Bringing Holiday Joy-Tradition of handbell concerts continue to ring across generations.

Today’s, December 6, 2025,

performance by the Bell Crazy Handbell Ensemble celebrates a remarkable chapter of Lake Mills history—one shaped by the life and legacy of early handbell pioneer Raymond Royce (1855–1945). This information and photos from the display board are posted on our website blog: lakemillsaztalanhistory.com

Ray’s story began just a few blocks from where community life still thrives today. Born in Wisconsin in 1855, he moved with his mother to Lake Mills at age three, settling in a home on the corner of Madison and Mulberry Streets.

Though his formal schooling was limited—Lake Mills would not have an official graduating class until 1879—Ray’s natural talent, curiosity, and sense of showmanship quickly set him on an artistic path.

That path truly began when a local livery owner, Frank Huntley, acquired a set of 60 handbells from a bankrupt touring troupe he had been the advertising agent for, the Leavitt Swiss Bell Ringers, a company that had performed across the nation and once included Edwin Bagley, the composer of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Recognizing Ray’s musical gifts, Huntley offered the bells to Ray and several young performers in town. Ray, the Hoskins sisters, and Janie Plumb practiced tirelessly and gave their first public concert on July 5, 1879, at the Lake Mills Congregational Church—marking the birth of Lake Mills’s own handbell tradition. Later that same year they performed a Christmas Eve concert; 146 years ago, handbells rang out the sounds of the holiday season for all of Lake Mills.

Ray soon blended this artistic passion with community involvement. After becoming a partner in William Hoskins’s “Red Corner Store,” (now where the Grist is located) Ray followed in Mr. Hoskins’s footsteps of civic service, later serving as village treasurer and holding office in the Masonic Lodge.

He even became the first person in Lake Mills to have a telephone, connecting his home to the store. Ray married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hoskins, one of his fellow bell ringers and daughter of Mr. Hoskin’s his business partner, further intertwining community, family, and performance.

From these local beginnings grew an extraordinary career. Touring first as The Royce Swiss Bell  and later as The Royce Company, Ray and his troupe performed throughout the United States and Canada. Their shows featured beloved melodies—The Blue Bells of Scotland, Come, O Come With Me—alongside comedy sketches, vocal selections, and Ray’s lively stage impersonations.

Later, as part of the Royce & Lansing Musical Comedy Company, Ray traveled widely, performing from the West Coast to the Midwest. Later Web Lansing took over the troupe while Ray pursued his acting career.

Ray’s greatest acclaim came with his role as the organ builder in the hit stage drama York State Folks. After unexpectedly stepping into the lead role, he performed it an astonishing 1,899 times, eventually appearing in the film adaptation and becoming Lake Mills’s first true movie star.

After a 45-year career in show business, Ray retired in Oakland, California, though his connection to Lake Mills remained strong. Upon his death in 1945, he was brought

home and laid to rest beside his wife Lizzie at the Rock Lake Cemetery.

Reflecting on his beginnings, Ray once said, “I made my first observations of quaint characters in Lake Mills where I was born.”

Tonight, as the Bell Crazy Handbell Ensemble performs, Bringing Holiday Joy,  the echoes of Ray Royce’s early artistry live on—reminding us that the spirit of music, community, and creativity continues to ring across generations.