"The Bell Calls" capital funds program's goal is to raise $50,000 over the next year for maintenance of the bell tower and other projects around the historic building.
The Rev. Nancy L. Ebner, pastor of Orchard Covenant Church on the corner of Berkshire and Myrtle Streets in Indian Orchard, and her husband, Wallace F. Ebner, climbed into the church’s bell tower back in February to inspect its condition.
They found the structure solid, but discovered that the wire mesh installed in the bell room some time ago to keep pigeons out, had come loose. They also made note of repairs needed to the bell’s wood and bronze support structure and ring mechanism, to assure the bell can still be rung every Sunday before worship.
Then they looked at the big bronze bell itself, and saw this inscription with a quote from Revelation 22:17:
In Affectionate Remembrance of Charles Jordan Goodwin
Dedicated by his wife Dora F. Goodwin May 25, 1900
“Let him that heareth say come“
The bell was cast by a company in West Troy, N.Y. started by Andrew Meneely, born to Irish immigrants and married to Philena Hanks of Madison, Conn. Meneely had apprenticed in the early 1800s to Julius Hanks to learn the trade of “casting bells and making mathematical instruments.”
He went on to establish his own business at a former foundry of Hanks and, according to Meneely family records in 1876, it grew through the 1800s to be a “flourishing business.”
“There is scarcely a village of any note in the country,” read the records at http://danart.home.mindspring.com/bellsite/html/, “in which one or more of there bells is not heard; while their sale extends to the British American possessions, the Pacific Coast, West Indies, Mexico, South America and in fact, nearly all over the world.”
The Orchard church bell weighs about 1,500 pounds, according to a release from the church, and sounds a “G.”
Meneely bells can be heard in many places, such as Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and the Metropolitan Life Insurance building in New York City. Even the replacement for the Liberty Bell (the one that cracked) in Philadelphia was a Meneely bell.
Charles Jordan Goodwin was a prominent Indian Orchard businessman, who during 35 years in the community was president and treasurer of Chapman Valve, treasurer of several other Orchard manufacturing companies, director of a bank, an alderman and a school board member.
He was also a member of the executive board of the church. Goodwin died in 1898 and is remembered in the community by Goodwin Street and Goodwin Park.
The congregation was founded in 1848, the first church in the Orchard, and the sanctuary was dedicated in 1856. The church history reflects the changes in the community. The growth in manufacturing in the Orchard brought growth to the church as more people moved into the village.
Times of war and financial downturn brought struggle. The church’s first woman pastor was ordained in 1918, when her husband, who was chaplain of the regiment from the Orchard, went of to World War I in Europe.
At a recent dinner celebrating the church and its people, it was noted that all the companies Goodwin worked for are no longer in business, but the church remains. Their current pastor, the Rev. Nancy Ebner, has served the church since 2004.
The dinner was the start of a capital funds program, “The Bell Calls,” with a goal of raising $50,000 over the next year for maintenance of the bell tower and other projects around the historic building.
Anyone interested may contact the church at 95 Berkshire Street, Indian Orchard, at (413) 543-4204 or visit the website http://www.orchardcovenantchurch.org/aboutus/orchardcovenantchu/