School bell has special meaning for community
I am excited and delighted that the bell that once adorned the top of our old school on Caroline Street has found a safe new home in the lobby of NCPS.
Echo readers, if you are new in town, I want you to know how much that bell means to those who heard it ring daily.
Creemore has a goodly share of volunteers who keep our village a happy and interesting place to live. And it was always so. Before Creemore even had a newspaper, a local reporter sent descriptions of what was going on to a Collingwood newspaper. Two trains daily left Creemore for that town to the north so Creemore news was always breaking news. Here is one report that appeared in the Enterprise and Collingwood Messenger on Feb. 2, 1882:
Our little town has been indulging in some proper and healthy excitement. It took the form of an entertainment to raise funds to purchase a bell for our handsome new schoolhouse. The building was dedicated by holding Divine service in it on Sunday. On Monday evening the entertainment came off. The program was an excellent one and the large audience was delighted at the excellence of the affair. The report continues, relating that there were solos, a recitation, a reading and Rev. D. McDonald gave a lecture titled, Education. The funds for the school bell were increased by $50.
Unfortunately the bell was not secured firmly in the bell tower and it tumbled from its perch high on the roof. It was reinstated in its place of honour and as was reported in the Mad River Star Jan. 26, 1893, “Its cheerful ring once more gladdened the hearts of the boys who so dearly loved to go to school.”
You may be the judge of whether the boys loved to go to school but here is a report that a man called George Royal penned in his story, The River Road.
“At noontime the Matchett and Leonard Hotels were crammed with hungry teamsters filling the dining rooms and many lined up in the hallways waiting their turn at a full course meal priced at 25 cents. The hotel barns and sheds are packed with teams of horses munching their hay and oats and the yards are so full of vehicles that it is difficult to get around. This is a scene I see each week the year round and we youngsters consider it an adventure to spend noon hour midst all the stir and commotion of a busy shipping day. School is not far away and we can get back there in time after the first bell.”
If you were reading carefully you might notice that the funds for the bell were raised in 1882. The school on Caroline Street has a concrete insert up high that says in Roman numerals that it was built in 1917. The bell was taken from the earlier school and placed on the new school.
As for me and my days at school I relied on hearing the bell and always asked of my friends if the ringing I heard was the first bell or the second. “Has the bell rung yet?” I’d say. Walking in from out in the country west of town we weren’t always sure if we had been walking fast enough to get to school on time.
I understand there will be an unveiling of the bell on Jan. 29, at 9:30 a.m.
