Chauncey Jerome

  General Notes:

In the year 1804, When he was 11 years old, Chauncy's father, aftera brief illness, died at the age of 39. farming had been the prindipal occupation of the father, but with the limited capital and the crude implements of those days only very scant returns could be wrung from the reluctant soil, even by constant and hard work. Nail making was an industry of considerable importance in the town, and many a modest little shop might be seen here and there among the CAnaan hills, awhere forges, anvils, hammers and muscle were the means employed for making "wrought nails," which were in demand in all the towns around. A rolling mill in the town manufactured the rods from which the nails were made. The father was a nail maker as well as farmer. But death cam; then the breaking up of the home and the seperation of the family; and the boy with a heavy heart went forth to seek fortune among strangers. He found employment with a farmer, and although the compensationwas only food and clothing, for three years he faithfully and withoutrepining dug and delved as only farm boys of the old days could. When he was fifteen he was bound as an apprentice to a carpenter. In 1812, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in a company organized by Captain John Buckingham of Waterbury for the defense of the city of New Haven against an expected attack by a British fleet. His company - withothers- was stationed on Beacon Hill on the East shore of New Haven Harbor, directly opposite and in full view of the house where forty years later he lived, enjoying all the comforts of life for which he cared. The Admiral of the fleet and his ships were ordered elswhere andno attack was made. After several weeks of digging in trenches, throwing up breastworks, of drill and parade, the company was permitted toreturn to Waterbury, subject to another call if its services should be deemed necessary.
Before he was twenty he determined to be his own master. He "bought his time" of his boss carpenter, Captain Willis of Plymouth, and set upin business for himself. So poorly was labor compensated during the hard times after the war that for 75 dollars he finished the whole interior of a three story house, including twentyseven doors - all hand amde- and with floors of Oak. The same amount of work now [1896] wouldcost nearly or quite on thousand dollars.

His inclinations and ambitions were for a life of activity and enterprise. In 1816, at the age of 23, he sought and obtained emplyment with Mr. Eli Terry, who had then recently commenced the manufacture of wooden clocks. After a year of service with Mr. Terry hedetermined to establish a business on his own account. His early efforts were necessarily upon a liited scale, but he possessed a sound body and robust health, of never flagging industry and perseverance; also with an ambition to be a leader in the business which he had now chosen for a career.

His business, small in the beginning, steadily expanded, until at theend of thirty years his was by far the most extensive clock manufacturing establisment in the world. For several years he cherished the ambition to establish the trade and sale of American clocks in foreign lands - In Europe, in South America and among the Celestial of the eastern world. In 1842 He shipped goods to England and to China, sending agents to work out his plans. It cost many years of time and effort and may thousands of dollars, and at leat his pupose was accomplished.Possibly it was an undue ambition, and fatefull in his case. He could

Chauncey married Salome Smith, daughter of Theophilus Miles Smith and Salone Smith, on 9 Apr 1814 in Plymouth, Conn ⁵⁹.^,84 (Salome Smith was born in 1794 in Milford, Conn,⁸⁴ died on 6 Mar 1854 in New Haven, Conn ^59,83 and was buried in Grove St. Cem, New Haven, Conn. ⁸⁷.)

Chauncey next married Sophia Lewis on 4 Jan 1855 in Southington, Conn.⁸⁵ (Sophia Lewis was born about 1807 ⁸⁵ and died on 12 Jul 1884 ⁸⁵.)