William Sherwin of Buckland, Massachusetts

William Sherwin was born in the western part of Franklin County in the small town of Ashfield, Massachusetts, on October 26, 1787. It is not known when he moved approximately 5 miles North to the town of Buckland. Buckland was organized on April 14, 1779, from the plantation, then called Notown and a part of Charlemont. It is recorded in the town’s history that he became very active in town affairs, serving as the town clerk, an assessor, a school committee member, a selectman, and an overseer of the poor. He was elected multiple times as Buckland’s representative to the General Court of the Massachusetts Legislature. Due to his business of manufacturing and selling clocks, his cutting engine is now in the American Clock & Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut. The neighborhood around his home and shop was called “Clock Hollow” by the locals. It is thought that he purchased his cases from Daniel Warner. A tall case clock attributed to Sherwin and Warner remains in the Wilder Homestead collection in that town. The town of Buckland had an industrious center due to the power provided by the Clesson River. Various wooden wares were made in significant quantities. William Sherwin died in 1877.