Two years ago, the old school bell was installed in a place of prominence at Nancy Smith Elementary School, part of the Albany Independent School District. There, he and wife Lynne have recently restored the historic Fort Griffin School. For about a century, the bell was mounted in a modest tower just beyond the stone building. School trustees in Albany, a town of 1,700 about 35 miles northeast of Abilene, say they aren' t disputing Teinert's claim out of hand but want to research the matter before deciding whether to remove the bell from the elementary campus. That's sent school officials digging through copies of the old, defunct town newspaper, The Albany Echo.
Some people disagree with that.
But I think the board is now searching for the best answer of where it should be. Chimes a-changin' One of the first schools in Shackelford County, the Fort Griffin school operated from 1877 to 1937 when low enrollment numbers forced consolidation with the expanding Albany school system. In 1942, all buildings and equipment were signed over to the nearby Albany district. The old school building, which once housed the Masonic Lodge on its second floor, was used as a church and community center until fire damaged it in the early 1970s. Although the old bell remained at the Fort Griffin site, local history buff Morris Ledbetter became concerned about the crumbling site in the 1980s and moved the bell to rancher Watt Matthews' famous Lambshead Ranch for safekeeping.