PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

movements were visible to customers at the time of purchase, they were made with eye appeal, employing elaborate damaskeening, or decorative patterning. The higher-grade Peoria watches, many collectors believe, were among the most beautiful. HEADWINDS By 1899, most railroads were requiring watches for trainmen and yardmasters to pass a strict inspection requiring, among other things, at least 17 jewels. The Peoria watches had, at most, 15 jewels. The Decatur Daily Review reported on Nov. 25, 1899 that the Peoria watches were among those not accepted by the Wabash line. Though the Peoria watches were an accurate and beautiful work of art, major watch companies such as Elgin, Waltham, Illinois and Hamilton had developed watches that were smaller, lighter and of higher jewel count. The basic design of the Peoria watch had not changed since it was first produced in Newark, New Jersey in the 1860s.

By 1888, the Peoria Watch Company was said to be in trouble “on account of lack of funds.” The year before, the secretary of the company, J. Finley Hoke, had been arrested for embez zlement. The watch company was one of his victims. The daily production rate at the factory was then only 20 watches. Elgin, by comparison, was producing 1,400 watches per day. When compared to 11 other watch companies, the Peoria factory came in last. Yet Clarence Howard was still buying real estate in Peoria, and the Peoria watch was still being touted as the official watch of the ATSF Railroad. Jewelers continued to advertise their stock of Peoria watches for several years after the factory closed in about 1888, while touting their superior quality. STILL KEEPING TIME, AND VALUE Ultimately, the factory was taken over by the Parsons Horological Institute,

said Fuller. The watch-making school of J.R. Parsons, “a practical jeweler of La Porte, Ind.,” was moved from La Porte to Peoria in about 1892 and took up residence at Bradley University. With some 150 students then in attendance, the main building was gutted by fire in 1896. The typical pocket watch of the 19th century was made to last indefinitely, and Peoria watches were no exception. They were precision instruments and works of fine industrial art in their day. They are still considered collectors’ items, commanding fairly high prices at auction. Information for this story came from correspondence with historian Eugene T. Fuller of Sugar Land, Texas, and from Henry G. Abbott's book, The Watch Factories of America.

Steve Gossard is the former curator of Special Collections at Illinois State University’s Milner Library. He lives in Bloomington

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82 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE