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By Martha Briggs Watson<\/em><\/p>\n On the morning of October 11, 1927, there was great jubilation in Huntsville. A huge crowd had gathered at the Town Hall. At 11 a.m., the clock in the tower started to swing its pendulum to officially start the marking of time in the centre of our town.<\/p>\n My paternal grandfather, Edward (Ted) Hugh John Briggs, emigrated from England in 1908, and was watchmaker and jeweller with the Harry Booth store in Huntsville until he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1916.<\/p>\n Upon returning to Huntsville in 1919, and being discharged from the army, he opened E.H .Briggs Jewellers (where Muskoka Jewellery Design is now, at 68 Main Street East).<\/p>\n The municipal building (Town Hall) on Main Street was completed in 1927. During its construction, the question of a clock to go into the tower came up. The Town Council had heard about a clock due to be removed from the old railway station in Toronto, slated for demolition and to be replaced by the new Union Station on Front Street.<\/p>\n My grandfather was asked to go to investigate the clock\u2019s size and suitability for relocation. It would be quite an engineering job to modify the clock to fit the clock tower in Huntsville, but my grandfather decided it would be possible, and Mr. Charles Paget bought the Toronto station\u2019s clock as a gift to the town of Huntsville.<\/p>\n Councillor Tom Millest and George Ralston, the town\u2019s engineer, accompanied by my grandfather Ted, travelled by train to Toronto where Ted took charge of packing the clock\u2019s parts to bring them carefully to Huntsville. He carried the more delicate parts home with him.<\/p>\n It was indeed quite an engineering job to install the clock in the new Town Hall tower. New dials, hands, connections, and mainly the motive power weights had to be done, and Ted used special tools for those purposes with the help of his sons Harold (my father) and my Uncle Ted.<\/p>\n What is really interesting to me is that in getting the correct weight, assorted pieces from old car crankshafts etc. were used.<\/p>\n The clock was officially started at 11 a.m. on October 11, 1927, where the Briggs family maintained it and made sure it kept as close a time as it was possible to get in a tower clock at that time.<\/p>\n Mr. P.W. Ellis, the dean of jewellers, pronounced the work of installing this clock \u201cA magnificent job!\u201d<\/p>\n This piece of writing is taken from various written accounts by my Uncle Rixon, younger brother of Harold and Ted Briggs, as well as my Uncle Ted\u2019s wife, Hattie Briggs, and also my memories of the story told to me by my father Harold.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t