Table of Contents
Bell
The target of mischief and loathing, the chapel bell was rung throughout the day to keep time and order on Trinity's campus. When there was no longer a bell on campus, students quickly realized the loss of a boon.
Old Campus Bell
The old campus bell was cast in Hartford in 1827, possibly at Hartford Iron Foundry (later Woodruff & Beach), 1) and was hung in the Chapel belfry. However, the earliest mention of a bell on campus is from quite a few years earlier in the 1824 Catalogue, which stipulates that students would be charged $2 per term for “for sweeping rooms, ringing the Bell, fuel for recitation rooms, printing, and other incidental expenses.”
By 1868, it was already known as the “old bell.” Throughout its years on the old campus, the bell was rung by staff member James Williams. After Williams, Benjamin Franklin Anderson took over bell-ringing duties.
The bell was rung as early as 5:30 a.m. to rouse students to recitation, morning prayers, meals, and classes, then again throughout the day until evening prayers, originally at 5:30 p.m. Their “musical neighbor” would “toll ceaselessly,” 2) and the bell served as the authority to when and where students must be: “It does seem as though that College bell rung every five minutes, and as the class assembles many remark that 'Jim' is 'half-a-minute too fast.'” 3) Even as the College schedule relaxed and mornings began later, students felt like they had little time for themselves or studying before it rang again. As a result, students frequently tried to think up ways to “silence” the bell, often sneaking into the belfry late at night to tamper with it. Williams, many times coming upon the bell early in the morning, would improvise with a hand-bell or hammer in response.
In 1869, students were excited by the prospect of new buildings on campus, as well as the possibility of getting rid of the bell: “When the plans for the erection of Trinity's new Chapel shall have been matured (and may this happy event soon occur),” students wrote, they hoped “the tower of the gothic pile will be adorned with a clock whose time will be recognized by many coming generations of students as the standard time of the college.” 4) However, within three years the campus land was sold to the City of Hartford, and plans were made to move the campus to Summit Street.
During their final year on the old campus, student misbehavior was out of control, and the bell was a popular target for pranks and defacement. In March 1878, freshmen filled the bell with plaster and nails so that it could no longer be rung, “and to keep off prying hands, stuck up a notice to this effect – 'if you touch this bell, you'll be blown to Hell!!'” Apparently, this terrified janitorial staff Benjamin Franklin Anderson and Adolphus Hall, and “the faculty refused to clean the bell,” resulting in “a great inconvenience” as students were now no longer able to tell time. President Thomas Pynchon told Anderson and Hall to search for evidence of who filled the bell, and gypsum was found in Arthur Burroughs' room. He was promptly “shipped” (expelled). 5)
There are differing accounts as to whether the bell was cleaned out and used again. In May, according to the Trinity Tablet, the “much afflicted and 'silenced' bell” moved to the new campus, presumably to “be made ready next year to call us to our duties as it has done so often in the old buildings.” However, it appears that this did not occur, and students got their long-desired wish. One account details that faculty and administrators concealed the bell on the new campus “in an angle of the foundation walls, and there, securely as was thought, closed in with brick and stone,” but the location was discovered and students “at midnight's dread hour…bore the treasure to the nearest hiding place, an inglorious ash heap,” 6) presumably in preparation for some monumental prank that never occurred. In October 1881, students wrote in to the Tablet to suggest “the old custom of ringing a bell for morning and evening service and for recitations be revived” as “the bell would be a great benefit and prevent any mistakes being made as to the time of day.” It seems that after a time, the old bell had already been lost and forgotten.
In early 1883, the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut purchased the bell, and the Board of Trustees of Trinity College presented it to Sanford Jackson Horton, Class of 1843 and head of school at the Academy. 7) Besides the connection with Horton, Cheshire Academy had been the school which Bishop Samuel Seabury originally intended to transform into an Episcopal College. The Academy sent the bell to the Meneely Foundry to be recast before being mounted in the tower of Bowden Hall, where it presumably remains today. 8)
1921 Bell
With the turn of the century, students continued to feel the loss of the familiar bell toll. In 1906, they wrote that “recently there has been a large amount of campus talk concerning the need of a college bell to ring.” It was both a utilitarian and nostalgic need. In 1911, they wrote:
There have appeared in the columns of this paper, in years past, articles, from time to time, which promulgated the procuring of a certain object, one which would be appreciated by all in proportion as it was needed, and which would reinstate one of, what we believe to be, the very oldest and best customs or traditions in the history of the college. A chapel bell! What magic there is in the words. They bring to us, not necessarily a warning of the hour, but the memories of all that is past, and perhaps of what is to come. The thought of those who have gone before us, of history in the making, of joys and sorrows, of victories and defeats - all which has moulded those who our Alma Mater has protected and fostered - it rises up and acclaims the fact - the vacancy is still unfilled - we have no chapel bell. 9)
In 1921, President Remsen Ogilby, formerly a St. Paul's School headmaster, wrote to his good friend, St. Paul's School rector Reverend Sam Drury, that he was “a little worried by the way the students dropped in, some a little late” to chapel services. 10) The discussion of tardiness led the two friends to decide that Trinity needed a chapel bell.
Aside from serving a practical need, the bell would symbolize a fond relationship and long history between the two schools, as many St. Paul's students attended Trinity and in return, Trinity graduates went on to serve as faculty or headmasters at St. Paul's. In 1921, Trinity had 104 St. Paul's School graduates among its living alumni, and 11 deceased alumni; and St. Paul's had five Trinity graduates on its faculty, and 22 Trinity graduates who had served as masters.
Drury was happy to assist, stating: “Let me go forward about the bell. I hope and believe that St. Paul's School and the many people who love you here, and admire your work, will want to install a bell in your Chapel tower.” At first, the possibility was raised to gift Trinity “one of the chiming four from the tower of St. Paul's Chapel,” but it was decided that a new, 250-pound bell (which Ogilby described as “small…with a sweet and merry tone”) would be cast at Meneely Bell Company in Troy, N.Y. with a custom inscription. The friends made plans for the bell to arrive in time for Trinity's 98th Charter Day on May 14, 1921.
The bell arrived in early May, to the delight of students. “Since Trinity has no bell tower, the bell will be hung from a beam over the door of the college chapel in the north section of Seabury Hall,” students wrote. “The bell, it is felt by the college authorities and undergraduates, will be a big asset to Trinity, inasmuch as the bell over the chapel door will greatly enhance the Gothic architecture of the college, and will make the resemblance between Trinity and the cultural institutions of England even more striking. There is already talk of making arrangements to ring the bell after the victories of the Trinity teams.” The bell was “hung on the…roof, midway between Seabury and Northam” 11) and rung for the first time on Charter Day.
For ten years, the 1921 bell tolled class periods and celebrated athletic victories. When the College Chapel was completed in 1931, the 30-bell Plumb Carillon replaced the singular bell, which remained mounted on the roof between Seabury and Northam Halls until 1952, when the new library was under construction. The 1921 bell was mounted into a niche on the north side of the building, facing the Chapel. Mr. Engley, the College librarian, stated that “the bell has an excellent tone, but few people now on campus have actually heard it ring.”
The bell remains on the North side of the library building today.
Sources
Charles Wright Freeland Scrapbook, Trinity College Archives, p. 55.
Remsen B. Ogilby Papers, Trinity College Archives, Box 9 Folder 95.
Early Church Bell Founders, December 30, 2022.
1794 Magazine (Fall 2019), p. 22.
Trinity Tripod, 05/03/1921.
Trinity Tripod, 02/24/1911.
Beckwith's Almanac, No. 38 (1885), p. 47.
Episcopal Academy Principal's Report (1883), The Archives of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, pp. 96-97.
The Meteor Episcopal Academy Yearbook (1883), The Archives of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, pp. 15-22.
The Hartford Courant, 03/09/1878.
Trinity Tablet, May 1869.
Trinity Tablet, December 1868.
Trinity College Catalogue (1824).