Chauncey Jerome

author

Chauncey Jerome

1793–1868

A self-made Connecticut clockmaker, he helped turn clocks from costly household luxuries into affordable everyday objects. His career mixed striking ingenuity with sharp reversals, ending in poverty after years of commercial success.

1 Audiobook

History of the American Clock Business for the Past Sixty Years, and Life of Chauncey Jerome Barnum's Connection with the Yankee Clock Business

History of the American Clock Business for the Past Sixty Years, and Life of Chauncey Jerome Barnum's Connection with the Yankee Clock Business

by Chauncey Jerome

About the author

Born in Canaan, Connecticut, in 1793, Chauncey Jerome learned practical trades early and eventually moved into clockmaking. Sources agree that he became one of the best-known American clock manufacturers of the 19th century, building a large business and helping expand the market for clocks well beyond wealthy buyers.

He is especially remembered for popularizing cheaper brass clocks, which made timepieces more accessible to ordinary households. In addition to his manufacturing career, he also served as mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, in the mid-1850s.

Jerome's story has a dramatic rise-and-fall shape: after making a fortune in the clock trade, his company failed in the 1850s, and he died in New Haven in 1868 in much reduced circumstances. He later wrote an autobiography and history of the American clock business, which helped preserve his own account of a fast-changing industry.