Major’s 1891 hopes still ring true in MWC
In 1943, with a tent and a sign, the Midwest City Presbyterian Church, now First Presbyterian Church, made history announcing their plans for a building in the brandnew city of Midwest City.
On April 25, 1956, The Oklahoman announced the arrival of a piece of Oklahoma’s history for location at the church:
Each time the bell in the tower under construction on the grounds of the Midwest City Presbyterian church at Key and Babb rings out it will tell the story of the universal brotherhood of man. The tower is being made by that brotherhood in action.
The tower for the bell is being built with the financial gifts of 14 Midwest City men. They are members of several Protestant faith, the Roman Catholic church and the Jewish faith. None of them is a member of the Presbyterian church.
When they gave for the tower, they requested of Rev. Richard S. Poole, minister of the Midwest City Presbyterian church that their names not be used ...
The bell to be hung in the tower is one of the oldest in Oklahoma to be part of a Presbyterian church. It was first hung in the old First Presbyterian church at El Reno in 1891, the gift of Maj. John E. Foreman who was stationed at Fort Reno with a cavalry outfit ...
In 1938 when a new church was built in El Reno the bell was put in storage and after some discussion was not placed in the new structure. Then in 1943 the trustees of the El Reno church sold the bell to go into the scrap iron program of the World War II effort.
This action aroused the women of the El Reno church and in a few days they raised money to rebuy the bell. Since then it has been stored in the manse of the El Reno church until it was moved to the Midwest City site this week.
The tower for the bell will be 50 feet high and of unusual design ...
The Sunday Magazine of The Oklahoman for Feb. 17, 1957, reported the rededication of the bell and tower:
... The Bell is no work of a master craftsman such as those spending years to assure tonal qualities demanded in more expensive ones. The Bell is one of thousands cast in the United States in the 1870’s and 1880’s to keep step with the westward march of churches and schools.
The Bell is just a common everyday workman who has spread news of gladness and sadness; who has called children to church school and their parents to worship service. The Bell rang out in 1906 to herald the enabling act of congress making Oklahoma’s constitutional convention possible, and again in 1907 to announce statehood ....
... The Bell hangs in a tower apart from the Midwest City church, designed to blend with the English cottage style of the church itself. Its two main beams were cut from a Washington state pine forest on a special order.
Above the Bell a 10-foot cross reaches upward 50 feet. Below the Bell is a hand pointing earthward — symbol of God’s creative work in the world; next is a lamb and a shepherd’s crook — symbol of the Messiah, and lower is a dove flying to earth — symbol of the Holy Spirit descending to work among men...
At the bell’s first dedication in 1891 in El Reno, Major Foreman expressed his hope that “The Bell shall ever ring out in a troubled world to give assurance that God was still active in the Brotherhood of Man.
Now 127 years after the first dedication and 61 years after the second, the bell still stands as the symbol of Maj. Foreman’s hope for mankind.