Bily Clocks

Bily Clocks Museum

Location: 323 South Main Street, Spillville, Iowa

https://www.bilyclocks.org/

This Museum does Charge for Admission, Visit for the Website Above for Pricing

Within the very same building Antonín Dvořák stayed in the summer of 1893 are the intricate hand-carved clocks of the Bily Brothers. Described by visitors of the museum as “alive,” the clocks each depict a moment in history, religion, and culture. Amongst the vast historical events the clocks capture is Dvořák’s summer excursion in Spillville. If you’re looking for a place to kill time, the Bily Clocks Museum is not the place to go, but if you’re looking for a place to both spend some time and keep track of it, as the Museum itself states, the Bily Clock Museum is the destination for you!

Born in the late 19th century, brothers Frank and Joseph Bily grew up on a farm between Ridgeway and Spillville, Iowa. It was at this location that the brothers began their craft despite their father, John Bily, reportedly scolding them for “wasting their time.” However, inspired by their neighbor who had gifted them a clock-making kit, the Bily brothers became even more serious in what used to be only a casual pastime, beginning in 1913 to spend their winters honing their carpentry skills and even making their own clock-building tools! Still, for the Bily brothers, farming always came first, and carpentry remained simply a hobby, a way to pass time once chores were finished or if it was the off-season. In the early days of their clockmaking, the Bily brothers began to garner local fame to the extent that their sister charged visitors interested in their work a dime. Interestingly, these dimes were never cashed in; instead, the brothers hid them under the floorboards of their home! Did the dimes help contain something that wasn’t supposed to leave?

The brothers’ decision to hide their dimes was not their only eccentricity. Frank and Joseph refused clockmaking commissions or requests even if payment was offered, and they never sold a single clock. In 1928, Henry Ford, who had traveled to see their clocks, offered them $1 million (that’s $17 million today!) for their American Pioneer History but was refused. The brothers seemed so determined not to part with their clocks that they considered burning them when they died. Fortunately, in 1946, the city officials from Spillville managed to convince the brothers to donate their collection to the city, but the brothers only did so on the condition that their clocks would never be sold, divided, or leave Spillville.

Frank and Joseph hand carved wooden clocks for 45 years, constructing a total number of 42. From 1913 to 1958, the brothers crafted elaborately faced clocks and intricately carved statues; some of their creations were even fully automated, hosting a number of figurines and music boxes that appear and play at the hour. The brothers often chopped their own wood to create the clocks although they also imported wood from numerous foreign countries, proving their creations to be worldly in not only their depictions but also their materials. However, while their creations may have been worldly, the brothers themselves were not, never venturing beyond 35 miles of their home. Perhaps Frank and Joseph were tethered to something in Spillville, unable to wander too far away, and this curse carried on to their clocks. Maybe their clocks serve as vessels to contain something the Bily Brothers were hiding. Whichever conspiracy you decide on, one thing is clear: those clocks can never leave Spillville.