For Whom The Bell Tolls

One of the first churches to use a bell in America was the First Baptist Church of Rhode Island. It was started as a church in homes around 1638. Over one hundred years later a church with a steeple utilizing a bell was raised. It was built between 1774 and 1775. The British closed the ports after the Boston Tea party and out of work ship builders and carpenters came to Providence to help build the church.

Bells were very important before mass communication in this country. They were used for a wide variety of things. They were used to call people to prayer, weddings, funerals, fires, and they were rung for people that were lost in the woods. Bells have been around for at least 4000 years. Some of the first ones were cast in the country of China. Some bells were not cast at all. They were metal sheets riveted together to make a bell. The clasp of the bell    ( the part that swings and hits the bell) was made of soft metal to keep from cracking the cast bell. Cast iron was used a lot. A cast bell is usually made from an alloy called Bronze (78% copper and 22% tin). Before metal pivots were made some of the earlier clasp were held together by leather which took over a year to make. Paul Revere himself cast bells beginning in 1792. His sons and grand sons continued to make bells into the mid 1800's. There are many companies that used to cast bells but two stand out and are relevant to our area. The McShane bell foundry of Baltimore and A Fultons son and company from Pittsburgh PA. are two of the companies that cast bells around our area.

Bells are made by making a mold of the bell. The molds were usually fired clay or brick. In the old days an inner and outer mold were separated by a layer of thick wax. Holes were drilled in the form and heat was applied so the wax would run through. This left a void between the two for molten metal to be poured in its place. The very top of the bell known as the crown was sometimes done with straw between the clay forms. The straw would be set on fire leaving a void also. The crown of a bell was thicker so the bell could be bolted and hung. The diameter of the bell was very important because it determined the note in which the bell sounded. The larger the bell the deeper the sound. Modern day bells are tuned by shaving metal near the bottom with a lathe. Older bells were tuned by chiseling metal from the outer edge near the bottom to make the to make the tone higher and by chiseling metal from the inside near the bottom to make the tone lower.

There is not a whole lot of written history about the bells in our area and by our area I mean the local towns around the county. I started looking around East Liverpool and Wellsville this past summer and have found some very interesting things. There will be more articles as I go but here is some of what I got to see this year. It was really an adventure climbing around in some of these bell towers. It is pretty neat to pop up through a hatch and see something that probably has not been seen for a pretty long time.

Above is a photo of the bell in the tower at St. Stephen's church on fourth street. This bell has a very unique history. The bell originally was made by the G.W. Coffin & Co Buckeye foundry in Cincinnati Ohio. It was cast in 1860 and so far is the oldest bell that I have come across. It was purchased by the church in 1862 from Jane Burgess. The bell reportedly came from a paddle wheel ship called the "Mary Ann" that traveled from East Liverpool to New Orleans trading pottery and other wares from the north for tobacco, sugar, cotton and other things from the south. John and Jane Burgess came over from England in 1849. According to the 1850 census they brought 5 children with them and John and the oldest son were listed as potters. They became involved in the river trade and ran a paddle wheeler. John died unexpectedly at New Orleans in 1857. With the only means to make a living Jane and her sons continued to operate the river boat. The bell was purchased for the boat in 1860 and sold to the church in 1862. Jane passed away in 1867 and is interred at the Riverview cemetery. I am only assuming that the civil war played a big part in her decision to sell off the bell and the boat. I can find no record of the ship anywhere. It may have been manufactured in the south and brought here. The bell is a 26 inch copper and silver cast. The Coffin company always used silver instead of tin to make their unique sound. It is a pretty big bell for a ship and the sound is amazing. Her sons were very prominent men of East Liverpool. John Burgess and his sister purchased the old Arbuckle mill and made stoneware. This became the West End Pottery some years later. John was also mayor of East Liverpool from 1882 through 1887. I was impressed when I first saw this bell at the design and lettering that was on it. It has a homemade turn wheel on the side and is boxed in with a frame. Thanks again to Frank Thornberry for letting me climb up there to photograph it!

These are more pics of the inside of the bell tower. If you "click" on any photo it will start an enlarged slideshow. As you can see to get to the top where the bell is you had to climb up different ladders. Almost all of the churches I went into had some way of getting into the towers. Some were through the attics while others were through hatches in the ceiling. While this bell was smaller than most around town it had a very deep sound. Almost all of the other church bells were larger in diameter. The bell at the Lord's Community Church was around 42 inches in diameter. At that size it would weigh around 1500 lbs. It would have been a lot of work hoisting something that size into a bell tower without damaging it. This bell was cast by the McShane foundry of Baltimore MD. in 1923. It has the original turn wheel on it made out of solid oak. It's pull rope falls nearly three stories and is rung every Sunday.

There is another part of this bell shown in the picture above that was used to strike the bell instead of ringing it. It could be used to chime out the hour of the day or a set number of rings for a special occasion. The rope was not attached on this bell for that purpose. The striker ball must have weighed around 25lbs.

The original city hall housed a bell in it's tower. Built in 1878 and tore down in 1935 the only thing that remains is the bell. It is on a stand in front of the current city hall. It was cast in 1882 by J. Regester & sons of Baltimore MD. and is 37 inches in diameter.The bell yoke has a 1839 stamp on it and may be older than the bell itself. Sometimes these yoke stamps were the patent year though.

Picture courtesy of Jim Alison and the East Liverpool Historical Society. The original city hall with bell in the tower.

This bell in Wellsville is on display in front of the Masonic temple. It's diameter is 44 inches and was the largest bell in the nation at the time. It was cast by A. Fultons and sons in Pittsburgh in 1871. Fulton bells are unique because of the crown that suspends it. All Fulton bells have this crown making the identification easy.

There will be several more articles on bells this coming winter. I have many more photos of different bells around our local area. 

To see more pictures of the Lord's Community and St. Stephen's church bells 

Go to :  https://picasaweb.google.com/117748738497939158793/BellsOfLordSCommunityAndStStephenS?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKXZ9OuZ2JSOUQ&feat=directlink

Well it has been a full year and I have at least another full year of material ahead of interesting things and places around ELO. Thank you for your kind comments and taking the time to look at this blog it has been very fun to put together.