Stuckstede & Brother Bell Foundry
The History
Not to be confused with the older, larger Stuckstede Bell Foundry, a second Stuckstede Bell Foundry was started by 28-year-old Herman J. Stuckstede and his younger brother 27-year-old John Henry Stuckstede, two sons of J.G. Stuckstede in about 1890. The bells cast by the brothers as well as the equipment that they produced looked very similar to what their uncle Henry Stuckstede was producing at the time.
This foundry cast mostly single bells and some peals that were shipped to the north and south of the St. Louis region. Most of their bells were under 1,000 Lbs.
In the late 1920’s Herman J. brought his son Joseph Francis into the business. Herman continued casting mostly single bells of average size into the 1940’s when copper and tin became very hard to get because of World War 2. In 1951 he decided if the foundry was going to survive, he would have to relocate to a country that he could get the raw materials necessary to cast bells. He decided to move his family to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but no evidence has been found that we were able to open a foundry there. He later moved back to St. Louis after the war and reopened the bell foundry but really struggled and ended up closing permanently in 1961.
This foundry never produced any chimes but many of their bells and peals still survive mostly around a several hundred-mile radius of St. Louis. This foundry was the second largest bell foundry west of Cincinnati.
