Photos: Ladd Grade School unveils its iconic restored bell

Ladd School Board secretary Jane Piccatto, rings a fully-restored 1890 school bell for the first time on Monday, May 19, 2025 at Ladd Grade School. The bell was restored by Valley Fabrication Inc. The bell weighs just shy of 1,000 pounds. In 1890, the Whitebrest Fuel Co, in Iowa completed a coal mine shaft on the north end of town and the Village of Ladd was founded that same year. At the start of the school year in 1890, construction was started on a wooden two-story school buiding and land donated by the coal conpany. The school was compleated in the spring of 1891 and opened in April. (Scott Anderson)