Index to carillons and chimes
by Meeks & Watson

The modern American foundry of Meeks, Watson & Company (sometimes informally called Meeks & Watson) has provided bells for various carillons and chimes in North America.  See the bottom of this page for contact information and notes on the history of this bellfoundry and carillon builder.

The sites are listed in order by year of installation.
Following the year is an indication of the founder's contribution to the instrument:

Finally, there is an indication of the type of instrument:
  trad      - carillon with traditional keyboard
  non-trad  - carillon with non-traditional mechanism
  trad*     - carillon with traditional keyboard now,
              but with other mechanism and/or chime size at the date cited
  chime     - chime (any mechanism)
  (...)...  - instrument was replaced; link is to the same site
  [...]     - instrument is defunct; link is to "sites that are no more"

Meeks, Watson & Company; Georgetown, Ohio, USA

NIAGARA FALLS - RB            : CANADA - ON  1992 K  trad
   The Rainbow Tower Carillon
   Rainbow Tower
   Rainbow Bridge 
MERCERSBURG                   : USA - PA     1996 I  trad
   The Henry Bucher Swoope Carillon
   Barker Tower 
   Chapel 
   Mercersburg Academy 
WILLIAMSVILLE                 : USA - NY     1996 R  trad
   The Niederlander Carillon
   Calvary Episcopal Church 
DES MOINES                    : USA - IA     1997 E  trad*
   Cathedral Church of St.Paul (Episcopal) 
CORPUS CHRISTI - CGS          : USA - TX     1998 I  trad
   Memorial Carillon
   Church of the Good Shepherd 
ELSAH - 2                     : USA - IL     1998 C  (trad)
   The Jean L. Rainwater Carillon
   Chapel 
   Principia College 
BLOOMFIELD HILLS - KH/1       : USA - MI     1999 K  trad
   Kirk in the Hills (Presbyterian/PCUSA) 
ITHACA                        : USA - NY     1999 E  chime
   The Cornell Chimes
   McGraw Tower 
   Uris Library (formerly Main Library) 
   Cornell University 
YOAKUM                        : USA - TX     2000 C  [non-trad]
   James F. Neumann residence 
   [bells cast 1997-8 for Elsah, IL]
BLOOMFIELD HILLS - CCC        : USA - MI     2001 R  trad
   The Wallace Carillon
   Christ Church Cranbrook (Episcopal) 
MIDDLEBURY                    : USA - VT     2001 R  trad
   Mead Memorial Chapel 
   Middlebury College 
ERIE - PS                     : USA - PA     2002 C  trad
   Floyd and Juanita Smith Carillon
   Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel 
   Penn State Erie, The Behrend College 
LUNENBURG                     : CANADA - NS  2002 R  chime
   St.John's Anglican Church 
NASHVILLE - BU                : USA - TN     2002 I  trad
   Belmont University 
   (formerly Belmont College) 
OOLTEWAH                      : USA - TN     2002 F  trad*
   Linnie M. Barger Memorial Carillon
   St.Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church
MERCERSBURG                   : USA - PA     2003 R  trad
   The Henry Bucher Swoope Carillon
   Barker Tower 
   Chapel 
   Mercersburg Academy 
WICHITA FALLS                 : USA - TX     2003 E  trad
   Redwine Carillon
   Hardin Administration Building 
   Midwestern State University 
MORGANTOWN                    : USA - WV     2004 E  chime
   Wesley United Methodist Church 
LUNENBURG                     : CANADA - NS  2005 R  chime
   St.John's Anglican Church 
LUBBOCK - TTU                 : USA - TX     2005 E  trad
   Charles & Georgia Robertson Baird Memorial Carillon
   Administration Building
   Texas Tech University 
OOLTEWAH                      : USA - TN     2005 I  trad*
   Linnie M. Barger Memorial Carillon
   St.Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church
ALFRED                        : USA - NY     2006 R  trad
   Davis Memorial Carillon
   Alfred University 
GUELPH                        : CANADA - ON  2006 E  trad
   Cutten Memorial Carillon
   St.George's Anglican Church 
MERCERSBURG                   : USA - PA     2006 R  trad
   The Henry Bucher Swoope Carillon
   Barker Tower 
   Chapel 
   Mercersburg Academy 
NASHVILLE - BU                : USA - TN     2006 E  trad
   Belmont University 
   (formerly Belmont College) 
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE           : CANADA - ON  2006 E  chime
   St.Mark's Anglican Church 
OOLTEWAH                      : USA - TN     2006 E  trad
   Linnie M. Barger Memorial Carillon
   St.Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church
SHERMAN                       : USA - TX     2007 E  trad
   Wynne Chapel 
   Austin College

Contact:

	Meeks, Watson & Company
	10402 West Fork Road
	Georgetown, OH  45121
	Tel: (937)378-2355
	    =     378-BELL
	Fax: (937)378-2267
	Email: mw_c@hotmail.com
	       MWBells@aol.com

History:

Richard M. "Rick" Watson became acquainted with the carillon as a teenager, and has made it his life's work.  He studied the carillon while attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and became a Carillonneur Member of the GCNA.  He was carillonneur of Samford University (Birmingham, AL) for a few years before joining the Verdin Company (Cincinnati, OH), where he eventually rose to become head of their Cast Bell Division. 

In 1991, Rick and another Verdin employee, William "Bill" Meeks, left the company to start their own enterprise.  For the first few years, they were heavily dependent on subcontracts from Verdin for the design of carillons that Verdin would build (with Petit & Fritsen bells), as well for as the design and construction of playing and practice keyboards for those carillons.  But they have long since been independent of Verdin, as the above listing of carillon and chime work shows. 

The company was located in Batavia OH for a few years, and moved to its present location in January 1994.  Besides casting and tuning bells for carillons and chimes, the company designs, produces and maintains everything from single church bells to complete carillons.  A very rare expertise which they have is the tuning of old American-made bells.

Return to Indexes to bellfoundries.

This index page was built from the database on 14-Oct-01 and last updated on 24-Dec-07.

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