Meneely & company (West Troy, NY)
The History
The story of the Meneely Bell Foundry begins in 1808 when bell founder Benjamin Hanks sets up a foundry for his son Julius in 1808 in what was then called Gibbonsville, NY. In 1819 the 17-year-old Andrew Meneely began apprenticing in the foundry and then later took over the foundry from Julius when he moved out of the city. Officially the foundry became Andrew Meneely in early 1826. At this time the foundry was casting bells and canons as well as making mathematical and surveying equipment.
In 1836 Andrew’s health was suffering and he was forced to bring on his foundry foreman as a partner. Joseph V. Oothout became partner, and the foundry was renamed Meneely & Oothout. That partnership only lasted about 5 years when Andrew bought out Oothout and the foundry reverted back to Andrew Meneely.
By the late 1840’s & early 1850’s, Andrew was studying the English bells that were being installed in America. He was interested in how those foundries were able to cast specific notes that sounded good when they were rung together.
In 1849 Andrew brought his oldest son, Edwin Andrew Meneely into the business as a partner. That same year, the foundry cast a 9-bell chime for the exhibition fair at American Institute in New York City. This chime they claimed to be the first American made chime of bells, although some historians dispute this fact as it is now believed that Francis Mayer had made the actual first chime the year before for St. Philip Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. Nonetheless this was certainly the first chime made by Meneely. The chime started on an E1 of over 3,000 Lbs. and had a total weight of over 13,000 Lbs. of bells.
At the time Andrew brought his son Edwin in as a partner, the foundry was renamed Meneely & Son but unfortunately this partnership lasted only 2 years as Andrew died in 1851 at the age of 49. That same year Edwin brought his brother, Andrew’s second oldest son into the business as partner, and the company was renamed Andrew Meneely’s’ Sons.
In 1854 the brothers accomplished another important milestone in the company’s history when the cast and installed another nine-bell chime for Trinity Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Just two years later in 1856, the brothers cast and installed the first and only change ringing set of bells that had been cast in America. Before this, all of the rings in North America had been made in England and shipped over by boat.
In 1863 Edwin and George decided to rename the foundry once again, this time changing the name from Andrew Meneely’s’ Sons to E.A. & G. R. Meneely.
The foundry continued cast many bells and chimes. In 1873 they cast their first 12 bell chime, most chimes before this were only 9 or 10 bells. The fact that they were able to cast a chime with more bells was proof that their casting abilities and the sound of their bells was improving. There are many letters in the foundry archives that state that between the years of 1854 to 1868 they were constantly studying and changing their bells to improve the sound. Proof of these changes exist in the chimes that survive today that were created during this time period.
In 1874 George left the foundry and in 1880 Edwin brought his oldest son, Andrew H. into the business.
They continued to experiment with their profile design over the next 10 or so years, the profiles or shapes of their bells changed a few times, but it wasn’t until 1896 that Andrew H. discovered that there was indeed more than one sound that came from a bell when it was struck. It is documented that in the year 1896 my Andrew H. discovered that the tone elements of bells which consist of various harmonies and that over and under tones could be determined by the use of tuning forks and these tone elements controlled, tuned and kept in proper musical relationship to the other and thus tone-tempered to other bells of a chime or pea. It was at this time, just after this discovery that Andrew H. developed what he called Major Triad tuning. Major Triad tuning was in essence tuning the Prime, Minor Third and the Nominal partials, which greatly improved the sound of their Meneely bells. This is interesting in the fact that a great advancement had indeed been made, while they chose to basically ignore the Hum and the Quint, the other two major partials of a bell. It is not known for sure if they made this choice on purpose or if they just didn’t know how to control these other two important partials.
It was at this time that a great leap forward was made in the fact that the tonality of the Meneely & Company bells. Chimes cast after 1897 were significantly more harmonious than the chimes cast before.
As Andrew H. brought his sons into the business, first Andrew E, who was called Ernest and later Alfred Cluett, they were dedicated to continuing to improve the bells and bell equipment. Beginning in 1926, the foundry began to tune all 5 partials of their bells, paving the way to the first American made carillon. This was accomplished in 1928 when the 23 bell carillon was cast and installed at St. James Church in Danbury, CT.
By the time the foundry closed in 1952, they had created about 170 chime, 5 carillons and hundreds of peals. The Old Meneely bell foundry was the greatest bell foundry in American History. More than 65,000 bells were cast under the Meneely brand between 1826 and 1951.
