Additional information on the history of the Columbus Clock

The following information was provided in correspondence from a descendent from the Goodell family and is published here with the authors express written permission. Personal information has been omitted for security reasons. This descendants historical recollections of the companies involved is truly amazing, and has shed some light on areas that I don't believe have been published anywhere else. My sincere thanks to the author for sharing this knowledge.

"Hello. I stumbled across your website and was happy to see the page about the Columbus Clock made by the Bostwick & Burgess Co. I am a Goodell, and Bostwick was my great-great grandfather.

I hope you will be interested in a little of my family's history....LOL. Not many people know about the Columbus Clock. I am always happy to find anyone who appreciates their unique design, and special place in antiquities.

The Bostwick & Burgess Co. sold Queen Carpet Sweepers, Fly-screens (as they were called in those days), hardwood flooring, and had only recently ventured into wooden furniture and novelty items when they lucked into the Columbus Clock contract. I have a calliope whistle, chess pieces, turned wooden boxes, jackstraws, and furniture among other items. We own three of the clocks, but do not have the original boxes.

The Victoria Venetian Blind was added to the product list about the same time the company became Bostwick-Goodell. In it's heyday, there were
roughly 40 woodworkers there.

Your comment on your website about selling to Waitley in Worthington OH is news to me because the company never left the family, and they continued to prosper making items from wood. It would make sense if they sold off the sweeper part; as about that time Burgess departed and they quit selling the Queen sweepers. It seems to me that Burgess was in ill health or had died.

Mary Revera Bostwick married IW Goodell; my great-great grandparents. World War I depleted the available skilled woodworkers, and the toys and novelty items slowly passed out of production as celluloid and plastics made their way into the market. Hardwood flooring was gone early after the turn of the century, and the company focused on window treatments. Thanks to the advent of machinery to punch, sand, and finish blind slats, wood Venetians became affordable, and the rage until after World War II. We did literally millions of blinds in office buildings, post offices, hotels, and homes all over the country. The lack of domestic help and changes in American lifestyles signaled the twilight of wood blinds until their resurgence in the mid 1990's. The Bostwick-Goodell Co. continued to operate in Norwalk OH until my grandfather CW Goodell died in 1973. At that time we were making aluminum 1" miniblinds and 2" aluminum macro blinds.

I inherited the original plans for the Columbus Clock from my great-aunt when she passed on in 1976. There was a rumor at that time that the stamping plates for the face of the Columbus clock were in the possession of my step-grandmother, but this was never confirmed. I think my dad got confused with the plans. The running weights and speed acorns were sandcast lead. The "rope" which operates the clock is identical to the operating lift cords on Victoria Venetian Blinds. I have always gotten a kick out of listening to dealers (no offense of course) ramble on about the specially made rope which ran the clocks.....LOL. It came on 2000' rolls from a mill in New England I think. I even had one guy tell me his clock was over 400 years old and had been made in the Black Forest of Germany. He almost bit his lip off when I tried to straighten him out .

It's kind of an ironic post-script, but I am now the owner of a small factory making custom window treatments. So the circle continues. I hope
you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed remembering.......:-)"

"This information is not to be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the author"

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