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Sitting in one corner of the Glad Tidings Church office in San Juan Bautista is a machine the size of a filing cabinet that could only be called—compared with current state-of-the-art electronics—a contraption. Installed in 1970, it channeled recordings of carillons to speakers in the steeple, replacing bells deemed too heavy for the structure. It functioned until 2010 when continued maintenance issues silenced it.
“We used to load it up on a pickup truck,” said John Amelio, pastor of Glad Tidings since 1979. “There was a fellow in San Jose who would get it going for us again. We’d haul it home, and it would go for another, maybe four or five years. It’d break down, and we’d haul it to him again.”
The last trip to San Jose with the dysfunctional unit brought terrible news: It was unrepairable. The materials needed to repair the system were no longer available.
But now, through the community fundraiser “Bring Back the Bells,” the bells will ring again thanks to help from the Community Foundation for San Benito County, a matching grant from Willis Construction, and a final $600 donation from the Glad Tidings congregation.
A new computer-based system from BRG Precision Products was purchased with the proceeds. It is a fraction of the size of the old cassette-driven system and comes with a solid-state drive pre-programmed with more than 2,200 authentic cast-bell recordings.
The sounds include hymns, with several versions of popular ones like “Amazing Grace” and “Ave Maria,” secular tunes like “The Star Spangled Banner,” and a wide assortment of chimes, clock strikes, peals and funeral tolls, some based on famous church bells like those at Westminster Cathedral. (BGR’s site offers a 16-minute audio demonstration of selections for various occasions.)
A legacy of giving
Kenneth Beck donated the original bell system to the church in memory of his wife, Hazel. The couple enjoyed traveling, and their nephew, Bill Johnson, remembered riding with them on occasion.
“Ken was a civil engineer all of his life in San Luis Obispo,” Johnson said. “He would take us on rides all over San Luis Obispo County and say, ‘I built this road, or ‘I built that bridge.’ They would go on trips to take these wonderful pictures, and he would show us slides of their last trip to Alaska or Yellowstone.”
According to Johnson, Hazel died in 1966, soon after the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Left alone, Ken moved from San Luis Obispo to an assisted care facility in Monterey.
“They never had children and there was nobody for him to do anything with,” he said. “Around the time he moved, he donated the bells to the church. He wanted something to remember Hazel by and had money because he was pretty important.”
Ken chose San Juan Bautista for the gift, Johnson said, because Hazel was the “daughter of a mucky-muck,“ William Sims Prescott, and she had grown up on his ranch outside the city. Prescott was involved in approving the San Juan Pacific Railway as a county supervisor for District 2. (Carrying on that tradition, Johnson’s daughter is San Benito County Supervisor Mindy Sotelo.)
Johnson remembered the bells vividly and said they seemed to be an important part of San Juan’s character.
“San Juan got to be known by them,” he said. “It was more than just church bells. Time goes by and people forget about these things. I’m so happy that they’re doing something to bring him back.”
Amelio said he gets stopped in the street by locals who ask him about the bells.”
“A lot of people remember them from when they were in grammar school,” Amelio said. “And folks who came into San Juan for a festival or dinner would always say that they enjoyed hearing the bells.”
Shawna Freels, a fundraising committee member, said the project had been inspired by Stephanie Correia, a former San Juan resident who returned to the city three years ago. She began discussing the bells with Shawna’s husband, San Juan Bautista Mayor Scott Freels, who she works with on researching local history.
“He told her that George Diaz had tried to raise funds for the bells years before,” Shawna said. “Stephanie reached out to George, and that’s how it’s started. He did the footwork on finding companies that sell times systems now and connected us with the Community Foundation.”
Shawna Freels also contacted Larry Willis of Willis Construction, who pledged $3,000 in matching funds.
“The rest has all been through the parish,” Freels said. “The pastor has been promoting it with his parishioners, and we sent letters to local businesses and other potential donors.”
A final donation of $600 from parishioners pushed the fundraiser over the top, and the system was ordered.
Following its installation, there will be a dedication ceremony and BBQ on Oct 19 and the block of 3rd Street in front of the church, between Muckelemi and Polk Streets, will be closed for the event.
Freels said that the church plans to ring the bells hourly from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and, in addition, the system can be used to send emergency alerts to the community.
“I think this is just an incredible bonus for us in town,” she said. “The sound can be heard for nine blocks, and I think it will support our community in a pretty phenomenal way.”
The pastor, though, is just glad to have the bells back.
“People really enjoyed listening to them,” Amelio said. “The bells make you feel good. I guess they just make you feel a little closer to God.”
Wanda Guilbert, president of the San Juan Bautista Historical Society, wrote a detailed history of the church and bells for the Aug 2024 issue of Mission Village Voice as part of her long-running “Then and Now” series. The article includes photographs of the church’s original location, its appearance over the years, and the reconstruction of the steeple.
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