Bell from Rector Chapel Presbyterian Church - La Vernia, TX USA
N 29° 21.309 W 098° 06.911
14R E 585886 N 3247659
This large bell was originally hung in the bell tower of the Rector Chapel Presbyterian Church in 1876. It was moved twice since then and in 2006 it was donated to the La Vernia Historical Association.
Waymark Code: WM18VKC
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/02/2023
Views: 0
This large bell is an excellent example of how a city can capture and keep its history remembered for generations. The story of the bell itself will cover the time from 1816 to 2006. But the stone base built to support and display this large bell is a wonderful model for preserving a much longer and broader history of the community. The La Vernia Historical Association did an outstanding job of not only preserving and displaying the historic bell, but it went made the extra effort to incorporate a much broader and older history into the display by building the supporting base for this bell from rocks and stones taken from historically important and documented locations in and around La Vernia, Texas.
The sign on the base explains not only the history of the large church bell, it also explains where the stones and rock composing the support base of the heavy bell came from. In doing this, the reader learns much more of the history of the whole town while learning about the bell itself. The sign reads as follows:
"This bell from the Rector Chapel rang for services and community emergencies. Built in 1876, the Rector Chapel Presbyterian Church was the first church organized in La Vernia.
Originally located across the Cibolo on FM 2772 where the Rector Chapel Cemetery still stands on land donated by W. R. Wiseman, the church and the bell were moved in 1891 to Chihuahua St. and became the Primitive Baptist Church in 1978. The bell was donated to the La Vernia Historical Association in 2006 by the La Vernia Primitive Baptist Church when the steeple became unstable. The church burned to the ground in 2010 and is now being rebuilt.
The rocks under the bell and in the pedestal were collected from local historical sites including the Applewhite Homestead, Brahan Masonic Lodge, Chihuahua Street, Concrete Cemetery, Gonzales Road at Cibolo Crossing, Huebinger House, Immanuel Lutheran Church, La Vernia United Methodist Church, Montgomery House, Mueller Bridge, Polley Mansion & Rector Chapel Cemetery, along with bricks from the Suttles Pottery."
And to top this all off, this bell is placed next to the daughter tree of the famous "Deaf Smith Oak" used by Erastus "Deaf" Smith to climb up to observe the troop movements of Santa Annas army during the Texas Revolution in 1835.
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