The Kaw City School Bell that called children to school over one hundred years ago has graduated to its new home at the front entrance of the Kaw City Museum.

The bell first rang out in the fall of 1910 from a bell tower on the roof top of Kaw City’s two-story brick school house. It summoned children to school at 8:30 am and then rang again at 9:00 am, the time they were to line up by grade in front of the school’s steps before marching to their classrooms. The bell also sounded when lunch and recess breaks were over.

The bell’s rope was suspended through the roof and second floor, down into the first grade cloak room. First grade students were rewarded for good behavior with a chance to wrap their small hands around the thick rope and ring the bell. The fun came when the rope lifted them off the floor as the bell swung back and forth.