CROSSVILLE —
Most people know of Paul Revere’s famous ride; they knew he was a silversmith and an engraver of note…but Bells? Paul Revere’s bell making career was launched to a certain extent by chance. In 1792, the bell in the Second Church in Boston was cracked. Paul Revere – who was always willing to undertake a new challenge – offered to cast the bell even though he knew nothing about bell casting, an art quite different from anything he did in his foundry. He consulted Aaron Hobart, a bell maker, and was taught how to mold and cast his first bell. On July 30, the Pleasant Hill Academy Revere bell was rededicated in its latest home, a specially constructed gazebo designed by J. Frank Meisamer and Andrew Perry and placed on the grounds of the Pioneer Hall Museum in Pleasant Hill. The bell “told about its journey” through the words of Pat Robbennolt to the assembled gathering. In between each paragraph, the audience intoned, “Ring on dear bell.” “Paul Revere and Sons cast me in white bronze from copper alloy. Their foundry on the tip of North Boston Harbor was the first to create bells like me in this new land. Their first bell cast was in 1792. I date from 1817. I am Number 199. My first move was to North Church (Congregational) in Marblehead, MA. I rang from the Franklin Street building from 1817 until 1824. I moved to their new stone church built in 1824. They said I had a ‘peculiar’ tone’. Some said I was cracked. Over the years, my frame sprung. I rubbed against the wood. My tone deadened. I was loved. But I was replaced.” “I was taken down in 1886 when North Church in Marblehead was renovated. James H. Gregory, a big man with a white beard, wanted my life to go on. He was a farmer and seed grower. Burbank potatoes, Hubbard squash, corn, and tomatoes were among seeds he sold throughout New England. He wanted to sow seeds of education in the Congregational mission schools in the south. He sent thousands of books to those schools. He bought me and moved me to Pleasant Hill Academy. I was lovingly placed in the belfry of the Academy Building when it was built in 1887. For more than thirty years I called students to classes and folks to worship. My sound traveled from Mayland to Clifty. Folks set their watches by my sound; my tolling announced fire or need.” “But I cracked. A piece fell out. I came down again in 1918. I moved to an old shop. In 1921 Dodge Hall burned. I was placed on that site as a memorial to Gordon Roberts who died in the fire. I rang on in only the memories of students. The Academy Building, with the bell that replaced me, was razed in 1953. A new future awaited me. A foundry working with Revere bells offered two new bells for the only one of me. My Academy and Church family knew I belong here. In 1959 when Pleasant Hill Community Church built a new building, I moved to hang proudly in its tower with another bell. Music from the tower replaced my sound.” “I came to earth again on February 16, 2011. In Pleasant Hill Community Church United Church of Christ, major renovation is taking place. I have moved again. I have returned to the grounds of the Academy I love. Students, worshippers, children and other visitors will see me, pausing to ponder my life. Though I will remain silent, I will not be forgotten by any who heard my voice in earlier days, nor those who celebrate my story today.” (Appreciation to Pat Robbennolt for permission to use her words.) After a prayer of dedication by Pastor Tom Warren, the bell did indeed peal three more times, rung by Marvin Albright. Jeanne Chappell Kingsbury, President of the Pleasant Hill Historical Association dedicated the gazebo housing the bell with these words, “What an awesome sound! A sound not one of us ever expected to hear. It’s as if “our bell” is saying “thank you” for it’s new home here is this beautiful garden, which, at one time, was the tennis court of the campus. With thanks to so many people for the help and guidance of this project, we are deeply grateful. I dedicate this gazebo to the hundreds of students, church members and townspeople who were called to congregate. I thank the members of the Pleasant Hill Community Church for allowing the bell to return within just a few steps of it’s first home in this new community. I invite you to come and “set a spell” on the benches in the gazebo and think about an experience this bell brings to mind.”
Source: Crossville Chronicle
