During the gubernatorial campaign of 1934, candidate Claude Pittman was scheduled to speak at the courthouse. The janitor climbed to the clock tower to alert the townspeople. The bell was designed to be rung by pulling a rope attached to a big wheel. The rope had frayed and would no longer work. The janitor climbed a ladder and struck the bell, presumably with a hammer or some metal object. As he struck the bell, it cracked upward from the base.
County officials knew that they would need to acquire a new bell since the crack could not be repaired. The cost of a new bell could have run as high as $2000.00. The commissioners turned to scrap metal dealer P.M. Watson. Watson agreed to sell a slightly smaller bronze bell to the county for $100.00. Despite its smaller size, the bronze bell's vibrations would carry further than the iron one's.
That bell, which dated back to 1908, came from neighboring Dodge County. Watson purchased the bell in 1939 after the courthouse fire, thinking it might be of further use. Until Howard Edwards came along with an idea on how to put the bell up in the tower, the old Dodge County bell sat out in front of the courthouse waiting to be hoisted up to its perch. Edwards had to remove one of the four pillars of the tower to get the bell inside.
That pillar bore the scars until the old Laurens County Courthouse was razed in 1963. Dubliner W.W. Walke purchased the bell and donated it to Christ Episcopal Church, where it is still in use today. The plans to build an elaborate bell tower beside the church never materialized. For some time, the bell was turned upside down and used as a planter. One man in charge of ringing the bell drilled a hole in it so that he could ring the bell from the inside of the Church using a long, thin wire which ran through the hole.
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