By Danny Crownover
Back in the late 1940s, it was suggested that the old bell in the court house tower and other of historical value be preserved and placed in a museum advocated by Judge W. M. Rayburn.
The idea was a good one. About two years later the city removed the big bell from the city hall tower and was keeping it for posterity.
For more than 50 years it was used to sound the alarm for fires and there were many.
For quite a period it sounded the curfew at 9 o’clock each night to warn all teen-age boys and girls to get off the streets. That curfew was rigidly enforced at times and all youngsters scooted home at the first tap of the bell.
There is more history attached to the bell in the tower of the old First Baptist Church. It is one of the oldest in this section of the state.
When Alabama seceded from the Union it tolled all night. That was when the church was located at Broad and Fifth streets on the site occupied by the Princess Theatre and now the Mary Harden Cultural Arts Center.
When Hood’s army was camped here in a swing through this territory for position in the battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, the commander used the building as headquarters. It was during this occupancy that some junior officers and men removed the bell and part of the silver communion service.
It was only after strong representations to the commander by church officials that the loot was recovered.
The bell of the First Methodist Church was removed when the old wooden structure built in the 1870s was torn down and replaced by the present building and was promptly lost.
Up to the time of its removal, it was used as a fire alarm. A few years later, the board of stewards appointed a committee to make a search for it and, although the committee went all over the county and district, it was never found.
The First Presbyterian Church had one of the oldest bells in the city and it was occasionally used. Old timers will recall how in the old days church bells were rung for every service and how they were tolled for every funeral.
It was thought there were many bells around the county that have historical backgrounds that could be secured for the suggested museum. Unfortunately, such a museum was never built.
Contact The Vagabond at dkcrown@bellsouth.net.
