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Those Ringing Bells Are Probably From Here
You hear the sounds of bells a lot this time of year. For many people it signals the arrival of the holiday season. However, it means much more to one small Connecticut town. East Hampton was built on bells.
"East Hampton is known as Bell Town USA. In the 1800's, it was often referred to as jingle town as well because so many bells have been made here," said Matt Bevin, who runs his family's bell business.
Throughout the decades thirty different bell companies have called East Hampton home. In time though, the bells went silent at every company but one.
“This is my grandfather, this is my great-grandfather, this is my great-great grandfather my great-great-great grandfather,” Matt Bevin says pointing to pictures hanging in the entrance of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Company.
Bevin is the sixth generation to run the company his great-great-great grandfather and his three brothers started nearly two hundred years ago. "For better or worse, we're the only company in the U.S. left that makes just bells," said Bevin.
It’s a fact now lost on many of the town's residents. "Now that we've become a bedroom town a lot of people don't even know we're back here,” said 30-year Bevin employee, Doug Dilla.
The company is in its 178th year in business. "There is a lot of pride in it and we have twenty-one employees. In this environment, in this day and age a lot of these folks would be hard pressed to find a job right now," said Bevin.
There’s not a lot of work like this left either. Most of the manufacturing of a bell is still done by hand. "I think it's remarkable we're still here. We have a niche," said Dilla. “We're all ding-a-lings,” he says, laughing.
Some might say that’s so. Bell making isn't exactly a cash cow business. But it's in Matt Bevin's blood. "We can't compete with China and India on price. We have to compete on quality, we have to compete on customization, we have to compete on service," he said.
That's exactly what they do at Bevin brothers. The company still makes more than 200 varieties of bells, including all bells for the Salvation Army. "There's just something magical about it and I just love the sound of bells. I really do," said Bevin.
As do many others, especially this time of year.
Museum puts the ‘clang’ in bicycle tour
UC Davis researcher John Hess is trading cells for bells when the Amgen Tour of California comes to town.
Cowbells, to be exact. The kind you hear spectators clanging as the racers pass by in the Tour de France.
The Amgen tour, which takes off Feb. 15 from downtown Davis, is California’s answer to the French bike-racing extravaganza. And, if it can have cowbells, then so can the Amgen, courtesy of Hess and the California Bicycle Museum.
“Bells are a bike-racing tradition,” Hess said. “They’re great noisemakers, a great way to cheer on the racers.”
Come Amgen tour day in Davis, the museum will be selling the bells, emblazoned with the city of Davis logo on one side and the California Bicycle Museum insignia on the other.
UC Davis and the city of Davis are partners in the museum, and Hess is a member of the board of directors, which is working to establish a permanent home for the museum as a showcase for the university’s extensive bicycle collection. Part of it is on display through Amgen weekend in the basement of the city’s Third and B Street Building.
By day, Hess is a professional researcher in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy in the School of Medicine. Outside of work, he is a cycling enthusiast. This year, for example, as a member of the Davis Bike Club, he will coordinate Foxy’s Fall Century for the fourth year in a row.
And, on recent Saturdays, he has been volunteering as a docent at the bicycle museum’s Third and B Street exhibition.
“Our goals,” he said, referring to the museum’s board of directors, “are to find a home for the museum, and to convince the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame to move to Davis.”
Now, with the special bells, everyone else can show their support for the museum — and Amgen, too.
The bells — with UC Davis lanyards provided by the university’s Office of Government and Community Relations — will be sold for $10 each. Look for them at the bicycle museum tent near the Amgen starting line on C Street adjacent to Central Park, and at the bicycle museum’s exhibition in the basement of the Third and B Street Building.
And, while there, look for the 1916 Pierce-Arrow bicycle and pay particular attention to its bell: It was made by Bevin bells of Connecticut, the same company that, nearly 100 years later, made the cowbells that the bicycle museum will be selling during the Amgen Tour of California.
The California Bicycle Museum exhibition in the Third and B Street Building will be open only four more days: 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 7 and 14, 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 11 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 15. Admission is free, with donations accepted.
A Maker of Bells for Any Occasion
WANT to keep track of your cows? Festoon your sleigh or your mantel? Summon the butler to bring some tea or call your guests to the barbecue? For these and other tasks, Bevin Brothers has the bell for you.
The company in East Hampton was established in 1832 and now produces more than 200 kinds of bells. ''Some are decorative, some are functional, and some just are,'' said Stanley R. Bevin, president of the company.
Mr. Bevin is the fifth generation of his family to oversee Bells by Bevin, as the products are known. ''We're the oldest family-run business in Connecticut,'' he said. ''We were an early part of the Industrial Revolution.'' He noted that at first Bevin products included coffee mills and waffle irons. ''But, from 1890 on, we basically made nothing but bells.''
The Bell Town
In the 19th century several bell companies flourished in East Hampton. ''They employed most of the people,'' said William Devine, chairman of the East Hampton Town Council, ''and they controlled most of the politics. That's what I hear.''
Today, East Hampton is still nicknamed the Bell Town, and the local McDonald's displays hundreds of bells in two large display cases. But Bevin Brothers is the only firm that keeps up the tradition of making bells.
The company operates in a rambling two-story building that looks much as it did in turn-of-the-century photographs. It is on Bevin Boulevard, a dead-end street behind the local school. The entry is filled with display cases of bells; straps of sleigh bells and portraits of Bevins hang on the walls. Just off the entry is a small office, where boxes of bells cover the floor, the walls hold more portraits of Bevins and photographs of bell making, and Stanley Bevin works at a desk that is nearly covered with bells.
''I just have a collage here,'' said Mr. Bevin. He pointed to one model about to be produced with a different kind of handle. ''And here's a picture bell; this in particular is a cardinal bell,'' he said, picking up a small white bell with a bright red cardinal painted on it. Mr. Bevin noted that the original drawing for the cardinal was made by his son, Christopher - then age 9 and now a sophomore in college.
The Uses of Bells
''There are multitudinous uses for bells,'' said Mr. Bevin. The company's catalogues - printed since 1858 - now show barbecue bells, call bells, tea bells, a speaker's bell, Swiss and Kentucky cow bells, sheep bells, turkey bells, yacht bells, door bells, ice cream bells, Arctic sleigh bells, replicas of the Liberty Bell and more. The bells are made mainly of aluminum, brass or steel, and range is size from 12-inch diameter gongs down to 3/8-inch diameter sleigh bells. ''Those little guys,'' Mr. Bevin said, ''sometimes I put them in my pocket and they get washed.''
Bells by Bevin are sold widely. Mr. Bevin cited sales around the country and to many foreign countries, to ''corner mom-and-pop stores and to major chains.'' One enthusiastic customer of the firm is Nikki O'Neill, wife of Gov. William A. O'Neill. ''We have used many forms of Bevin bells,'' said Mrs. O'Neill. ''Many, many times I've given their patio bell as a gift, and we have one on our patio.'' She said she also gave the Bevins' sleigh bells as gifts, had Bevin bells on the doorknobs of her home, and had an old communion bell made decades ago by the firm in the Governor's hometown.
Earlier a Foundry
In earlier times, Bevin Brothers operated a foundry. But, said Mr. Bevin, ''We no longer cast here; today we fabricate and stamp.'' The firm has its own tool and die departments as well as equipment for buffing, painting and plating. On a tour of the plant, Mr. Bevin pointed out huge metal presses and polishing machines and a room devoted to spray painting. He smiled at a worker carrying a bucket of door bells and stopped to talk with Ellen Smollack, who bent over a machine making loops to hold bell clappers.
Some 45 people work at Bevin Brothers; most are from East Hampton, and many have been with the company for years. ''I've worked with four generations of Bevins,'' said Irving Anderson, the plant foreman. Mr. Bevin said that Bevins had long cared about their employees and their families. ''The human side of business has been going on here for almost 160 years,'' he said. But he also noted that he works steadily to automate the plant and reduce the number of employees.
Mr. Bevin said that he is now the only member of his family actively engaged in running the venerable family enterprise. He runs it on his own terms, and does not disclose its profits or losses. ''This is my fiefdom,'' he said. ''I'm master of the manor.''
A Family Business
But what he does discuss are his concerns about running a family business in an age of conglomerates and high taxes. ''The harder you work and the more you do,'' he said, ''the greater your chances of ending up not owning your own business.'' In his view, Federal policies are detrimental to small businesses, his and others, and he is bitter. ''We make enough to keep the doors open,'' he said, but he noted that in the past year, three of his suppliers have gone out of business. He said he has considered moving his business out of the country.
Despite his concerns, he has hope for the future of Bevin Brothers. ''Who knows?'' he said. ''We've been here for 158 years. Probably we can manage to outlast the United States Government.''