Hugo, Longfellow, Tennyson, Housman, Poe, John Hersey, and Dorothy Sayers all wrote with great depth of feeling about the tintinnabulation of the bells. The sound of bells dominated a small community, and reverberated way out into the countryside. If your town wasn’t on the railroad, and you didn’t have a waterfall, a grist mill, or a boiler factory, the bell was probably the loudest sound you ever heard.
Bells once served to sound alarms, or to mark specific times, such as church services or the opening of school. When reliable clocks and watches became widespread, most bells became superfluous apart from their nostalgia value. As towers and steeples needed expensive repairs or maintenance, the bells… which might weigh half a ton – were often removed, and sometimes the towers along with them. Some bells were replaced with chimes or carillons.
What then? What do you do with a weighty, bulky bell, purchased at great sacrifice and once the focus of great community pride? Some were passed on to other institutions, and some went for scrap, especially during World War II. Others were preserved, and in many cases fondly incorporated into newer facilities, now “on exhibit” rather than pealing across the community.
Bells are especially associated with churches, schools, and fire stations. But I’m only aware of two school bells here in Steuben County. The old Hammondsport Academy bell is now at Curtiss Museum. (Otto Kohl bought the Academy as a place to create the Museum… presumably the bell came with the belfry.) The old Haverling bell stands a few rods away from its former location; it’s now in front of the one-room Babcock Hollow School at Steuben County Fairgrounds in Bath.
Besides sounding alarms, the wild bells also rang out for joyous events. Outside Bath Fire Hall is the old village fire bell. On Armistice Day in 1918, besides pealing out the good news of peace and victory, the fire company raised $115 for Red Cross by charging celebrators a quarter apiece to ring the bell.
There’s also a bell at Cohocton Fire Department (outside), and one at Canisteo Fire Department (inside).
The old Addison Town Hall bell has had some hard times, but still stands where it started out, albeit at a lower altitude. Hal Sisson writes, “Installed around 1909 in the newly constructed ‘City Hall,’ the bell was donated by businessman George True. It weighs 700 lbs. and is cast iron. It was removed for safety reasons in the late 60’s or early 70’s, fortunately before the building’s demise by fire in the 1990’s. When the duties of the bell were superseded by an electric siren a couple of entrepreneurial locals decided they were going to make a financial killing cutting up the bell for scrap during World War II. Dragging the heavy cylinders of oxygen and acetylene up the seven stories proved pointless. The heat generated by the torch was not enough to cut through the 3-inch-thick metal; it could only cut about a half inch. Fortunately the bell was kept in various safe places until a few years ago a friend and I built a new cupola in the park at the five corners on Main Street.”
The bell at the former Jasper Methodist Church has migrated a few miles and come to rest outside West Jasper Wesleyan Church, while Haskinville Wesleyan has moved its own bell from the steeple to the grounds. St. Mary Catholic Church in Rexville preserves its old bell outside its new building (1984), as does Bath Centenary Methodist outside ITS new building (1978). Likewise we can find the old Avoca Baptist bell (1853, weighing in at over 800 pounds) outside Avoca First Baptist (1977).
The bell outside Avoca Methodist Church (1997) has clearly seem better days. The bell crashed to earth when the old building burned in 1996, right after fire fighters had backed out, concluding that nothing could be done to save the structure. The bell would never ring again, but its superb timing was certainly worth a celebration!
(Did we miss any “on exhibit” bells? Please let us know!)