The Bell, Groveville United Methodist Church

This article is about the bell in the steeple or belfry of the Groveville United Methodist Church and appeared in The Hamilton Observer in 1987. This celebrates the 100th anniversary of the bell. That would make the bell 121 years old this year and it is still rang every Sunday.

The bell, manufactured by the Cincinnati Bell Foundry Company, is one of several companies manufacturing bells in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I remember as a child you were never allowed to touch the bell rope, let alone ring the bell, if you were it was with supervision and a great honor. Growing up, my father was very active in the church, I remember him coming home from church and saying that someone had pulled the rope to hard and the bell was stuck upside down, he would change from his suit to his old clothes and head back to the church to climb into the belfry to “right” the bell. I remember that one of my Dad’s chief complaints of having to climb into the Belfry was the large accumulation of pigeon “Exhaust” that had accumulated around the bell. This still happens to the bell today and not that long ago someone had to climb into the belfry and “right” the bell.

I remember my father, Ken Lippincott, along with Pete Taylor, Cy Atkins, and Ed Shelton making a weekend project of cleaning and repairing the inside of the belfry. I was just a kid and only allowed to watch, not help, this really didn’t bother me and I really did not want to help. I do remember the odor of what they shoveled out was very acrid, kind of what I remember from my grandfather’s chicken coup. They fastened “Chicken Wire” around the inside to keep the pigeons out, since then new heavier duty wire fencing has been installed, that’s progress.

As a child growing up in Groveville, it seem that every one of the men were hunters, this meant that most of the men had Hound Dogs. These dogs were kept in the back yards, in either pens or tethered to dog houses. On Sunday Mornings when the bell was rang to announce the start of church all of the dogs of Groveville would howl in unison. They would not stop howling until the ringing stopped, it was a beautiful choir.

Still today the children of the church get great joy from being allowed to pull the rope and ring the bell. I think they enjoy that if the child is small enough the bell on its return will lift them off the floor, what ever it is it always puts a smile on their face.