05/21/2024
We're not sure how we came into possession of this fun piece of Nashua history during the Civil War, but we're happy to share. Below are two important books from 1860-1863 of a short-lived company called the Nashua Watch Company. From the National Association of Watch & Clock Collector's web site:
"The Nashua Watch Company was a short-lived but historically important enterprise organized by Belding Dart Bingham who in June of 1859 began enticing a key group of highly skilled watch and machine designers away from the American Watch Company to staff his NH venture. Bingham's timing was perfectly bad, however, as the secession crisis that broke late the following year briefly prostrated the northern economy, likely drying up additional investment capital. The war that immediately followed then created a severe manpower shortage as the explosively growing Union Army and the concomitant expansion of the Springfield Armory may have largely consumed New England's remaining pool of skilled mechanics.
And so, the undercapitalized and manpower starved Nashua Watch Company closed its doors and its key personnel were reabsorbed back into the AWCo in 1862, but not before they succeeded in designing perhaps the best American watch of their time and achieving important improvements in watchmaking machinery."
Below are excerpts from two handwritten books: the first book is the Records of Directors in which the officers were given their titles, and important decisions about bonds were recorded. The second is a cash outflow book, seemingly a record of all of the expenses paid out to companies, including Pennichuck Water Works (not pictured here) and Nashua Foundries. Enjoy!
