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Brilliant’s Lincoln School bell gets a Lion’s touch

BRILLIANT – A bell that rang to announce the start of classes each day at Lincoln School, from 1909 until 1980, now is on view at the Rivers Landing apartment area.

This is due to the work and interest in retaining a piece of history in the community by the Brilliant Lions Club. And it brings fond memories for many club members, as they attended the school that housed four grades-third to sixth – but later included seventh and eighth grades.

The bell was at the top of the school building and could be heard for a long distance, according to Ralph Nickoson, Lions president.

John Goosman remembered a two-room school that had occupied the spot had burned down and was replaced by Lincoln Elementary School. He went to sixth grade there.

Upstairs rooms were the homerooms, and there was an addition built for a gymnasium, Goosman, Nickson, Jack Campbell, Don Hutchison and Charlie Bane all recalled. The building covered most of the block, and Goosman remembered that he had 30 classmates in his sixth-grade class, so it wasn’t a small institution of learning .

The Brilliant Lions believe the bell has memories and needed to be on display in the area where the school once stood. So they went to work to have the bell blasted, covered with a sealer, painted with a sliver-gold sheen and mounted on a yoke.

“It was a nice project for us,” Nickoson said. He spent the longest amount of time in the school as he attended in the fifth and sixth grades and then it was changed into a junior high school the next year, so he was there for his seventh- and eighth-grade years as well.

The displayed bell has the clapper removed since mysterious ringing in the middle of the night could be disruptive.

It was molded in 1885 by A. Fulton and Sons in Pittsburgh.

The Rivers Landing apartments now are located on the Second Street property, where the school once stood, and were built in 1984, it was noted.

Lions members thanked Chuck George, AEP Cardinal plant manager, and Brian Yanssens for getting the yoke made for the project.

Brilliant’s Lincoln School bell gets a Lion’s touch

By ESTHER MCCOY

Staff writer

BRILLIANT – A bell that rang to announce the start of classes each day at Lincoln School, from 1909 until 1980, now is on view at the Rivers Landing apartment area.

This is due to the work and interest in retaining a piece of history in the community by the Brilliant Lions Club. And it brings fond memories for many club members, as they attended the school that housed four grades-third to sixth – but later included seventh and eighth grades.

The bell was at the top of the school building and could be heard for a long distance, according to Ralph Nickoson, Lions president.

John Goosman remembered a two-room school that had occupied the spot had burned down and was replaced by Lincoln Elementary School. He went to sixth grade there.

Upstairs rooms were the homerooms, and there was an addition built for a gymnasium, Goosman, Nickson, Jack Campbell, Don Hutchison and Charlie Bane all recalled. The building covered most of the block, and Goosman remembered that he had 30 classmates in his sixth-grade class, so it wasn’t a small institution of learning .

The Brilliant Lions believe the bell has memories and needed to be on display in the area where the school once stood. So they went to work to have the bell blasted, covered with a sealer, painted with a sliver-gold sheen and mounted on a yoke.

“It was a nice project for us,” Nickoson said. He spent the longest amount of time in the school as he attended in the fifth and sixth grades and then it was changed into a junior high school the next year, so he was there for his seventh- and eighth-grade years as well.

The displayed bell has the clapper removed since mysterious ringing in the middle of the night could be disruptive.

It was molded in 1885 by A. Fulton and Sons in Pittsburgh.

The Rivers Landing apartments now are located on the Second Street property, where the school once stood, and were built in 1984, it was noted.

Lions members thanked Chuck George, AEP Cardinal plant manager, and Brian Yanssens for getting the yoke made for the project.

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