As you drive the streets of picturesque Jefferson, Texas, you
will likely see the historic First United Methodist Church with
its steeple stretching into the sky. At a glance, the white
wooden structure sitting on a hillside seems as though it could
be the opening scene of a nostalgic Hallmark movie. On Sunday
mornings the rich, deep sound of a church bell wafts through the
small town, once a prosperous inland port for steamboats
traveling on the Big Cypress Bayou in the piney woods of East
Texas. For almost 80 years Milton Bass has served as the master
bell ringer, having learned the art from a local doctor,
alongside his twin brother, Paul, who died during World War II.
During those eight decades, life in Jefferson changed. Railroads
dwindled; the bayou became unnavigable; industry waned. Even so,
the town has reinvented itself as a historic tourist
destination. Today 90-year-old Milton takes his mark in the
church’s narthex each Sunday morning and pulls the rope in a
unique rhythm to make the bell tones th