WYNNE — A 152-year-old bell is ringing outside of St. Peter Church in Wynne once again.
Louise Hess, the church’s administrative assistant, said the church has received an anonymous donation to restore the historic pull-rope bell and incorporate it into a new church sign. The work was completed in mid-September giving many parishioners a glimpse into the past.
“I think it is beautiful,” church member Ashley King said. “Even driving down Falls (Boulevard), it’s just a presence now.”
The 1859-dated bronze bell was originally located on a plantation near Greenville, Miss., before it was brought across the Mississippi River to the Our Lady of the Lake Church in Lake Village, according to a December 1970 article in Forrest City’s Commercial Appeal. The newspaper cited Wynne’s former pastor, Father John F. O’Donnell, as saying the bell was the companion of another purchased in Memphis. Both had a border of angel-like figurines and were cast by the Cincinnati foundry, G.W. Coffin Co. Father O’Donnell and the second bell’s owner discovered the connection after the second bell was bought from an antique dealer and the two men began exchanging letters.
The Lake Village church eventually replaced the bell with an electronic carillon and donated it to St. Peter. However, before it was rung, the bell was striped of four to five coats of green and black paint as well as brown-painted initials. It’s melodious peals were officially heard for the first time during the 1970 Christmas Eve midnight Mass and later as it rung in the new year.
Parishioner Loretta Ballmann said she was “tickled to death” when the church first received the bell.
“I love bells,” she said. “It’s an older bell and you don’t see many like that. I was proud to have one with so much history behind it. It’s just beautiful.”
For the next 20 years, the bell remained in front of St. Peter Church and School. Its home, however, changed in 1990 when the parish, which no longer included a school, decided to rebuild its church and use its former building as a fellowship hall. Hess said the bell was again replaced by an electronic carillon and was then given to a parishioner who kept it over the years until a move began within the church to restore the bell once again on church property, 1695 N. Falls Blvd., for historical value.
“It’s been in the works for a very long time,” Hess said.
Now 21 years later, the bell is once again gracing the front of St. Peter Church. It’s placed at the top of a 16-foot tall sign. The bell-adorned sign, completed by Sign Systems of Jonesboro, was approximately $16,000 at no cost to its parishioners.
Church members say they have already gotten positive feedback from the community.
“I think they are very excited about having the bell restored and put back up,” Hess said.
Ballmann said the parishioner who kept the bell during its brief break from the church did a great job of keeping the bell safe as he had it cleaned and restored. However, she was still pleased to learn it was coming back to stay on church property.
“I was happy,” she said. “I thought it was appropriate and it feels right for the church.”
For some of the younger generation, it’s part of the church’s history that they were either too young to remember or even know of. Lizzie Spain of Wynne said she didn’t even know about the bell until a church bulletin announced that a new church sign adorned with the bell would be going up. Her mother was able to give her its history later at home.
The Arkansas State University college student attended Mass the first Sunday the bell hung on the completed sign and slipped around the church to take a quick picture as her family waited.
“It’s beautiful,” she said later. “I haven’t actually seen the bell before now.”
However, it will soon become a familiar sight for her. Hess said church leaders plan to ring it at the start of each Mass.
