These custom clocks are made with a concrete frame (14"x14") and wood lathe from a 100 year old house in Venice, California.  The most interesting piece of American history is in the McCormick seeder plate at the center of it all.

Cyrus Hall McCormick and his brother Leander J. McCormick started the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in 1847.  Cyrus invented and patented the horse-drawn reaper that used the seeder plates found on these clocks.  In 1902, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company merged with several other agricultural equipment firms to create the International Harvester Company.

Cyrus McCormick’s son, Cyrus Jr. inherited the company in 1885, after his death; and many credit Cyrus Jr’s apathy toward organized labor with the spark that  ignited the Haymarket Riots on May 4, 1886.  The protest at Haymarket Square in Chicago was a response to the labor strike on May 3 at the McCormick Reaper plant that turned violent.

In 1889, May 1 was declared International Worker’s Day, or Labor Day, to commemorate the sacrifices at the Haymarket Riots; and it is still honored in over 80 countries.  Despite the fact May Day across the globe remembers the early union laborers of America, it’s a little known fact in our history books.  Instead, Labor Day in September is the national holiday we celebrate to honor the contributions of the men and women whose sweat, heart and resilience helped build America.