Strother Family Grandfather Clock, ca. 1800-1810 , A&M 3939

West Virginia and Regional History Center

1549 University Ave.
P.O. Box 6069
Morgantown, WV 26506-6069
Business Number: 304-293-3536
wvrhcref@westvirginia.libanswers.com
URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu

Staff of the West Virginia & Regional History Center

Abstract

One grandfather clock (97 in. tall) once owned by the Strother family of the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. According to family lore, this clock was built in 1803 by a Swiss clockmaker in Martinsburg (Virginia). David Hunter Strother (1816-1888) is a well known member of the family that owned this clock. He was an illustrator and writer for Harpers Magazine, whose pseudonym, "Porte Crayon", was a household word; he later served the Union cause, and was General Consul to Mexico within the Rutherford B. Hayes presidential administration. There are also 2 keys and 1 small hand crank. Also included in the collection are 16 .jpg photographs of the clock in the West Virginia & Regional History Center and the internal clock mechanism as well as 1 .mov video file of the clock chiming, taken during a 2014 visit to repair the clock.

Administrative Information

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Conditions Governing Access

Special access restriction applies.

Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Strother Family Grandfather Clock, A&M 3939, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Statement by donor, David Strother:

David Hunter Strother (1816-1888) is a significant figure in West Virginia history. According to family lore, this clock was built in 1803 by a Swiss clockmaker in Martinsburg, and has been in the Strother family since then. When the clock strikes, you will enjoy a sound that has pleased listeners for more than two centuries.

It is our good fortune that the clock stood in one of the family homes, located in Martinsburg, at the time of the destruction of the furnishings of their house in Berkeley Springs by Confederate raiders. The Martinsburg house, Norborne Hall, still stands on West Race Street.

The Confederacy went after David Strother, a native of what was then part of Virginia, because his opposition to secession led him to join the Union cause. Initially serving as a cartographer, he quickly rose to be a senior staff officer for a number of Union Generals. At Antietam, he rode out on the hazardous mission of delivering messages from General McClellan to Union commanders. By the war's end he had risen to the rank of Brigadier General.

"A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War", David Hunter Strother's diaries of the period, edited by Cecil D. Eby, will give you a unique sense of life during the war years.

It is a pleasure and privilege for me to be able to give the Strother family clock to the people of West Virginia on this special occasion, West Virginia Day 2013.