When Tom White was born no one could say. There is a legend between the old black folks around St. Mary's City that old Tom was fishing off Church Point whe Columbus discovered America, and that he was still there when the Ark and the Dove came up the creek to drop anchor. The validity of these stories has to be questioned, however, especially when the man known as Tom White died only 23 years before the St. Mary's Chronicles recorded the story of his life and death in their volumes.
     Tom was, however, an enigma to those who knew him, but his life was a simple one and he seemed to enjoy it to the hilt. He was known to like his fishing, and he could always be seen dropping line, except on Sundays and feast days when he rang the church bell at the Old Trinity Episcopal Church.
      Now the bell which he rung was not like those rung in a steeple by a bell rope. It was a hand held bell, and once old Tom had come in early during the winter months and set the fire to light in the old wood stove, he would walk back and forth in the front of the church, ringing for all to hear. Summer or winter year round, Tom was at his post, coming up the path frim his little hut a quarter of a mile away. Even on the choldest days, when no service was held, Tom would be there, shoveling snow from the church past as well as that of the Female Seminary, and would kneel by the stove, attending his service by himself.
      On the night Tom died, he was surrounded by the two men dearest to him in the world, Dr. John M. Brome, his former master, and Dr. James Stephenson, was was then rector of the new Trinity Church which had replaced the old with a steeple and bell tower. The doctor had done all that he could do to save his old faithful black friend, and the last medicine given to the old sexton was a small pill. Old Tom responded by saying:
      "Marsa John, make dat pill bigger, 'cause if I died who's gonna to ring da chu'ch bell?"
     "Pills will not cure you, Tom," replied the doctor.
     "You are going now where you work will cease."
     Tom looked at the parson and asked:
     "Mr. Stephenson, is dat so? Am I fitten to ring a bell in heaben?"
     "You are Tom," replied the parson, and taking each of his friends by the hand the old sexton died without a struggle.
     Tom was laid to rest in the church yard a few feet from what the Chronicles determnied was the minument erected to the memory of Leonard Calvert.
     Yet the old black folks around the area still visit the churchyard from time to time and on winter nights when the wind plays around the church tower, beating the clapper against the bell, they huddle together and whisper among one another that old Tom's spirit has returned once more, to ring the old church which is harbored within the tower of Trinity Church, and will forever sound in their memories.

Source: The Enterprise, October 30, 1975 Page: D-1