Left: The clock adorns the steeple of the church and was added in 1871. Right: Toni Lee Corwin begins her acsent to reset the weights and wind the clock. Photos by Sheila Cosgrove Baylis

Southampton - During Thanksgiving, many of us spend time with multiple generations of family - getting a sense of our past and future. For the Corwin family of Southampton, those generations mark the time quite literally, since week after week, and year after year, they have climbed the steep and precarious steps of the First Presbyterian Church on Main Street to wind the tower clock.

The clock was added to the church in 1871, and it's very likely that Willis Corwin, who owned the local jewelry and watch shop, helped to install it. He maintained it in the years that followed, and passed down the responsibility of winding the clock every eight days to his son, Thomas Corwin, Sr. The tradition continued with Thomas Corwin, Jr., who accepted the job when it was his time, and passed to his son, Tim Corwin, who now maintains both the tower clock and the jewelry store on Main Street in Southampton Village.

Four generations of the Corwin family have taken up the charge of maintaining the iconic town clock at the First Presbyterian Church in Southampton. From left: Willis Corwin, Thomas Corwin, Sr., Thomas Corwin, Jr., and current keeper of time Tim Corwin.

Actually, it's Tim's wife, Toni Lea, who nimbly scales the flight of stairs to reset the weights that keep the tower clock chiming every hour. "She's better suited to it," Tim Corwin remarked. Toni Lea is athletic and strong, with a bold and courageous personality. She slowly warms to a big smile as she speaks, and easily admits to the inconveniences of this 19th century task. "Sometimes I'll finish winding it, go back down the stairs, and realize that I've left my keys up there when I get to the parking lot," she laughed. "Or I will forget to set the pendulum, and I'll have to go up there and do it all over again."

Toni Lea estimated that it takes her a half an hour to walk from the jewelry shop to the church, climb the stairs, reset the weights and the time, swing the pendulum, and get back to the jewelry shop. Unless, of course, there's a snafu, like leaving her keys up in the tower.

Toni Lee turns the hand crank in the chilly tower to keep the clock in motion.

She can use a small engine installed in the 1960s to bring the weights up, or she can do it by hand with a large crank that raises the weights through a pulley system. "Sometimes I do it by hand," she said. "It depends on my mood." Toni Lea said she has tried to pass the job on to her high-school aged daughter, Karianne, but to no avail. However, her son Travis is set to take over someday when he moves back from Charleston, NC, where he is a chef.

Behind the scenes the clock sees regular care and attention.

In the past, Southampton Town paid the Corwins to wind the clock each week, but now the church itself pays the nominal $15-a-week fee. For the Corwins, it's more about the acknowledgment of the service than the money. "The town refused to pay us for awhile," Tim said. "So I refused to wind it. That's when the church stepped in."

It's certainly a bargain for First Presbyterian, since automating the clock would easily cost upwards of $10,000. "Even if the clock was made partially automatic, someone would have to scale the steps regularly to maintain the system," Toni Lea explained.

The mechanisms boldly display the mark of its maker, E. Howard & Co. of Boston, MA.

First Presbyterian, which is the oldest congregation in the United States, is spending over $100,000 on renovating the exterior of the church, so the Corwins don't expect upgrades to the clock anytime soon. If the clock was made fully automatic with a quartz timepiece, the original mechanisms would have to be changed and the precious antique would be altered forever. "A few years ago, the church was going to remove the antique and put quartz in there," Tim said. "I fought against it and finally convinced them that it wasn't a good idea."

The clock was made by the E. Howard & Co. watch company, which Edward Howard and Charles Rice formed in 1858 after buying up stock from the defunct Boston Watch Company. E. Howard & Co., located in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, still creates clocks and timer mechanisms today.

Luckily, the Corwins have also kept in the family the special knowledge and skill of maintaining antique timepieces. Tim Corwin has repaired the clock several times, and has been called upon when other volunteers have found it indecipherable.

This holiday week is all about gratitude, and the town of Southampton may want to extend some of that thanks to the Corwins, who for generations have labored diligently for that steady reminder of the hour that many of us have come to depend upon.

On the interior trim of the clockface Corwin timekeepers have left their mark.