Ding. Ding. Ding.

Silence.

During the peak of the holiday season, Justin Bailey hiked up to the bell tower of the First United Methodist Church in Tamaqua. Bailey offered to ring the bell on Christmas Eve.

Bailey is heavily involved in Tamaqua’s Independent Order of Odd Fellows organization and is also the secretary of Harmony Lodge, a branch of Odd Fellows. Both help pitch in to assist the Tamaqua community.

“One of our members of the Rebekah Lodge (an additional branch of Odd Fellows) belongs to the First United Methodist Church,” said Bailey, Secretary of Harmony Lodge.

“I heard they weren’t going to have a Christmas Eve service. … but I said I’d go up and ring the bell for Christmas Eve anyway. It rang about four times and then the rope snapped.

“The rope on the bell was so rotted through, it was just a matter of time. … I talked to a few of our members; Josh is the most recent past president of our club. His wife, Ashley, is our most recent president of the Rebekah Lodge.”

The church bell was out of commission for roughly three weeks until Josh and Ashley Guscott climbed to the rescue.

On Jan. 9, the Guscotts climbed up to the bell to replace the rope.

“It felt like being in ‘National Treasure’ being up there,” Josh said. “The ladder you have to get up there is so small. I’m a small guy. Me and my wife were the only ones that could.

“The rope snapped. … Next to it is a big wheel and you have to put the end of the rope into a small hole. It has a track on it. You tie a knot on the other side of the hole, bring it through the track and it goes through a hole in the floor, which feeds it all the way down into the main area of the church.”

Bailey explained the Odd Fellows group has a ton of local history.

“I am very sure we’re Tamaqua’s oldest fraternal and civic organization and maybe even the town’s oldest group in general. These other organizations are struggling too and we need to work together. … We have ties to this church and it’s nice to help them out.”

Bailey said a group of members might make another trip up to the bell in the near future to do a bit more maintenance work.

“We don’t do it for publicity, we do it because this is what we’re supposed to do. But the pictures of the bell were so cool.“

Who are the Odd Fellows?

The Odd Fellows’ website says, “As an organization, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows aims to provide a framework that promotes personal and social development.

“Lodge degrees and activities aim to improve and elevate every person to a higher, nobler plane; to extend sympathy and aid to those in need, making their burdens lighter, relieving the darkness of despair; to war against vice in every form, and to be a great moral power and influence for the good of humanity.”

Bailey said the organization dates back to 1843 in Tamaqua.

“Primarily what we were was the precursor to insurance. You’ve heard the nightmares about working in the mines. If a miner got hurt, or killed, there was no way to provide any relief for these people or the families. … if somebody got hurt, we had sick benefits, At that time, we’d pay a couple pennies a week or something, until you got back on your feet.

“If something happened to you, where you got killed in the mines, we would help take care of your family. We would provide a resting place for you and your family, which is why the (Odd Fellows) Cemetery became as large as it has.”

Bailey said the organization started to dwindle, but at one point, there were about 1,500 lodges in Pennsylvania alone, and Tamaqua was the second largest in the state. According to Bailey, the largest was in Bethlehem.

“We stared getting active again about 20 years ago,” said Bailey. “The big thing we do is take care of Odd Fellows Cemetery. We need to start reaching out into the community more to let everyone know we’re not just an organization that runs a cemetery, but we also do good in our community.”