ARTHUR - Old wooden school desks, a piano, a chalkboard in the back of the classroom and a cast-iron coal stove in front of the classroom furnished the inside of the schoolhouse at the Great Pumpkin Patch near Arthur.

The only thing the 96-year-old schoolhouse needed was a bell tower.

That matter was taken care of Friday.

A small group stood outside on the grounds of the Great Pumpkin Patch to watch as a large crane lifted a bell tower on to the roof of Center School built in 1912.

They then shouted loudly as they counted down from 10 to signal the ringing of the bell.

It had been 60 years since the school had a bell tower on it, said Bruce Condill.

Condill and his wife, Mary Beth, allowed the school building to be relocated to their pumpkin patch farm in 1999.

At least 4,000 children come to the Great Pumpkin Patch every year and get to experience the country school, Condill said. Now that experience will include a bell.

He watched as Tri-County Welding's crane lifted the bell tower and set it on the right side of the roof where the original bell tower had been.

The new bell was salvaged from another old country school, Business Knoll School, in Jonathan Creek Township, just two miles south of the Great Pumpkin Patch. It had belonged to the family of Bob Elder.

"We were never going to put the bell up and it was taking up space," Elder said who is a member of the Moultrie County Historical & Genealogical Society that has been restoring the school building over the years.

The historical society already spent $10,000 to move the building to the pumpkin patch, added a front porch and handicapped-accessible ramp, and painted the exterior of the building. And they now have a bell tower.

A lot of volunteer labor and donations have gone into the renovations of this school building, said another historical society member, Janet Roney, 66.

She attended the one-room rural school house when she was a child.

She also dresses up as one of the school moms when children come through for tours.

"We talk about the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," she said about all the children who come through during the month of October to see the different pumpkins.

But as Roney watched along with others, she proudly clapped and cheered as the bell tower went up.

"I also can't emphasize all the work the Candill family had done in giving us this land," she said. "This has been a nice cooperative effort."

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