Mark Meadows's shop building is a glorious cacophony of sounds emanating from a jumble of clocks all seemingly set at different times. A wall clock with a Westminster chime strikes on one wall while a minute or two later a ship's clock dings away in that tone familiar to all mariners. A few minutes later a cuckoo clock clucks away from another part of the shop.
Mark glances at one of several clocks on a nearby wall for the time. Apparently this particular clock shows the correct time because he announces he must leave in a few minutes for an appointment in Springfield: Because of his skill at repairing old clock movements, Mark doesn't have much time on his hands.
"One of my favorite sayings is,'Time lost is never found,'" he says. Indeed little time is wasted on Mark's ridgetop farm above the Flat River near Cassville. Mark, a member of Barry Electric Cooperative, has all the work he wants as people rediscover their family's old mantle or wall clocks or find clocks in antique shops or at estate auctions.
Mark doesn't bother with modern clocks. Today's time pieces are often mass-produced trinkets made for a throw-away world. Or worse, they're electronic devices made of chips and circuit boards.
Mark loves to tinker with the fine-crafted clockworks of the past--mechanical devices with tiny gears, pins, springs and swinging pendulums to keep the correct time.
He admires clocks from an earlier time in American society when nearly every family had a kitchen or wall clock and maybe even a tall grandfather clock, if they could afford one.
Mark's interest in clocks began when he was still a young boy growing up in the Ozarks town of Aurora.
"I just started tinkering with old alarm clocks," says the 54-year-old craftsman. "I seemed to have an aptitude for the mechanical movements. I could always get them to run."
Another love of the young Mark was books. He read every book about clocks he could get his hands on, but at the time the selection was pretty thin. He relied on two particular books for much of his early knowledge of clocks. "The Modern Clock," published in 1905, and "Practical Clock Repairing" are considered classics in the clock world. In fact Mark still refers to the books, now dog-eared with use. "These books were like a whole new world to me. There were so few books published at the time about clocks. Finally something I could read to learn."
While in high school Mark used his new knowledge to repair clocks for a local jeweler. Despite his early start in the profession, Mark didn't stay in the business long. In fact his love of books and reading took him down a different career path.
He earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Missouri in Columbia and then became the first student to graduate from the university's School of Library and Information Science, earning his master's degree in 1967.
Mark worked as a librarian for the University of Missouri medical school and later for Park College in Kansas City and Arkansas State University. But in 1982 Mark's career made an abrupt turn that would allow him to once again work with clocks, this time in his own business.
Mark bought the Shipley Company, a national maker and supplier of ornate clock glass as well as clock parts and dials. Because Shipley was a catalog company, Mark could locate anywhere he wished. He and his wife, Judy, decided to buy a Barry County farm and move back to the Ozarks, ending his career as an academic librarian.
Working from the shop building behind his farmhouse, Mark printed pieces of glass with the patterns and scenes particular to a variety of early clock manufacturers like Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Sessions and others.
Mark printed more than 200 different kinds of clock glass, shipping them all over the country.
In 1991 he was forced to sell the catalog company when the chemicals used in the printing process began to affect his health. He then began working full time repairing clocks. It didn't take long for his reputation for careful work to spread nationwide.
Driving by the Meadows farm, a motorist would be hard pressed to tell a business was located in the plain looking shop building. No sign advertises its presence. In fact, Mark is afraid to advertise for fear he would be flooded with work.
There are few craftsmen left in the country with the skills necessary to repair the complicated, tiny mechanical movements of early clocks. In fact, Mark says much of his business comes from repairing the work of what he calls "clock butchers" or others attempting to repair clocks and doing more harm than good.
Mark isn't interested in collecting--nearly all the clocks in his shop belong to customers--but he is intrigued with the renewed interest in antique clocks.
"When I was growing up in the 1950s clocks weren't worth anything. You could buy a very nice clock back in the '50s for $10. That same clock today might sell for $200."
Mark has talked to many people who want him to teach them to repair clocks, but few are willing to take the time to learn the way he did as a young boy.
"I say to them read these books and come back and I'll teach you and not one of them has ever come back."
For now Mark says he isn't worried about the lack of craftsmen following in his footsteps. After more than 30 years of working with clocks he remains fascinated with quality movements and his interest remains helping his customers keep them in working order.
"It's so rewarding to repair someone's clock and then see their reaction."
For information about repairing antique clock movements you can contact Mark at Rt. 2, Box 2368, Cassville, Mo. 65625, or via email at marktime@ozarkmark.com.