The citizens of Newry had been having church service in the hall over the company store for a good while after the village was built. They petitioned the company to allow them to start a building fund, which was agreed to. However, the management went two steps further. They furnished a building site near the center of the community and graciously added $1,500.00 to the meager amount the people had collected to erect the building. The people were predominately Baptist, but the church building was referred to as a Union Church, meaning that all denomination were welcome.

The above bell is the original one which faithfully served its purpose for many years. It rang not only to summon the people to worship service but it also rang on New Year's at midnight. Bells had a distinct function over a thousand years. They not only toiled for worship, they tolled for the death of saints. They tolled on ships at sea, on railway engines, on street cars, and to call farmhands in from the plantations.

However, the church bell retains a certain distinction from all others...

J.L. Gaillard, reprinted 16 June 2008

Marker is at the intersection of Broadway Street (State Road 37-203) and Palmetto Avenue, on the left when traveling east on Broadway Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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