History of United Church's Bell

The Church’s bell was cast by the Holbrook Bell Foundry of East Medway (Massachusetts) in 1839, just 50 years after the US Constitution was ratified by the 13 states. The Holbrook Bell Foundry was established in1816, by Major George Holbrook. Major Holbrook earlier had established a bell foundry in Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1797. That business was successful but Holbrook had made the error of guaranteeing a “friend’s” borrowings and was obliged to make the payments and was financially ruined. Broken in spirit, he returned to his home town of Wrentham, Massachusetts, and, while there, he learned that a new bell was wanted for a new meeting house in East Medway and he secured a contract to cast it.

​The coming of Major Holbrook into East Medway initially was opposed by many of its citizens for fear that he would become a pauper and a financial burden to the town. Their doubts were erased when he cast that first bell. The business that he established at the time grew into a very large and successful one and was carried on by four successive generation of the Holbrook family until 1880, when the business was sold to parties in San Francisco, California.

Major Holbrook, while very young, was apprenticed to Paul Revere (of Revolutionary fame) to learn the machinists and clockmaker’s trades. After he completed his apprenticeship, he started casting bells in Brookfield, Massachusetts, having learned the art from an old English encyclopedia. The Holbrook Bell Foundry was in reality, though not legally, the successor of the famous Revere bell foundry, as during the years 1816 to 1820 it was the only establishment of its kind in America. During the period of its existence, the Holbrook Bell Factory cast over eleven thousand bells for domestic and international customers. They were exhibited at industrial exhibitions throughout the United States and came in competition with the bells of others, always receiving the highest awards. Among other awards was the grand gold medal from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (Boston) for general superiority and pure musical tone, and this despite the proprietor of a competing business being President of the Association and had many bells on exhibit at the same time. The products of the Holbrook Bell Foundry became the standard bells ofAmerica. Major Holbrook’s son, Colonel George H. Holbrook, who became an eminent musician, is credited with improving the tone of the bells and changing them from noisy machines to musical instruments. Colonel Holbrook became associated with his father in the manufacture of bells and church clocks and succeeded in 1820 to the entire business which he carried on until 1871. Colonel Holbrook, in 1837, began building church organs, in company with his cousin, Mr. J Holbrook Ware, until 1850, when that partnership was dissolved. He was succeeded in the organ business by his son, Mr. Edwin L. Holbrook, and in the bell business by his grandson, Mr. Edwin Handel Holbrook.

Some current information concerning the valuation of bells of this type was located. There are various ways to value bells:

1. Scrap price, which is the current price for bronze that you can get from a scrap metal dealer.
2. Collector’s price, which is whatever a bell collector is willing to spend.
3. Price that a bell resale dealer is willing to pay in order to recondition the bell for resale (usually about half of the expected resale value)
4. Historic/sentimental price, which is the cost to the congregation of losing a piece of its history (better to clean the bell and display it within the church once it is determined to be unsafe to continue ringing the bell).

In the information associated with the valuation method descriptions shown above, the author indicated that his company usually estimates a minimum of $100/pound for a good bronze bell. As our Church bell weighs approximately 1,200 pounds, the indication is it has a value north of $100,000.

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