DeWitt County Courthouse (Texas No. 50) Part 3 - The Bell Tower

The bell tower of the DeWitt County Courthouse is the top three floors of the courthouse.  The district courtroom occupies the second floor with the balcony seating extending to the third floor.  This is all based on my memory of several weeks ago so if I'm off on my facts just a hair, please forgive me.  We may have actually ridden the elevator to the small room above the third floor or, in the alternative, we took a staircase.  Sounds logical, right?  At my age, the first thing to go is the short-term memory and our trip was filled with tons of facts from four courthouses, three painted churches, and of course all those wildflowers!  I do remember from the fourth floor, or what I'm calling the fourth floor, we took a tiny spiral staircase up to the level which houses the clock.

My cousin checks out some of the intricacies of the massive clockworks which keep the four clocks in the tower in sync.  A small brass plate (not the one visible in the photograph) reads:  The E. Howard Tower Clock, No. 1869, was removed, completely restored, and reinstalled in April 2007 by Vernon Wier of Wier Mfg. Co., San Antonio, Texas.

E. Howard & Co. was a clock and watch company whose predecessor, E. Howard Clock Co., was formed in 1842 in Boston and was a preeminent clockmaker in the country.  In addition to this courthouse clock, they manufactured the clocks in the Maverick and Red River county courthouses in Texas, the Boston Fire Alarm Office at 59 Fenway, Boston, MA, the Wrigley Building in Chicago, the Ferry Building in San Francisco, the New York Life Insurance Company Building in New York City, and numerous other well-known buildings and churches throughout the United States.

On this level I was surprised to find a hole in the floor exposing rocks and dirt.  My thought was how in the world do you dig a hole on the fifth floor of a building and find dirt and rocks?  You can see the pile of rocks toward the back of the clock in the above photo on that beautiful Italian tile floor.

We once again had to go up the spiral staircase, barely big enough to be able to negotiate the tight curves, to reach the bell tower.  Going back down the staircase on the return trip was even more harrowing!

We reach the sixth floor of the building which houses the giant bell.   The winds were amazing.  Of course it's open on all four sides through the arched windows and the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't keep the hair out of my eyes so I'm lucky I got any pictures at all!  The engraving on this side of the bell reads:  E. Howard W. and C. Co.,/Boston ... New York ... Chicago/1896.  So it's obvious the clock and the bell came as a set.

But adjacent to that engraving it reads:  Stadtler and Lucas/contractors and - and the next word(s) are illegible.  The third line is illegible and the fourth line says 1896.  Checking on the Internet I find that Stadtler and Lucas were indeed contractors who had one of the contracts to complete the construction of the courthouse after the original architect went bankrupt and abandoned the job.  They evidently also had a contract for construction of the Lavaca County Courthouse which is nearby and several other governmental buildings during that era.  So it appears that Stadtler and Lucas added their own engraving to the bell manufactured and delivered by E. Howard.

The clock, of course, is responsible for the operation of the bell, and the bell rings on the hour.  I failed to get a picture of the hammer that strikes the bell and I am extremely grateful that our visit to this tiny room did not coincide with the ringing of the bell for I fear I may have jumped out of one of those arched windows!

The arches are covered with a netting I'm sure to keep birds out of the tower.  That fact, in addition to it being a rather gloomy, misty day did not lend itself to any meaningful photos from six stories up, but it was still an extraordinary experience.

And thanks to Rene, the gentleman who took time out of his busy schedule to take a couple of ditzy old ladies on a trip that I dare say too many people get the opportunity to take.  And an extra thanks to Kathy, that lady in the green shirt, who so gracefully offered this wonderful experience to us.