Old Bell - New Home

The bell pictured here is the bell that use to hang in the bell tower of the old Central School on 9th Street. Later on that building became McDonald School after the high school was built on Center Street. Built in the mid-1870s, Central School was so named because it was the first school building in Wellsville that had eight grades of elementary school and a high school all in one location. In the 1950s that building was razed and replaced with the structure that sits there today. When the new McDonald School was built this bell was place on a cement pad in the school's front yard and sat there until the Wellsville School Board sold the building last year. Part of that transaction included donating the historic bell to Wellsville's Historical Society.

The bell was delivered to the Society's River Museum this past spring. It has been sitting in the yard until today. A few weeks ago members of the Historical Society hand mixed a half dozen or so bags of cement to make a new pad for the bell to rest on. As you see so often in the ville with neighbor helping neighbor, Greg Thrasher, owner of Jim's Service, stopped by the museum with one of his wreckers to lift the bell and set it in place. With Historical Society President "Brassy" Beresford & member Tom Davidson supervising Thrasher hooked up the nearly 2,000 pound bell and set it in place in about 10 minutes.

The next time you're over around the River Museum check it out. The wheel mounted on the wall behind the bell was part of the original assembly in the old bell tower. The bell was cast in Pittsburgh over 130 years ago. It's part of Wellsville's educational history that has been preserved and prominently displayed for generations to come. I remember the old Central School building but never recall hearing the bell rung until today. With the help of a hammer Tom Davidson gave it one last ring before it was lowered to the pad. You don't often hear that rich deep tone ringing out in today's times. They just don't make bells like that anymore.

It was all made possible by neighbor helping neighbor. Special thanks go out to the Wellsville BOE, the Logans, the Historical Society and Greg Thrasher for making it all possible.

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