Famed clock maker keeps Manistee ticking to this day KEN GRABOWSKI â– VENTURE STAFF WRITER When people think of famed Manistee clockmaker Nels Johnson, the natural tendency is to lift their gaze toward the skies. The reasoning for that thought process is most of Johnson's most famous work was done in clock towers high above the ground, located in churches and other buildings of note. It is a craft that not only amazed the people of his era from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, but still does to this day. One of the many interesting things about this immigrant who came to America from Denmark is although he lived in an era prior to the internet, television and many other sources of communication, his work became known well beyond the borders of Manistee County. Over the course of his life, he created 50 clock towers located around the world, yet lived a simple existence in Manistee until his death in 1914. An article that appeared the Aug. 12, 1948, edition of the Manistee News Advocate included comments made by the famed clock maker's daughter Kate Johnson Shanabrook, who lived Los Angeles, California, at the time. "My father built over 50 clock towers, some of which were distributed to cities around the world, "said Shanabrook. "Two were sent to Detroit, one in the Fort Street Union Depot and the other was in the old post office
The clock tower at the First Congregational Church in Manistee is one of the works of famed clock maker Nels Johnson and is still running and keeping good time 100 years later. Johnson and custom house. Others were sent to California, Milwaukee, Rochester, New York, Isabella Theburn College in Indiana and two in the British Isles." Johnson also constructed many smaller clocks over the years, but it was his clock towers that drew the greatest interest. Manistee County Historical Museum executive director Mark Fedder said the impression Johnson made on Manistee exists to this day in his work. "His work is known around the world and some of his works in Manistee are the First Congregational Chuch clock (located at 412 Fourth St.), Guardian Angels Church clock (located at 371 Fifth St.) and St. Joseph Church clock (located at 249 Sixth St.)," said Fedder. "They were all Nels Johnson clocks so he still is very well
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This photograph from 1892 shows the First Congregational church under construction and right before the clock tower was added to the front of the church that was created by Nels Johnson. known here in Manistee." Johnson also created the Arcadia Lutheran Church clock tower, located at 17191 Third St., Arcadia. Fedder said Johnson's brilliance extended beyond his knowledge of making clocks. "Simply put, he was a brilliant man and very unique individual," said Fedder. "He was a very unique
character in Manistee's history. He was a clock maker, businessman, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and was an all around brilliant person." Johnson lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, prior to coming to Manistee working first as a blacksmith and then later in a machine shop. It was in that machine shop that he honed skills that would