Sacred Heart Bell

History in the Making
April 7, 2004

School children and Sacred Heart Parishioners watched the installation of the Sacred Heart bell on April 7, 2004. The installation started shortly after noon and included the process of transferring the bell from the truck to the crane, raising the bell to the tower, and securing the bell inside the tower which had been electrically prepared several weeks ago.

The bell originally hung in St. Paul's Catholic Church in Pine Lawn, Missouri, which is in the St. Louis area. The bell was procured for the parish by Fr. Don Schraam, with the help of Fr. Rick Creason, who was pastor of St. Paul's. Fr. Schraam indicated that he and Mark Meyer went down with a pick-up and a trailer to obtain the bell, which was sitting outside on a platform, rather than being installed in a tower.

Fr. Schraam had also been offered a bell from Elsberry, Missouri, however that bell was later found to be made of steel, and would not produce a pure tone such as the bronze bell from St. Paul's.

The Sacred Heart bell was originally cast in 1912 by the H.Y. Stuckstede Foundry in St. Louis and is inscribed. The inscriptions were actually cast at the same time as the bell and stand out from the surface of the bell, as can be noted in some of the photos generously donated by parishioners. The top inscription gives the foundry and date of manufacture:

"H.Y.Stuckstede,
Bell Fdy Co.
St. Louis, MO 1912"

In a lower inscription, information about the original donor is given.

"Gift of Charles Clark"
"1912"

The bell is 32 inches in diameter and weighs about 650 pounds including the frame. It is made of cast bronze, and would have been "one of a kind", in that the mold would have been formed in sand, and when the bell was "ready" it would have been removed by digging the sand away. Although some bells are tuned perfectly by carving away some of the material until it rings "true", the Stuckstede Firm did not do this. The bells from this foundry usually were cast to ring in a minor third, and it is estimated that our bell might ring in an "A minor".

Our bell has been refurbished and re-manufactured because of it's condition and in order to fit it to our church. The bell and yoke (metal part that is attached to the top) are original. Some parishioners noted while it was on the ground that it has a chip out of the rim, and, according to the installer, it is likely that the chip may have happened when the bell was removed from the mold since bubbles often formed and weakened the edges of bells that were manufactured in less sophisticated foundries.

The bell has a new clapper and a new frame and has been automated. The bell itself has been rotated 90 degrees due to wear on the inside of the bell. (Instead of the raised inscription facing the open south side of the bell tower, it instead faces the highway, thus allowing the clapper to hit on a new surface of the bell and not on the old worn part. The bell can be operated automatically by electrical impulse or a motor can be activated which actually makes the bell move. There are safety controls integrated into the system to prevent both methods from being used at the same time.

Jeff Erickson is from St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville and is the person who refurbished our bell and also those of St. Joe. He is the manager of Elite Pro Systems, which is really a sound and video business, but Jeff was approached a number of years ago by a bell company which wanted to have a representative in the area.

Jeff is pictured to the right with our newly refurbished bell.

Photos taken by Bill Engelmeyer of our parish are shown below, and others will be posted as they are obtained.

The following photos were graciously donated by Barb Coates.

More photos yet to come.