A Year in the Life of the Ivinsons by Kim Viner

Someone must wind the clock every eight days with a metal crank handle more than a foot long. The bells are still those shipped west from Boston more than a century ago. The metal ladders pass by hanging bells of various sizes to the clock at the top of the tower. The clock must be wound every eight days, Williamson said. Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Laramie. Punch Williamson demonstrates the inner workings of the clock inside the St. Laramie banker and philanthropist Edward Ivinson paid for the project to memorialize the death of his wife Jane. The bells were purchased in Boston later, and the church’s clock tower was completed in 1916. At that time and for many years after, the church’s nave was the largest room in Laramie, Williamson said. The church was built with sandstone quarried northeast of town, according to its website. Matthew’s Episcopalian Cathedral was completed in 1896. It was important to memorialize the dead, he said. Williamson himself has lost friends and family to the disease, he said, not just here but in England and South Africa and elsewhere around the world. The nation’s death toll surpassed 400,000 the day of the memorial. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile)Įach second represented 1,000 Americans killed by the virus, Williamson said. The cathedral has eleven bells, that were shipped from Boston over a century ago. Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral, as viewed from below. He continued to pull the chain, and the bells tolled over Laramie for the next 400 seconds - a little over six minutes.

Shortly after 3:34, Williamson pulled a chain to ring one of the church’s deeper timbred bells. The new president asked churches to ring their bells, Americans to put candles in their windows and cities to light their buildings in a moment of remembrance for the nation’s COVID-19 fatalities.

The Episcopal Diocese in Wyoming had invited each of its churches to heed a national call from President Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Williamson made the climb for a particular reason. At 80 years old, Williamson has little trouble climbing up and down ladders in the 118-feet high clock and bell tower.

Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral’s 11 century-old bells. Donate Now Punch Williamson climbs a ladder toward a control room for the St.

A Year in the Life of the Ivinsons by Kim Viner