HISTORY OF ORANGE
died July 12, 1819, aged 78, and who lies in the Orange cemetery, bears out these statements:
''Oft as the bell with solemn toll
Speaks the departure of a soul,
Let each one ask himself , Am I
Prepared should I be called to die?"
Another use was found for the church bell, for on December 7, 1818, it was voted ''that Jonathan Judd be sexton to ring the bell on the Sabbath, on Lecture days, and every night at nine o'clock, Saturday night excepted, for $20.00 a year."
Evidently the first bell they procured proved defective, for at the annual Society meeting, held in December, 1822, they first appointed a committee to see what could be done to have the bell mended, but on further discussion, it was voted that if fifty dollars could be raised by subscription, the Society would take from the Treasury the remainder of the amount necessary to get a new bell. This was done, and with great difficulty a new bell was installed in the belfry.
The church stands on high ground, and the top of the steeple is visible from almost any part of the town. The seating arrangement was much different than at the present time. The seats on the main floor were reserved for the middle-aged people. All the youth, the unmarried young men and women, and generally the younger married couples, were seated in the high galleries. There seemed some controversy as to which seats certain persons should occupy, and at the Ecclesiastical Society meeting, December 7, 1818, it was voted ''that all widows be seated as when their husbands were living." It was further voted that ''the house should be seated according to list and age, and every person shall send his age to the Seaters.'' That vote did not meet with very popular response, for at the very next meeting of the society it was voted ''that this society pay no attention to what the Seating committee have done, in seating the house, but go back to their old pews."
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