You hear the sounds of bells a lot this time of year. For many people it signals the arrival of the holiday season. However, it means much more to one small Connecticut town. East Hampton was built on bells.
"East Hampton is known as Bell Town USA. In the 1800's, it was often referred to as jingle town as well because so many bells have been made here," said Matt Bevin, who runs his family's bell business.
Throughout the decades thirty different bell companies have called East Hampton home. In time though, the bells went silent at every company but one.
“This is my grandfather, this is my great-grandfather, this is my great-great grandfather my great-great-great grandfather,” Matt Bevin says pointing to pictures hanging in the entrance of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Company.
Bevin is the sixth generation to run the company his great-great-great grandfather and his three brothers started nearly two hundred years ago. "For better or worse, we're the only company in the U.S. left that makes just bells," said Bevin.
It’s a fact now lost on many of the town's residents. "Now that we've become a bedroom town a lot of people don't even know we're back here,” said 30-year Bevin employee, Doug Dilla.
The company is in its 178th year in business. "There is a lot of pride in it and we have twenty-one employees. In this environment, in this day and age a lot of these folks would be hard pressed to find a job right now," said Bevin.
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There’s not a lot of work like this left either. Most of the manufacturing of a bell is still done by hand. "I think it's remarkable we're still here. We have a niche," said Dilla. “We're all ding-a-lings,” he says, laughing.
Some might say that’s so. Bell making isn't exactly a cash cow business. But it's in Matt Bevin's blood. "We can't compete with China and India on price. We have to compete on quality, we have to compete on customization, we have to compete on service," he said.
That's exactly what they do at Bevin brothers. The company still makes more than 200 varieties of bells, including all bells for the Salvation Army. "There's just something magical about it and I just love the sound of bells. I really do," said Bevin.
As do many others, especially this time of year.
