The Morning of June 16

First Stop

McKendree College

Lebanon Illinois

 

                                             

                                 Unloading the buses at McKendree College                                  McKendree College Bothwell Chapel

 

 

                                             

                        Tim Harrison, of McKendree College, fills in Family                       Tim Harrison fills in Family members on History of

                        Members of the history of the College                                                   Talks about the David Caughlan Bell

 

                                                                                              Family member, Craig Caughlan,

                                                                                              Was one of many who climbed to the

                                                                                              Bell tower to view the bell

 

                                                                               Mary Kelley (Caughlan), great granddaughter

                                                                               of Bell maker David Caughlan, with husband Bob Kelly looking on,

                                                                               Talks to a reporter Alisa Tang of the Belleview newspaper

                                                                                                           (See Article Below)

 

“Church bells unite family”

3 generations come together for first time

by Alisa Tang

 

 

LEBANON – Despite her broken arm, 70-year-old Mary Caughlan Kelley, with the help of several relatives, climbed a vertical ladder into the Bothwell Chapel spire.

There she ran her fingers across the church bell cast by her great-grandfather, David Caughlan, whom she has extensively researched for 20 years.

When Kelley climbed down from the steeple, just a few minutes before the 11 a. m. ringing, she was elated.

 

‘It was worth it,’ said the Virginia resident.  ‘I’m very emotional.  I’ve got tears in my ears.’

Kelley and about 60 descendants of David Caughlan and his two brothers gathered in the metro-east this weekend to see the bells he cast and the St. Louis grave site of his mother, Sarah Childers Caughlan, born 200 years ago this month.  Three generations of Caughlans came from all over the United States, and even Mexico, for the family’s first gathering.

 

They stopped Saturday morning at McKendree College’s Bothwell Chapel to pay homage to one of the bells cast by the David Caughlan Foundry in St. Louis.  They also visited Alton’s Metropolitan Methodist Church and Granite City’s Niedringhaus United Methodist Church, each of which also has a David Caughlan bell.

 

       Kelley, the bell expert of the Caughlan clan, does not know how many bells her great-grandfather made, but she has documented 17 so far.

 

       Brothers Bill and Brian Patrick Caughlan, of Philadelphia and Granite City respectively, helped make the Caughlan Clan gathering happen.  They have worked on the genealogy of Sarah Childers Caughlan descendants for 10 years.”

 

 

 

Click here to see our next stop in Alton Illinois

Last modified on Monday, December 16, 2002