News at the Historical Society
Ticking with Excitement - 11/20/2025
The Madison County Historical Society is excited to announce 4 new additions to the collection. Russ Oechsle was overly generous and donated 4 beautiful wooden shelf clocks to add as permanent exhibits to the Historical Society on November 19th, 2025. The 4 clocks donated were each uniquely crafted by 4 separate clock makers of Madison County in the 19th century: William Dexter of Stockbridge, NY, Horace Dexter Stockbridge, NY, L. & J. Frisbie of Chittenango, NY, and Carter & Weller of Stockbridge, NY. Each clock sharing design characteristics influenced by the American Empire style that had been growing in popularity through the 1830s. They are all meticulously crafted with elegant detail and color.
Russ Oechsle is a long-time researcher and collector of Upstate New York clocks and clock makers. His first articles on Madison County clocks appeared in the early 1980s in the Madison County Heritage. Oechsle was the co-author of the 2003 National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors book “An Empire in Time – Clocks and Clock Makers of Upstate New York,” and has written articles for numerous presentations to local and national interest groups and historical societies. He was once a Board Member of the Madison County Historical Society and previously donated to the Historical Society in the past. The Samuel W. Chubbock tall clock that stands in the Dining Room of Cottage Lawn was another donation by Russ only a few years ago. He had also provided the Historical Society with 21 rare early American shelf clocks for a temporary exhibit back in 2021 held throughout the rooms at the Cottage Lawn.
The Madison County Historical Society is absolutely thrilled to accept these generous donations from Russ Oechsle. All 4 of these new donations will be catalogued, accessioned, and put on display for visitors to admire alongside his previous Chubbock tall clock. The clocks will be displayed throughout the first floor of the Higgenbotham House with informational display cards about the Clocks and their makers and an image of the inside.
Want to learn more about these beautifully crafted clocks? Book a tour and come check them out yourself!
Edmonia Lewis Exhibit
The Madison County Historical Society has many historically significant items in its collection and on display. One of which happens to be a small marble sculpture that had once been overlooked. It was not until research was conducted that the Historical Society discovered the importance and significance of the sculpture and its artist.
The Madison County Historical Society received the sculpture in September of 1938 as a donation. It was catalogued then as a set of clasped hands sculpted in marble by a former slave who had lived on Gerrit Smith’s estate in Peterboro, New York. In 2018, the Historical Society found that the sculpture was not created by a former slave, but by Edmonia Lewis. She was a famous American artist who did not receive recognition and was largely overlooked at the time. In 1872, Edmonia Lewis sculpted the hands of Gerrit Smith and his wife Anna Smith. The marble sculpture in the Historical Society’s possession was identified through Gerrit Smith’s diary entries. Edmonia Smith was a well-educated young black woman of Indigenous descent who broke many boundaries in her time. She had traveled to Rome, Italy in 1866 to further her studies in art and continued to revisit the city frequently throughout her life. Much of her art had been inspired by the lives of Civil War heroes and abolitionists such as the clasped hands for Gerrit Smith.
We are extremely excited for the future of this sculpture as it will be loaned out to the Peabody Essex Museum for their exhibit that will feature the life of Edmonia Lewis. The exhibit, “Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone” is co-organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. The Exhibit will include art and objects of Edmonia Lewis’s life and work to tell the story of this amazing late 1800s American artist. The Historical Society will be loaning out the “Clasped Hands of Gerrit and Anna Smith” for a full year long journey in this extraordinary exhibition. It is scheduled to leave in the beginning of January and will return in late 2027.
Book a tour at MCHS to schedule a visit and learn more about the sculpture before it embarks on its educational journey. Visit the Historical Society to see it yourself!
