The bell used by A. G. Freed in his school at Essary Springs, TN is now at FHU. After some cleaning, new paint, and oiling, it will be used on the opening day of school this year.

Representatives of Freed-Hardeman University are going Tuesday, August 11, 2009, to retrieve the bell from the Essary Springs church building. Plans are to use it each year in August at the beginning of the school year in the "Tolling of the Bell" ceremonies. It is believed that this is the same bell that was erected in 1889 by A. G. Freed in his new school at Essary Springs, TN, Southern Tennessee Normal College.


The photo above was probably taken in 1933 after the original school building was "chopped." Both ends of the building were removed and some time later an auditorium was added at the rear of the building. The original building had a basement.



Here are some dimensions of the bell. It is a 26 inch bell manufactured by the C. S. Bell Co., Hillsboro, Ohio. The bell measures 26 inches at the bottom of the bell. The bell is marked with a 26 which probably indicates the size of the bell. The bell is 18 inches tall not including the yoke. The yoke holding the bell and wheel is 34 inches wide. From the top of the yoke to the bottom of the bell is 34 inches. The diameter of the wheel is 27 inches. The clapper is four inches across at the bottom and 18 inches in length. The bell appears to be about two inches thick. Also, there appears to be no date on the bell at Essary Springs. It is believed the bell weighs about four hundred pounds.

Here is some history of Essary Springs and Southern Tennessee Normal College.

"On September 16, 1889, Arvy Glenn Freed, an alumnus of Valparaiso University in Indiana, became the first president of Southern Tennessee Normal College at Essary Springs, Tennessee, about 60 miles south of here [Henderson]. Enrollment grew from 72 the first year to 450 by 1893." (Sam Hester).

Freed taught in this school from 1889 to 1895, then he came to Henderson to become president of West Tennessee Christian College which was renamed the next year, Georgie Robertson Christian College.

Grace Roland, in her book Walking Down Memory's Lane, wrote, "After he [Freed] left, some others including Dr. Bishop, kept the school going for a few years, then I. N. Roland [C. P. Roland's father] returned to take charge of it in 1903. The school grew rapidly under his supervision and since it was principally a teacher-training school, there were hundreds of young men and women that received their training there.... Mr. Roland was a student of Bro. Freed and was very thorough in his work" (40-41).

Sister Roland continues, "Everybody used the school building for church services because there were no church buildings. Today there is one small store, no post office, no school since consolidation of schools. However, there are two small church buildings, a Baptist and a Church of Christ building. The Baptist church house is on the site of the old "hotel" just above the spring and the Church of Christ building is a renovated part of the school building with some additions. I have described the "hotel" elsewhere. When it was completed, the school building was rather imposing for the time--1889--the location and was in fair shape when we lived there. I shall try to get a picture of it in this story. A. G. Freed and D. S. Nelms worked with the patrons of the community to raise funds to erect the building and equip it. The Nelms families were very much involved. C. P. Roland's greatgrandfather, William Nelms, built the largest boarding house near the spring. It was known as "The Hotel." Young women lived there while attending school. C. P.'s mother, Maggie Nelms, and Cora Belle Baynham who later became Mrs. A. G. Freed, roomed together one session in this building. Several of the Nelms families owned nice homes and farms near the village and others of them moved there for the advantages of the school and to help take care of boarding students·, which numbered over four hundred much of the time. D.S. Nelms lived in one of the finest homes about two finest homes about two miles west of the village. This house was a kind of antebellum type which much like the ones in Southern Mississippi. Brother Freed boarded there and wa lked to and fro from school daily~ a distance of two and a half miles" (48-49).

In describing the Essary Springs school building, sister Roland wrote, "The school building was built on a hillside just above a deep ravine. The front end was on the level of the ground but the back was high enough with just a little excavating, that there were classrooms below the auditorium. The auditorium was a large room lighted with three beautiful chandeliers and wall lamps with reflectors every fifteen feet around the walls. These wall lamps and also the chandeliers used kerosene as fuel for lights. When the building was razed, C. P. and I salvaged one of these wall lamps and have it in the Historical Collection here at Freed-Hardeman College. We found no trace of those crystal chandeliers and we suspected antique dealers of swiping them ahead of us" (49).

The school building later (maybe 1913) was used as a public school. Leon Isom, Jr., a member at the New Hope church of Christ, attend school there in 1937-40. His father, Leon Isom, Sr., helped renovate the building and install the bell in a new bell tower in 1933-34.