Historic bell rang loud and often the day WWII ended

NEWTON, Iowa — Of the thousands of artifacts in the Jasper County Historical Museum only one is stored outside the facility: a big ol’ bell. Staff is admittedly cautious about keeping anything outdoors, but there is very little worry of anybody walking away with that thing. Cast iron, even in its most accessible form, is tough to handle.

Ever since 2013 that bell has stayed on a platform overlooking the museum, long retired from ringing. After scrounging up some records, Cynthia Poots, administrative assistant at the museum, discovered the bell originally came from a Catholic church in Missouri many years ago, Newton Daily News reported.

“They brought it up on the railroad in the 1930s and moved it to Graber Lake,” Poots said, noting the Newton lake itself has long since disappeared. “If you go down First Street to where the old train depot is and the Meisner building, it was back in there. That’s where this family had this Graber Lake.”

The bell belonged to Delwin Antle’s family. Now 82 years old, Antle said when he was a little boy his great uncle Elmer Graber owned the bell, as well as a “beautiful park” just north of the Parsons Company. There was, indeed, a lake, too. Shipping the bell by railcar, Graber installed the piece at his park.

Eventually, the bell ended up in Antle’s possession, and he inevitably donated it to the Jasper County Historical museum about six years ago. Apart from its sentimental value to Antle, there is a great deal of historical significance the bell carries. When World War II ended in 1945, the bell rang loud and often.

“It rang for 24 hours,” Antle said, noting folks climbed the 25-foot-high frame to take turns ringing the bell. The loud, blaring dongs signified the end of the deadliest conflict in history. Although he doesn’t much remember exactly what he did that day, Antle reckoned the bell could be heard throughout town.

Bill Perrenoud, executive director of the Jasper County Historical Museum, said the bell ringing was likely a very joyous event for the county, noting many people had been working in local factories like Maytag to create machinery for the war effort. He reckoned it was a simpler time back then, except for the war.

“We were close to (the war) and I think we followed it a little bit closer than some areas that didn’t have that,” Perrenoud said, adding that women played a big role working the industrial jobs during WWII.

Born in 1937, Antle was still a boy when the bell rang proudly. He does remember one event that happened that day. The bell itself had rung so much and so loudly that a small piece had chipped off the cast iron. Antle said it was about two inches long and maybe a half-inch wide. He kept it for some time but can’t exactly remember what happened to it.

Antle said, “I was thinking about that the other day and I can’t remember where it went to. That’s one of the things I could remember . . . But the bell, it has an interesting story. We wanted to keep it in Jasper County and we hope it stays.”

The bell has otherwise remained untouched. However, it did receive an upgrade of some sort. After the war the letter V was welded onto the top. Antle said it stood for “victory.”

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Information from: Newton Daily News, http://www.newtondailynews.com

An AP Member Exchange shared by the Newton Daily News.

Christopher Braunschweig, The Associated Press