THE AMAZING WALLACE F. JAKA

Wallace Franklin Jaka had an interesting past.  It seems that everywhere he worked, he made some pretty fantastic claims as to his experience, his ancestry, and his father's and grandfather's clock careers.

In the Jan. 1, 1956 Tribune article below, "Putting a television screen atop the Empire State Building" the "veteran watchmaker turned into a combination watchmaker-steeplejack not by choice" was the nature of his business.  He was "the man who snarled Chicago traffic when he sat astride one of the hands of the huge Wrigley Building clock..." 

WALLACE JAKA NATIONWIDE

He appears to have spent some time in Chicago, as well as Wisconsin.

In Aug. 1951, Wallace converted the tower clock at Iron River City Hall, MI., to electric motor drive.  Only here he is Walter Jaka of Ottawa IL.   This is possibly the reporter's error because it goes on to say, "It was built by his grandfather, Wallace Jaka in 1913 and installed by his father, Walter, in 1914.

Local newspapers from 1913 to 1914 make frequent mention their new City Hall of 1914, but no reference is made to the clock installation.

"Jaka, the owner of the Tower Clock Co. of Ottawa, claimed it was the only company in the world to stock parts for tower clocks."  Jaka was quoted as saying his grandfather made the clock and his father installed it on Dec. 20, 1912, the first day the bell tolled.  The same basic story he told in Iron River, MI.

If Wallace's grandfather built the Seth Thomas clock, he would have had to have been in Thomaston, CT in 1912, where Seth Thomas clocks were made.

Issues of "The Blade" aren't online, but a few local newspapers cover events in Fairbury; none mention anything about Fairbury's town clock other than this:

WALLACE THE STEEPLEJACK

Here Wallace is referred to as "Walter" again.  Maybe he told the story of his father and grandfather and confused the reporter.
 

About the "NO's" - The statue on the Wisconsin State Capitol dome is named "WISCONSIN" not "MISS FORWARD".  "WISCONSIN" IS the work of Daniel Chester French.

The woman on top of the Capitol dome is named Wisconsin, though she’s often misidentified as Miss Forward. Perhaps that’s because, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, she was “placed on the Capitol dome as a symbol of the state’s motto, ‘Forward’” and to represent “the spirit of Wisconsin progress.” She is the creation of Daniel Chester French, the sculptor perhaps best known for his massive Abraham Lincoln statue for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She wears a helmet topped with the state animal — the mighty badger — and holds a globe with an eagle on it. Standing more than 15 feet and weighing more than three tons, the statue in 1914 cost $20,325.
 

Photo courtesy of  "Will the Real Miss Forward, Please Stand Up, at Isthmus.com

The statue at the State Street corner of the Capitol Square is also often misidentified as Miss Forward. "Forward" would be more accurate, but most accurate is this: It’s a replica of the original Forward, which now resides in the Wisconsin Historical Society. The original was created by Wisconsin sculptor Jean Pond Miner, who made it for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Wisconsin weather got the best of it by the 1990s, so a replica was made and installed at the State Street entrance.   From "Will the Real Miss Forward, Please Stand Up, at Isthmus.com where you can read the rest of the article.

WALLACE JAKA REGILDS STATUE ATOP STATE CAPITOL IN MADISON, WISCONSIN

Image from the University of Wisconsin Library, PDF of the history of the State Capitol maintenance and restoration.

Here, Wallace says he started as a steeplejack when he was 15 in 1915, he is seventh generation of family to work in tower clock business.  He has a 29 year old son named Bud who is also in the business, and a 27 year old daughter named Peggy.*  Three of four grandsons are planning to be steeplejacks.   His ancestor left Switzerland in 1608 and started the tradition of the Jaka Tower Clock Co. of Milwaukee and now services almost all of the 7,318 tower clocks in N. America.  He has worked in St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Big Ben in London, and installed a radar screen on the top of the Empire State building.  He also worked on the clock on the Wrigley building in Chicago.

*So "Bud" would have been born in 1927 or 1928 and Peggy born in 1929 or 1930.

     
Image of Capitol from the University of Wisconsin Library, PDF of the history of the State Capitol maintenance and restoration.

By the way, there are no lions on the State Capitol of St. Paul, Minnesota.  A history of the building shows the sculpture is of horses and was re-gilded in gold in a massive 1994-95 restoration project.  They stand at the base of the dome on a large platform, not on top of the dome.

CAN ALL OF WALLACE'S CLAIMS BE TRUE? Did he really invent the mechanism (it's an electric motor) he was using to convert clocks?  Who was Wallace's father and grandfather?  Was he a descendant of Seth Thomas?   Were his ancestors really from Switzerland?  Many more articles of his work, claims, and the secret past of Wallace F. Jaka are revealed on this separate page.  (Coming soon.)