A historic bell of Malden Bridge Community Center was reported stolen last week. As a result, the congregation offered a reward for any information that may lead to recovering the church's property.
Historic Bell
According to News 10, on Sept. 17, 1878, Meneely & Kimberly Yoke, Founders of Troy, created the Old Chatham Bell by casting it in a bell foundry. It has a height of 4 feet, a width of 3 feet, and a total weight of 1,248 pounds. The President of the Center, Lucinda Buckley, stated that the bronze bell is 145 years old and has all of the church leader's and trustees' names engraved on it.
At the community center, they failed to take the A-frame that goes with the bell. The area around Chatham has a rich history, including that of the bell. It was initially crafted for the Old Chatham Methodist Church, where it remained for over 80 years until the building had to be torn down in 1960 since it was physically unsafe.
As mentioned, the church bell was relocated to its current location in front of the Methodist Church in Malden Bridge in 1975. The Methodist Church would eventually become the Malden Bridge Community Center. In recent months, the Center has reportedly organized an expenditure enhancement initiative to repair the bell.
However, as per WPDH, Buckley revealed that the bell was last seen between 7:00 PM on Monday, Apr. 24, and 7:00 AM on Tuesday, Apr. 25.
The Old Chatham Bell was taken from its former Malden Bridge, New York home. Thus, the Malden Bridge Community Center has announced on its Facebook page that a reward of $3,500 will be given to any individual who comes forward with details that either leads to the discovery of the bell in its unaltered state or to the capture and prosecution of those responsible in the theft.
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Missing Church Bells
A report from The Witness stated that the rising incidence of theft of church bells was reported in several articles published in various publications.
It was reported in a story published by IOL that another bell, this one dating back 200 years and belonging to the St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, had been stolen.
In 2022, three individuals reportedly intended to sell an old church bell that appeared to be of substantial antiquity and had historical value similar to the bell of Global Scrapyard in Mkhondeni, Pietermaritzburg,
After some time, the bell was dangling from the Lutheran Church's ceiling in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The reporter from Weekend Witness communicated with Dunstan Farrell, an attorney based in Durban, who described a church bell that appears to be strikingly similar to the lost mystery bell, which had been taken many years ago.
As per Farrell, he has no idea how the bell made its way from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg, nor does he know where the bells came from in the first place that they were stolen.
On the other hand, one of the men who manage a furnishings factory in the neighborhood claimed that a white man visited the location a few years ago and stole the bell. Farrell speculated that the bells must have a significant value since they weighed more than a ton and were most likely crafted by an experienced bell builder.
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