WINDING DOWN FOR THE DAY — Clark County Judge Troy Tucker, left, talks with horologist David Jackson in the courthouse clock tower. Jackson made repairs to the clock, which sustained major damages in a 2025 thunderstorm. | arkadelphian.com photo by Joel Phelps
By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
It’s been nearly one year since winds from a powerful thunderstorm in April 2025 knocked out three of the massive clock dials out of the Clark County Courthouse. This week, a Florida-based company that specializes in clock towers replaced the 80-inch acrylic behemoths.
The old clock tower still stands the test of time, and is testament to just how indomitable the 1899 courthouse seems. The 1997 tornado that crippled downtown Arkadelphia took its toll on the courthouse, sending the uppermost portion of the clock tower to a pile of rubble below.
Horologist: A skilled professional who restores timepieces
David Jackson, third-generation horologist, made the 900-mile trip from Ocala to Arkadelphia to install all four dials. He and his father, owners of Clock Service Co., arrived Monday night, spending the bulk of the next three days working on the innards of the clock tower. They replaced the clock’s hands, repaired some of the original gears and installed the new dials.
The Arkadelphian met Jackson as he and his father were finishing up their work and hauling tools down multiple flights of dusty wooden stairs leading from the second floor of the courthouse to the six-story-high tower. Inside the clock tower, it’s evident from a change in brick color where the tornado toppled the tower, about midway up the dial. Pieces of the previous dials, shattered last April, lay scattered on the ground; most of the shards are in a pile beneath the wooden platform that supports the brains behind the entire operation: the clock motor, which, as one would expect, revolves at a snail’s pace, at 1 rpm. Smaller gears the size of a walnut turn shafts that rotate increasingly larger gears, until eventually the operation joins four long shafts, each connected to a dial.
The Jacksons crafted the acrylic dials at their home base in central Florida, having made a previous trip to Arkadelphia to take measurements. Clock Service Company services many states in the Southeast U.S., and multiple counties throughout Arkansas. Clocksmithing is a highly specialized trade: an artisan craft that is rare and declining as older generations retire. Jackson’s father, nearing his 80s, is retired himself. “I still get him out of retirement from time to time,” David quipped.
He points out that horologists have no formal training — they learn from information that is passed down through generations of clockmakers like themselves.
The family company was founded by Jackson’s grandfather, in 1927. His grandfather was a self-taught clocksmith, Jackson said. “He was looking for work and went to the courthouse,” he explained. “They said they needed someone to fix the clock, and my grandfather said he could do it.” But, in reality, he’d never seen a courthouse clock in his life. “He spent about three or four days trying to figure out how it was supposed to work, then went to work fixing it,” Jackson said.
The Jacksons are the ones who repaired the Clark County Courthouse following the 1997 twister. County Judge Troy Tucker recalls how the clock and its motor were under a pile of rubble. “They [the Jacksons] came up here and took all the clockwork apart and stored it for us,” said Tucker, who was sheriff at the time.
Clock towers are a common feature among courthouses, as they’re the centerpiece of the town they serve. Historically, business owners would peer out of their shops for a view of the courthouse and set their clocks to the courthouse time. Jackson’s grandfather, who started the company, got extra fuel rations during World War II to keep courthouse clocks running, Jackson said, “because that’s what the whole community and businesses set their clocks to.”
Tucker imagines a time in Arkadelphia when that would have been the case, as the courthouse sits blocks from the Ouachita River, where for much of the 19th century steamboats imported and exported goods. It’s also very near what is now the Union Pacific railroad, laid in Arkadelphia a quarter-century before the courthouse was built.
The Romanesque-styled courthouse was erected more than 80 years after Clark County’s formation, and nearly 60 years after Arkadelphia became the seat of county government. According to Clark County Arkansas: Past and Present, a comprehensive history of the area, the original town plan utilized the courthouse square as a community focal point, and idea that would be abandoned as the commercial district developed along Main Street in an east-west axis.
Asked what sets Clark County’s courthouse apart from others they service, Jackson is quick to point out that it’s apparently a well-built edifice, having mostly withstood the winds of an F-4 tornado. And the clock motor? It’s original to the 1899 courthouse, manufactured in Boston, Massachusetts, by E. Howard & Co. “Of the states I cover, this is the most common model of clock,” Jackson said. “About 80% of the clocks I work on are this model.”
At 127 years old, the clock in the Clark County Courthouse has stood the test of time — and withstood acts of God. Suffice it to say that the clock isn’t ready to wind down just yet.
And neither is Jackson, whose time is up in Arkadelphia, for now.
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