An early list of American chimes

Within 20 years of the installation of the first American-made chime, there seems to have been recognition that this new industry was a distinctively American accomplishment. Late in 1869, a newspaper (or similar publication) printed a list of chimes in America as of that date, with sufficient information to enable comparison with current records.

The image below shows that newspaper item. Its exact origin is unknown, but the combination of internal evidence with where the clipping was found is persuasive in dating it to late 1869.

At right of the image is a transcription of it, with annotations in color as follows:
- transcribed information which is thought to be incorrect is in red, and may be footnoted (#n) with an explanation;
- information added is in green; following a year may be a plus sign (+) indicating that the chime was later enlarged, or a letter indicating that the chime was Moved or Replaced or is otherwise Gone.

Early chime list
Chimes of the United States
The following list includes all of the chimes of the United States at the present time [1869], arranged in order of the dates of their erection. The first five, and the one at Burlington, N.J., were cast in England; one of the two at Buffalo, N.Y., and that at Notre Dame, Ind., in France, and the remainder in this country.

No. of
Bells. Total
Weight. Year

Christ Chruch [Church], Boston, Mass. 8 7,272 1744

Christ Church, Philadelphia, Pa. 8 11,476 1754

St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S.C. #1 8 --- 1764

Trinity Church, New York city 8 14,000 1797

St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, PA 8 7,752 1843

Notre Dame College, Notre Dame, Ind. 9 (23) --- 1856

St. Peter's Cathedral, Cincinnati, OH 18 (11) 14,000 1851 M

St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia, PA 9 12,798 1853 G

St. John's Church, Savannah, Ga. 8 9,535 1854 R

First Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa. 8 8,141 1853 R

Trinity Church, Cleveland, Ohio 8 9,931 1854 G

St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, N. Y. 10 9,925 1856 R

St. Anne's Church, Lowell, Mass. 11 9,899 1857

St. John's Church, Newark, N. J. 9 5,723 1859

Christ Church, Indianapolis, Ind. 9 (8) 5,920 1859+

St. Paul's Church, Petersburg, Va. 9 6,574 1860

St. John's Church (Baptist), Paterson, N.J. #2 8 7,706 1862+

Christ Church, Cambridge, Mass. 12 (13) 18,661 1860

Church of the Nativity, Bridgeport, Conn. 10 1,803 1860 G

Arlington street Church, Boston, MA 16 14,150 1860+

Grace Church, Providence, R.I. 16 17,429 1861

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Albany, NY 10 10,913 1862

Christ Church, Detroit, Mich. 9 9,708 1864

St. Mary's Church, Burlington N.J. 8 --- 1865

St. James Church, Birmingham (Derby), Ct. 9 6,547 1867+

St. Patrick's Church, Utica, NY 10 4,482 1868

St. Paul's Church, Concord, N. H. 9 6,407 1868

Trinity Reformed Church, York, Pa. 9 6,529 1868

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 9 6,438 1868+

First Parish Church, Charlestown, Mass. 16 14,424 1868

Catholic Cathedral, Buffalo, NY 40 (43) --- 1868? G

Zion Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, Pa. 9 5,500 1868+

St. Peter's Church, Rochester, NY 12 8,850 1869

Church of the Holy Cross, Troy, NY #3 9 6,480 1869

First English Lutheran Church, Dayton, Ohio 9 11,000 1869

Footnotes:
#1 - The compiler of the listing apparently confused references to the ring of 8 at St.Michael's Church (1764, from England, extant) and the 11-bell chime of St.Philip's Church (cast in 1848, installed in 1850, removed in 1862).
#2 - Actually St.John the Baptist (Catholic) Church
#3 - The compiler of the listing apparently confused references to the small chime of 6 bells at the Church of the Holy Cross (1853-55, weight 4,480 lbs.) and the 9-bell chime installed at Woodside Presbyterian Church in 1869 (weight 6,640 lbs.).

Additional notes:

Except for Notre Dame and Paterson, and the two cases of confusion, the order of this list fits remarkably well with modern data. But there is no obvious explanation for any of the five errors in number of bells. (No attempt has been made to verify the reported total weights except in the case of Footnote #3.)
The instrument at the Cathedral in Buffalo would now be called a carillon rather than a chime.
No mention is made of the fact that the six English-made installations were originally hung for change-ringing, perhaps because by the time of this article they had all been in effect converted to chimes (or at least were being used as such).
Notice in the image that there is a tick mark made with ink to the left of St.Peter's Cathedral, Cincinnati, site of the only chime made by George L. Hanks. This clipping was found in a workbook relating to operations of the Hanks/Niles bellfoundry, which closed in 1869. The last chime in the list also came from that foundry, in that year.

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This page was created 2003/12/17.

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