Westclox Incorporated Records (LaSalle)

Collection

Identifier: RHC-RC-116

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

A valuable source for the study of late nineteenth and twentieth century industrial firms, the Westclox, Incorporated Records document the establishment and history of this clock manufacturer from 1885 to 1971. The collection comprises six major record series: minutes; correspondence; financial records; department reports; company newsmagazines; and visual material. Board of Directors minutes, resolutions, and reports (1887-1937) constitute the first series in the collection. These records detail the actions of the Board regarding property and equipment purchasing, stock issues, and employee benefit programs. In addition the minutes contain stockholder’s annual meeting minutes, quarterly production figures, sales reports, financial statements, and general manager’s reports on factory conditions and problems. Sale and advertising meeting minutes (1930-1943) provide complementary information on new products, price schedules, and marketing techniques. A major strength of the collection, this record series furnishes substantial information pertaining to the corporate policies pursued by Westclox from its founding through the 1930’s. Domestic and foreign correspondence (1888-1942) dealing with sales and distribution problems in America and abroad reveal the difficulties encountered by sales agents attempting to collect payments from wholesalers. The company’s export personnel corresponded heavily with Westclox representatives in Mexico, South America, Cuba, and South Africa, directing agents toward closing accounts and liquidating debts. The domestic correspondence includes orders and reports from several wholesalers as well as directives from General Time Corporation headquarters in New York. Unfortunately, the collection contains little correspondence illustrating Westclox’s large national distribution network utilizing jobbers to connect the manufacturer to scattered retail outlets. Series three encompasses financial records (l886-l96l) yielding extensive information on the economic growth and development of the company. Audit reports, general journals and ledgers, profit and loss statements, and budget and expense reports illustrate the firm’s yearly financial condition and reflect the effects of national economic policy on the American manufacturing sector. In addition, stock registers, journals, and subscription books provide data on stockholders’ investments and stock issues to increase capital resources for production expansion. Supplementing the financial records, quarterly department reports (1904-1923) from the manufacturing, export, sales, and auditing departments, contain the plant’s production figures and operating expenses incurred during the early twentieth century. The company’s newsmagazine, Tick Talk (1913-1971), provides a general account of Westclox’s history and details changes in methods of production and organization as the firm expanded steadily after 1900. Tick Talk includes news of interest to factory workers and management such as product innovation, department summaries, company sports team standings, and feature stories on various employees. These newsmagazines not only document the evolution of the Westclox factory and product development, but also the changing working conditions in manufacturing plants since the First World War. In addition to historically valuable news articles, Tick Talk contains numerous photographs of employees, products, and the LaSalle factory. Additional photographs, as well as product shots and graphical charts, constitute the sixth series in the collection. Although few photographs depicting the plant’s interior and employees are dated specifically, they provide an excellent visual record of the American worker in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Included are photographs and some negatives of each department and employees from the early 1900s.s Over 200 product shots accompany the photographs and depict the changes in Westclox product design since the 1880’s. Finally, graphical charts (1889-1930) illustrate progress in production, sales, employment, and advertising through the company’s first forty years of operation. Persons interested in the growth and development of northern Illinois industry, particularly in the manufacture of goods for national and world markets, will find useful information in the Westclox, Incorporated Records. Researchers should note that company histories are included in Box 1, Files 1 and 2, and also that Box 8, Files 5 to 10 contain records documenting Westclox’s role during the Second World War.

Dates

created: 1885-1971
Other: Date acquired: 11/03/1980

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on access to the collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights in the collection are held by the Regional History Center; literary rights are dedicated to the public.

Biographical or Historical Information

On December 23, 1885, clock inventor Charles Stahlberg established the United Clock Company in LaSalle-Peru, Illinois. Mr. Stahlberg hired seven employees and began operations in the rear of Brylski’s Department Store in LaSalle until the company relocated to a new three story building a few weeks later. Employing a unique casting process to hold clock components together, the firm struggled for the following two years, producing about fifty clocks per day. By 1887, poor financial management forced the plant into bankruptcy and United Clock Company ceased production. The factory remained closed until F. W. Matthiessen, Sr., President of Matthiessen and Hegeler Zinc Company in LaSalle, purchased the company in late 1887. After changing the firm’s name from United Clock Company to Western Clock Company, Matthiessen recruited new management and poured capital into the operation for the next three years. By 1890, the company achieved financial stability with three directors and eighty-one employees producing 380 units per day. The plant grew steadily into the twentieth century and at the start of the First World War, the Western Clock Company employed 1 ,640 persons and manufactured 13,000 units per day. In 1923, management adopted the name of Westclox as the company title. In the 1920’s Westclox expanded operations in production, sales, and employee benefit programs. Tapping the international market, the company opened outlets in Australia, Canada, South America, South Africa, and the Far East. Domestically, the firm acquired two additional companies: the LaSalle Tool Company in 1920 and the Sterling Clock Company in 1928. Westclox implemented group insurance in 1917, and vacation with pay, pension plans, and a sickness benefit plan in 1920, 1924, and 1925 respectively. In addition, employees enjoyed recreation facilities such as a factory bowling alley, ice skating rink, and night school programs. In 1930, Westclox merged with Seth Thomas Clock Company under a holding company called General Time Instruments Corporation. Six years later, Westclox became known as Westclox, Division of General Time Instruments, and primarily produced electric clocks and wrist watches. With the onset of the Second World War, the firm commenced mechanical fuze production for the federal government, ceasing all civilian goods production by 1942. Westclox achieved an outstanding war production record, manufacturing 7,500,000 various fuzes and over a billion parts for arsenals and other manufacturers. The federal government recognized Westclox’s contribution to the war effort with several awards of the Army-Navy “E” Commemoration. The company returned to civilian clock production after the war, and manufactured over 200,000,000 time pieces in 1948. Three years later, employment figures reached an all-time high of 4,000 persons. During its ninety-six year history, Westclox produced varied types of timekeeping instruments ranging from spring driven and electric alarm clocks to wristwatches and auto clocks. The firm began marketing its most famous product, Big Ben, in 1910 at a cost of $2.50. Big Ben’s popularity increased tremendously as sales rose from 391,000 sold in 1911 to 53,000,000 in 1959. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the company developed other instruments such as clock units for transistor clock radios and also parts of the United States National Emergency Alarm Repeater System. By 1968, Talley Industries assumed control of General Time Corporation as part of an industrial acquisition program. Between 1978 and 1980, Talley Industries reduced production at the LaSalle plant and relocated the center of Westclox Manufacturing in the Southeastern United States. Today, Westclox plants continue to produce timepieces in the tradition begun in 1885. On January 1, 2012 local teenage vandals set fire to the old Westclox plant. The fire raged for five days before it was declared extinguished. It gutted nearly half the historic building and forced Marien Mae Bridal Boutique & Events, a business that remained in the structure, to find a new home

Note written by

Extent

19.75 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

The collection comprises six major record series: minutes; correspondence; financial records; department reports; company newsmagazines; and visual material.

Source of Acquisition

Mr. James Woolson

Method of Acquisition

Mr. James Woolson, Vice President of General Time Corporation, donated the Westclox, Incorporated Records to the Northern Illinois Regional History Center on November 3, 1980.

Related Materials

Other industrial history collections held by the Regional History Center include: Rockford Mitten and Hosiery Company, Rockford Chair and Furniture Company, Smith Oil and Refining Company, National Chair Company, Starline, Incorporated, and W. F. and John Barnes Company Records (RC 38, 42, 48, 59, 114, 123).