Theresa, Dec. 4. -- For the past few weeks church organizations in need of a bell have been paying regular visits to Redwood village where back of the new building of the Redwood fire department, stands a big bell.

“That old bell,” said Carl Bicklehaupt, Redwood, a member of the pioneer fire department of the village, “came from Canton and a visit with Everette Ferguson, Redwood, will bring you the complete history for his father was the sexton of the Canton church and used to ring that bell.”

When I was a boy,” said Ferguson, “my father was the sexton of what was known as the Brick Methodist Episcopal church in Canton. I remember how he had a little shutter that opened to the outdoors, and this he would open on a Sunday morning when he started to ring the bell. It was a custom there for the different churches to ring in rotation. Father would ring twice on his bell, and listen while the other churches would, in turn, do the same. Some say the brick church was built in the 1820’s but I have no positive knowledge of the dates. In the 1890’s I think the church was to be razed and another built. Just why, I don‘t know, but the big bell was offered for sale. And when I say a big bell, I mean all of that.

“Redwood haybuyers had a haypress working in the Canton region at that time and they brought the word back that the bell was for sale. The old Redwood fire department wanted a fire alarm so they bought the bell, got it home with some effort and erected a tower on the Holmes mill, towards Butterfield lake, and there hung the bell. It did call people to fires and served well its purpose until the new fire house was erected when a siren was installed and the bell was not needed.

“The bell was getting too heavy for the aging support in the mill and so it was just cut loose and pushed off and permitted to fall to the ground. It was moved up back of the present fire department building and there it stands today. But I have heard my father, James Fergurson (sic), ring that bell when a boy. I was born in 1891, so the bell must have been in use there until well towards the 1900’s.”

The Baptist church did have a bell, a very fine one, with an attractive musical tone. That bell was cast in 1860, according to the date cast in the bell, and was a proud addition to the Baptist church in Redwood. Then, the church building was sold. But a Redwood party going to the state of Connecticut, remembered the bell and when a member of her family had an active part with a boys’ camp in that state, she told them of the bell. This camp wanted a bell for calls to meals, rising, taps and other affairs. So they bought the bell. It now is more active than ever.

When the new Methohdist church at Lorraine wanted a bell they took a look at the Redwood firemen’s bell and, hearing that it weighed over a ton, shook their heads. The Methodist church at Belleville just last week wanted a bell and started off to try and find one. Rev. Miles Hutchinson, pastor there, once principal of the Redwood school, went, with his laymen on an inspection trip to see the bell. But the bell seems pretty heavy, they say. Those who know say that this bell was an unusual alloy, different from bells of today. The Redwood fire department would cooperate with any church that wanted the bell, for they feel the bell is not doing any good in its present state. Some have suggested that the big bell be set bottom up and used in the village as a water basin for horses. But it’s quite a task to find horses these days in sufficient numbers to make use of such a good-will venture. So the bell of pioneer days in another country, stands idle with just memories of the faithful workers of a former generation in the county seat of St. Lawrence county.