particular
application. These men were generalists while their
English counterparts were not. "Yankee Ingenuity"
personified. They were clockmakers, cabinet makers,
tinsmiths and blacksmiths. This is why this partnership
could manufacture products as diverse as rifles and
clocks.
This old shop
stood vacant by the river for so many years even surviving
the great flood of 1955. It was the Army Corp of Engineers
that would be its demise when the Thomaston Dam was
constructed.
Even today the
old foundation is still there with its beautiful stone
archway marking where the used water was cycled back
towards the river and the canal that channeled the water
into the great wheel are still quite evident.
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