Chester County, TNGenWeb

The second oldest bell on FHU’s campus dates back to 1897 when A. G. Freed, president of West Tennessee Christian College in Henderson, Tennessee, was given $5,000 to construct a new building and he renamed the school, Georgia Robertson Christian College, in honor of the daughter of donor J. F. Robertson of Crockett Mills, Tennessee. The bell Freed selected  was manufactured by The C. S. Bell Company. When E. C. McDougle closed the school in 1907, he took his teaching equipment but the bell was left behind. The building eventually came in possession of the Chester County school system and served as a public school building until Freed-Hardeman purchased the building and renamed it the Milan-Sitka Building in honor of two Gibson County communities who spear-headed the raising of funds to restore the building. When the building was demolished in 2004, the bell, facade, and some brick were put in storage. The bell now hangs in the recently constructed Clock Tower at the south end of the Commons. Next we will look at the third oldest bell on the FHU campus.