Metuchen Edison History Features

Recollections of

Boyhood Days

In Old Metuchen

By

David Trumbull Marshall

Published by The Case Publishing Co., Flushing NY 1930

(Second Edition)- (c) 1930

Ringing A Church Bell.

When I was a boy it was my job to ring the bell of the old Presbyterian Church at Metuchen.

This bell weighs 1,500 pounds.

Not much of a bell compared to the large 78,400 pound bell in the Riverside Church in New York, but to me as a boy the old bell loomed pretty large as I climbed into the belfry to oil the wheel.

A swinging church bell is mounted on a framework to which is attached a large wheel over which is passed the rope which the bellringer pulls.

The axle on which the bell turns is placed at the centre of gravity of the bell, so that one does not have to exert much power to swing the bell. The first thing to do before ringing is to pull down on the rope until the bell turns up-side-down.

For a boy weighing about 130 pounds this is not easy.

When the bell was up-side-down I used to give the rope a little jerk to start the bell down. The custom had been for many years to ring four strokes, then wait one minute and then four more.

After the fourth stroke I had to jump on the rope and bring the bell to the up-side-down ready for the next four strokes.

A bell which is swung when rung sounds much sweeter and better because the to-and-fro motion gives a cadence which one does not get when the bell is simply struck with a hammer.

The bell was tolled, as for funerals, by pulling down on another rope which was attached to a heavy hammer fixed to a bent crank-arm below the bell.

The old Presbyterian bell had a very sweet, low tone.

It cracked in 1890 and had to be sent to Troy to be re-cast.

It seems to me that it does not sound as sweetly as it did before being re-cast.

It was part of the agreement with the townspeople who contributed to the purchasing of the bell that the bell should be rung for fires.

In those days there was no town water supply. The only water was from wells and cisterns.

The fire apparatus consisted of a hook and ladder truck supplied with ladders and leather buckets.

There was a long, double rope attached to the truck and hand ropes on the sides.

When the Presbyterian bell rang all the rag tag and bob tail of the whole village turned out to the fire. Some few helped with the truck, if it happened along as they were on their way.

Frank Smith and Nate Robins and Jack Keenan and Gus Forat, and I don't remember how many more constituted the regular volunteer firemen.

Frank Smith was the village barber.

He would have to leave a man half shaved and run when the bell rang.

I remember one time when the whole fire department was telling the rest of the people how they did it, this man, who had half of a full beard shaved off, came up to Frank and asked when he would be ready to go on with the shave.

We lived at the Parsonage, about a block from the Church.

The key of the church was kept at our house.

One night about two o'clock our door bell rang.

My brother Will answered the bell.

A very drunken man asked for the key for he wished to ring the bell.

My brother asked the location of the fire.

The man answered "Menlo Park."

Will said, "Menlo Park? There is no use ringing the bell for a fire way off there at this time of night."

The drunken man leaned his back against a maple tree and looking up at Will he said, "Ain't Menlo Park worth saving?"

Imagine the Metuchen fire department dragging their apparatus at two o'clock in the morning over two miles of muddy roads.

The picture on page 170 will give some idea of what would happen after they got there.

I can truthfully say to the credit of the department, that they always saved the foundation and not the least valuable asset, the building lot.

How can men put out fire without water?