The Tower Bell was bought and placed in the Tower of Blanchard Hall
(then Main Building) in 1872 to go along with the new additions that
were being made at the same time. The bell, made that same year by the
Meneely Bell Foundry in Troy, New York, replaced the cracked bell that
had been hanging in the Main Building. The money to pay for the bell
totaled $500 and was raised by students with the idea that “the new
building was entitled to a new bell.” Inscribed on the side of the
Tower Bell is Wheaton’s motto in Latin: Christo et Regno Ejus. During
the lifetime of the bell it has seen many uses and varying opinions as
to its use. Originally the bell served to wake people in the morning,
alert them of meals, call the students to chapel, and mark every class
during the day. The bell was also tolled for Sunday church services and
funerals as well as being used to alert students and townspeople of
fires. The use of the bell later changed in the words of President
Edman from “the academic to the more interesting” as by the 1930’s the
bell was being rung for victories by the Crusaders as well as by the
newly engaged. The beginnings of the going “up the tower” tradition is
unknown, yet it still holds today with a newly engaged couple ringing
the bell for three sets of seven, and a newly wed couple ring seven
sets of three. In 1943, Christian Council president, Billy Graham, promoted the ringing of the bell at 5 pm to remind college and townspeople to pray for servicemen. He said, "Previously, the only way of remembering them was by scattered efforts in various different groups as individual prayer requests came in. Now a regular remembrance of intercession for them is encouraged by this daily angelus" (Wheaton Alumni News, May-June 1943, p. 2). |