Any attempt to relate the making of wooden scientific instruments with the production of wooden clocks in New England has no conclusive result, yet there appears to be some relationship between the two. Wooden clocks were made as early as the 17th century in Germany and Holland, and they were known in England in the early 18th century. In the Colonies the wooden clock was first produced in Connecticut, and the earliest type was associated with Hartford County. This form was quite common in East Hartford in 1761, and its first production may have had some association with Ebenezer Parmele (1690-1777), since an association between Parmele and all of the earliest makers of wooden clocks can be traced.[74] Little is known about Parmele. His father was a cabinetmaker in Guilford, Connecticut, and Ebenezer practiced the same craft, in addition to being a boat builder. He was a man of means, held various town offices, and served as town treasurer. For a while he operated a cargo sloop on Long Island Sound. In 1726 he built the first tower clock in Connecticut for the Guilford meeting house. He was a versatile worker in wood, and it is believed that he served an apprenticeship in New York City with a Dutch clockmaker from 1705 to 1710, where he may have learned to make wooden clocks. This early type of wooden clock is associated with Benjamin Cheney (1725-1815), a clockmaker of East Hartford. The early or "Cheney" type of wooden clock was produced in Connecticut as late as 1812. A later form of the wooden movement began to appear about 1790, and was probably introduced by Gideon Roberts (1749-1813) of Bristol. Roberts had lived in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania before 1790, and it is conjectured that he became familiar with the wooden clocks produced by the German settlers of that region.[75]