he clock that stands in Triangle Park was donated to the city in 1924 by John Cavin in memory of his father, pioneer Isaac Cavin who founded Ligonier. It was built by Seth-Thomas Co., of Thomaston, Connecticut in 1923. The original clock was weight driven and had to be wound once a week. In 1957 the works were converted to an electrical source.
Originally, the clock was stationed in front of the old American State Bank building at the corner of Third and Cavin Streets. In 1968, the old bank building was razed and replaced and the clock was moved to Cavin Street in front of the Ligonier Telephone Company, where it stood until 1981.
In the fall of 1981, while a truck was traveling through Ligonier, it suddenly veered off the road and struck the landmark, knocking it off its pedestal. The company which owned the truck went bankrupt and allowed its insurance to lapse, leaving the city with no funds to repair the clock. The status of the clock remained for more than a year. Then, in December 1982, an anonymous donor left a $50,000 gift to the city. A fundraising campaign was launched, headed by Ligonier street commissioner Richard Moser and John Tipton of Superior Sample. Kidd and Company, a local marshmallow manufacturing firm, volunteered to ship the pieces of the clock to a repairman in Massachusetts at its own expense.
A disheveled mass of broken metal and glass, the remains of the clock were placed into 55 gallon drums and buckets, and were sent East by Kidd’s, along with a shipment of marshmallows. The clock was received by John Moss of Newton, Massachusetts, a self-employed clockmaker and specialist in the restoration of mechanical devices. His resume included the restorations of the Symphony Hall Street Clock in Boston, and the famous Waterhouse Clock at Harvard University. Eighteen months and 1200 hours of work later, Moss returned the completed work. Moss had to recast and rebuild the entire spherical clock housing. Moss’s associate, Paula Larson, worked 18 hours to reassemble enough of the milk-glass faces of the clock to determine how the four faces should be replicated.
The clock was also restored to its original color, Bristol Green, and was reassembled at the city-owned triangle of land on Lincolnway South and Cavin Street. The clock was put into service again at 2:20 PM on December 8th, 1984. Ligonier’s Historic Antique Clock stands proud today between Cavin Street and Lincolnway South, having become a symbol of Ligonier, Indiana.
