Schuylkill Fishing Company
The Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, also known as the State in Schuylkill, was the first angling club in the Thirteen Colonies and remains the oldest verified continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world.
Peter Stretch Tall-case clock, circa 1740, at the State in Schuylkill.
Thomas Stretch was an American clockmaker and a founder and first governor of the Colony in Schuylkill, later known as the State in Schuylkill, or Schuylkill Fishing Company. In 1753, he erected the first clock at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a large clock dial and masonry clock case at the west end of the structure.
Thomas Stretch
Independence Hall in 1799, showing Stretch's giant clock on the far left
Stretch's clock on Independence Hall in Philadelphia, restored in 1973