For Whom The Bell Tolls

There is something about a bell that commands attention and admiration. Especially if that bell has inscribed upon it the venerable and historic year of 1865. Certainly, if that bell could speak out and reveal the experiences it has witnessed and the personalities it has known down through almost one hundred years it would make a thrilling story. But, in the plan of God, bells cannot speak (even though they have tongues). Their appointed task is to sound the “call of God” either to Church or to school.

The Bell which stands on a wooden cradle at the entrance to our modern parking lot on Oak Street has the year 1865 inscribed upon it. It is the original bell of the first St. Joseph’s Church. Down through the years it summoned thousands of people to the Temple of God, to offer up with the priest the august Sacrifice of the Mass. And lest we forget, it also served in the early years to summon the children to school work for we are told by Thomas E. Fitzgerald (parish historian) that a parish school was opened in the basement of the Church in 1865 and was taught by Brother Francis and a brilliant son of Erin, Bernard Timothy O’Flaherty. These two men exercised great influence over the minds and hearts of the first students at the school. ‘Tis said that Brother Francis was meek and gentle; B. T. O’Flaherty, however, was a horse of another color. He ruled (like the hedgemaster of the auld sod) with a keen mind, a sharp tongue, and a switch of discipline. We do not know how long these two fine teachers “held the reins” of teaching in their hands, but while they taught they laid a strong foundation for the school which was to take real form and shape in concrete in the year 1887.

Author unknown (1940)