Madison County Courthouse bell rings again after decades

A bell atop the Madison County courthouse is ringing again after more than five decades of silence.  IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports on what it took to bring this historic landmark back to life.

County Commissioner Rick Gardner helped lead the effort to refurbish the bell. He says Madison County doesn’t have a lot of historic landmarks anymore, and it’s important to maintain the ones that still stand.

“I think history is very important. I don’t think we ever want to forget our history,” said Gardner.

The bell was sent out for modification almost a year ago and was finally installed above the Madison County Government Center last week.

According to the Madison County Historic Society, it was originally installed in the county’s courthouse in 1885.  That building was demolished in 1972.  The bell was set up in the new courthouse the next year.  But because it was designed to ring manually, it stayed silent.

Now, Gardner says it has been wired to the clock on the Madison County government building and will ring with it on the hour.

Repairs and alterations to connect and sync both total around $38,000. The money to repair the bell is coming out of the county’s capital asset fund.

Gardner said fixing the bell had been a focus of his for a while.

“It was at the top of the list,” he said. “It was one of the things that were broke and been broke for some time, and we just made it a priority this year.”

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu