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The bell for the First Congregational Church in Wilton was cast in 1869, the heydey of new church bells for New England.

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The church bell at the First Congregational Church in Wilton is engraved AD.1869. Repairs needed to the rope which rings the bell each week led to the discovery. Submitted photo

WILTON — Issues with the rope used to ring the bell at the First Congregational Church have led to some interesting discoveries.

The church bell is rung each Sunday morning before services start at 9:30 a.m. In August church members Holly Windle and Richard Ramos took it upon themselves to climb up to the bell tower after there were issues with ringing the bell.

Two ladders lead to the belfry, with a small, rickety platform in between, Windle recently said. “There’s a large room with a few interesting storage items [old pews, large architectural finials, old chicken BBQ sign] as well as plastic sheeting and pans for potential roof leaks,” she noted. “Lots of ancient bat droppings, particularly on the two ladders.

“The inscription around the top of the bell sure sent me off on a Google search. Looks as if this was cast in the heyday of new church bells for New England. The bell is inscribed as having been made by Wm Blake & Co, formerly H. N. Hooper of Boston, A.D. 1869.”

Richard Ramos climbs a ladder in the belfry of the First Congregational Church in Wilton. Repairs were needed on the rope used to ring the church bell each week. Submitted photo

According to Wikipedia, Hooper was an apprentice of Paul Revere in Revere’s Boston foundry. However, according to an article on the Paul Revere Foundry, the foundry was operated by Revere’s grandson, Paul Revere III for whom William Blake served as an apprentice, with Hooper serving as an apprentice for both of them.

Hooper later bought the foundry and established Henry N. Hooper & Co., probably best known as a manufacturer of fine decorative lighting fixtures, but also well known for his highly prized bells and chimes dating from 1838, the Wikipedia item notes. Hooper’s many clients included the City of San Francisco fire department and the Monhegan, ME, lighthouse, whose bell, now on display at the Monhegan Museum, became the subject of the Jamie Wyeth painting, “Bronze Age”, the article continued.Advertisement

Blake, Hooper’s partner, continued to operate the foundry starting in 1868, supplying bells to churches in New England, to Amherst College, and to New York’s City Hall, the Wikipedia article notes.

According to an article on the history of bells at Verdin.com, “In 1761, Col. Aaron Hobart, Abington, Massachusetts, was the first, or one of the first, to cast meeting-house bells in this country. At some point, Paul Revere came to speak to Hobart who taught Revere how to create bell molds. Hobart’s son returned with Revere to Boston to apprentice with him. After the Revolutionary War, Revere started his own bell foundry in 1792, casting bells for many years. His sons, Joseph and Paul, Jr., worked with their father in casting bells. In 1817, Revere cast his great bell, with a weight over 2-1/2 tons. The bell is still in the tower of King’s Chapel in Boston and still rings today. Revere cast over 400 bells between 1792 and 1828.

Holly Windle stands beside the bell in the belfry of the First Congregational Church in Wilton. While fixing the rope used to ring the bell, she and her partner Richard Ramos discovered the bell was cast in 1869 at a foundry in Massachusetts. Submitted photo

The bell at the First Congregational Church in Wilton is seen in August. Submitted photo

“Many years ago, cast bells were never tuned. When a foundry cast a bell, they made a bell that was a certain weight, a certain size, a certain diameter, a certain thickness and that bell would be a specific note. By today’s standards, when a bell is cast, metal is removed out of the bell in order to be able to tune the bell properly.”

“Nice view of the ancient construction, with large wooden pegs,” Windle said of the belfry. “We had to squeeze through the opening to the small tower where there is little room to maneuver.”

“The website for our church says that the roof collapsed under the weight of snow in March 1869, which prompted the construction of a new church, completed a year later. That tallies with the idea that the bell was made for that new church!”

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