After several years of silence, a historic bell is again summoning the faithful to worship at St. Michael’s in Henryetta.
The bell that once was hung in the tall brick tower of the original church has been restored to service.
When first installed a century ago the bell was operated with a rope pulled by a faithful parishioner. After the church moved to its new building, the bell was incorporated in a steel tower topped with a cross in front of the new building.
The clapper moved with the help of electronic servo motors but, with age, they wore out.
Father Robert Duck said a foundry in South Carolina was located that could do the repairs and, following a months-long fundraising effort, the new programmable equipment was put in place. It came at an appropriate time on Holy Thursday and sounded for Easter services.
Special dedication services were held April 7 with congregation members surrounding the structure as Fr. Duck gave the blessing.
That bell now links today’s church with the faithful from 1921 who helped the priest at the time, Theophile Caudron, make the church a familiar part of Henryetta’s history.
Fr. Caudron came to Oklahoma in 1907 and arrived in Henryetta in 1919. For the next 46 years he was a driving force in the area’s religious community. Under his direction, he added a grammar school, high school and a gymnasium. It was said that even the wealthiest parish in Tulsa did not have a gymnasium at the time.
In 1953 he was conferred the title of Monsignor, an honor that many parish members still recall with affection. He moved back to his home country of Belgium in 1965 and died there Jan. 19, 1970.
Henryetta residents will be hearing his legacy several times a day now that repairs are made. Fr. Duck said it will ring three times each day, 8 in the morning, noon and at 6 p.m.
The bell will also sound prior to the Sunday Mass at 11 a.m., bringing the faithful parishioners back to a church that has been a part of Henryetta nearly back to the town’s inception.