Smith, a Catholic who attends Immaculate Conception Parish in Ira Township, said he was looking for a showpiece boat propeller to replace the one thieves tried to steal from in front of his own business, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity when a man in a minivan showed up with the gigantic bell instead.
“When I got there, there wasn’t any propeller, but there was a guy with a little minivan. So we went out there, and he pulls the door open, and I said ‘That’s not a propeller, that’s a bell.’ He said, ‘What do you think of that?’ I said ‘It’s pretty neat. There’s a lot of nostalgia to that bell.’”
It wasn’t until he watched the news that night on Channel 7 (WXYZ) that he realized he was in possession of stolen property. He tried calling the police, he said, and then called the news station.
Smith, the fourth-generation owner of the Henry H. Smith Company, which has been in business for 114 years, plans to return the bell to the Detroit church as soon as someone from the parish or archdiocese can pick it up. He won’t recoup the lost cost — he paid cash for it — but said he had planned to donate the bell to a local maritime museum anyway.
Smith said the man who sold it to him planned to take the bell across the ferry to Canada if he hadn’t bought it. He said the man, whom he recognized and described as a “picker,” likely bought the bell in Detroit shortly after it was stolen.
“That would have been the end of everything. If it had gotten over there, they would have cut it up, sanded the name off — it would have been gone,” he said.
The historic bell is more than 110 years old and originally hung in the steeple of the old St. Casimir Church, a Polish-dominated parish on Detroit’s west side. It was later in the possession of St. Agatha Church and was gifted to Sweetest Heart of Mary when St. Agatha later closed, according to Fr. Mark Borkowski, pastor of Sweetest Heart of Mary at the time. From then on, it sat on a cement slab in front of the church near Mack and Interstate 75.
“The plan was to eventually have a frame built to hold the bell and that it would be able to be rung again,” said Fr. Borkowski, who added it had been "christened" St. Joseph (the name on the bell reads “St. Josephus”). “That plan was never completed, but since the bell was located behind an eight-foot-high iron fence and was incredibly heavy — it took five strong men to lift it onto the platform — it was felt the bell would be safe from theft.”
Smith’s family does have some connection to the city of Detroit. His family owned land where the Renaissance Center now sits, and they remember attending Mass at the now-clustered parishes of Sweetest Heart of Mary, St. Josaphat and St. Joseph.
The bell also bears the name of the Hy. Stuckstede Company, a 19th century bell foundary in St. Louis — another oddity, Smith said, given that he has a friend who owns a foundary in Belleville, Ill., right across the river.
A message seeking comment from Fr. Darrell Roman, pastor of Sweetest Heart of Mary, was not returned before The Michigan Catholic went to press May 28.
