Reverend Thomas B. Montanya was born in New York City, and served as a chaplain during the War of 1812. He married Ann Edmunds of New York. Thomas and Ann's child, Amy Hart Montanya, married Stephen Yerkes of Warminster, Pennsylvania on January 13, 1831. After the death of Thomas, Ann moved to the Yerkes Family homestead at the corners of Street Road and Jacksonville Road, where she purportedly brought the tall case clock. According to the last owner in the Yerkes line, Amy Yerkes, "The clock stood in the beautiful hall where for many years it kept honest time."