Part II - Business, a supplement to the Big Rapids Pioneer Newspaper. Used with permission.



CLOCK, FOUNTAIN HELP ANCHOR DOWNTOWN
By Jim Bruskotter, Managing Editor

Time keeps ticking and the water keeps flowing in Big Rapids historic downtown district.

The town and city water fountain have served generations of Big Rapids area residents, since the clock and its tower housing was added to the Nisbett Building in the winter of 1895 and the fountain began providing artesion water to citizens in 1905.

Both have been repaired over the years, but the clock still keeps time for an ever-changing downtown shopping district and the fountain still provides water. although no longer tapping its original source of water, a 66 feet deep artesian well.

County historian James C, Wood scoffs at reports that the fountain began serving the community well before the turn of the century even though city commission minutes from 1871 discuss a paurchase of a fountain for the downtown area.

He says the fountain evolved from a fund drive headed by the Big Rapids Improvement league that led to its purchase from a New York firm and eventual placement on the southwest corner of Michigan and Maple.

The clock evolved from the folly of Daniel Comstock to build a huge building on the southeast of the same intersection as a monument to himself. Comstock went bankrupt constructing the monstrocity which was sold to William at a tenth of the original cost.

In the Oct. 3, 1895 edition of the Pioneer the editor touched on the construction of the tower for the clock, noting that no one expected Comstock to furnish the clock, "for it is enough for him to furnish the clock furnish a place for one. The city should furnish the clock, and should jump at the chance to get so nice a place for it without the incurring of any expense.

The article also called on the city to provide the new clock, "before another September rolls around."

It's not clear who ended up paying for the clock, but it was in place well before the following September, the work of a Manistee clock maker, Nels Johnson.

The Jan. 1, 1896 edition of the Pioneer, noting that the clock had already been placed in the tower, gave a brief history of its maker, an immigrant from Denmark, who became recognized "as the best tower clock in the West." Among his works, according to the article, were "dails" adorning "a score or more of lofty towers in Michigan, alone," and others in Milwaukee, Rochester, N.Y., Pottsvile, Iowa and "in the tower of the Michigan Building at the World's Fair."

Editor's Note: County historian James C. Wood provided the research for this article.



Return to Mecosta sesquicentennial Page

Return to Home Page