Old Bastrop Academy Bell

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, this is the story of a bell. Not just any bell, a bell that has outlasted the school that needed it, the steamboat that carried it, and just about every plan anyone ever made for it.

Cast in 1850, this bell started its life with a purpose. The ladies of Bastrop, and you'd best not underestimate the ladies of Bastrop, collected money to bring it here. And in 1851, it arrived by steamer.

A steamer with a name that ought to stop you cold. The Water Mockasin. Say that name out loud on a quiet night and tell me it doesn't sound like something that would bite you.

That vessel carried this bell up to Bastrop, and for decades it did its job. Calling students to class at the old Bastrop Academy, ringing out across the town, marking the hours of learning. Then 1892 came around.

The bell was no longer needed to summon school classes. So what do you do with a bell like that? You don't just set it in a field.

The folks of Bastrop moved it to a cupola at the Methodist Church, gave it a new home, a new purpose, a new congregation to watch over. And then, come 1928, it moved again, this time into a campanile, where it has stood ever since. Cast in 1850.

Still right here. That bell has been a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it has never been is forgotten.

What the marker says

Cast 1850. Bastrop ladies collected money, and bell was brought here in 1851 by steamer "Water Mockasin." In 1892, no longer used to summon school classes, it was placed in a cupola at the Methodist Church; since 1928, in this campanile. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966