News : Courthouse clock will soon keep time for first time since 2009

A worker installs the first of four sets of clock hands at the courthouse.

The restored clock arrived in Vinton Monday evening; work will continue throughout the week.

Although it “seems like forever to some people” since the Benton Courthouse clock told passers-by the correct time, it’s only been a little more than six years since the electric motor that powered the century-old mechanisms stopped working.

Rick Bramow, who has worked in the courthouse maintenance department since graduating from Washington high school in 1973, has a box of parts in his office. Dated May of 2009, that box contains the motor which in the spring of that year, quit working.

“The people at Yanda Motors told us they could not fix it, and those who had motors like this would not let them go,” recalls Bramow.

The clock, originally powered by a system of weights and gears, had an electric motor installed several decades ago.

Now, with the restoration of the clock nearing completion, the clock very soon will begin running – and ringing its hourly bell – the way it did when first installed in the courthouse in 1907.

Clocksmiths from the Smith company in Indiana have spent the better part of the last year restoring the clock, building new gears to replace those that were missing, and preparing it for use for the next several decades.

See photos of the clock's arrival and the beginning stages of its re-installation HERE.