Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-12
A BELL WITH A HISTORY,
The Interesting Relic in the Top of
Buckeye HosteIry.

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH
FNDLAY, March lion the top of the little
hotel at Elmore. small village north of this
city, is bell, with peculiar and interesting
history. 1t is now the property of Mr.. D. B.
Day. the proprietor of the hotel, who takes
pride in reciting its origin and subsequent
tribulations. In 1882 Jarvis Spafford built a
tavern in Perrysburg, once the site of old Fort
Meigs, of the war of 1872 fame In those days a
hotel was not complete without a bell, swung
on the top, to call the guests to their meals.
Bell foundries were not SO plen-
tiful then as now, but after considerable search
ing Mr.. Spafford heard of man in Detroit
who cast bells. Detroit, then in the Territory
o. Michigan, was quite a remote point, as dis
tance was then calculated, but Spafford had to
have bell, and he finally made his way thither
to have it cast. The bell foundry was found
ana the job undertaken, but when Davis, the
foundryman, endeavored to make the cast it
was discovered that there was not enough
metal for the purpose Here was dilemma
but Spafford was equal to the emergency. He
threw 36 Spanish dollars into the molten mass
and the bell was cast.
With his treasure, worth almost its weight in
gold, Spafford returned to Perrysburg and
hung the bell up IN tree in his yard, SO that it
might be investigated by the curious. The In
dians, who were then quite plentiful in and
about PerrySDurg, were caught Dy tne novel at
traction. They climbed the tree and kept the
bell going day and night until the thing be-
came an intolerable nuisance and Spafford had
about concluded to take the bell down when
the Indians relieved him by stealing it and car
rying it away. This act made Spafford furious
and he determined to recover the bell
if it cost him his life. Securing the
services of Sam Brady. an old scout
Indians, and Frank McCallister the first
white man who had settled at Perrysburg, they
started toward Upper Sandusky. They travelled
three days and nights, and on the morning of
the fourth day. while they were eating break
fast. they heard the bell in the distance.
Hastily finishing their meal they hurried i'll the
direction from whence the sound came, and
soon beheld sight that was laughable. The
Indians had tied the bell around the neck of a
pony, and the whole tribe, bucks, squaws and
youngsters, armed with hickory switches,
were running that poor animal around an open
space at the very top of its speed, and yelling
like demons, as accompaniment to the
furious ringing of the bell
Spatford and his companions made charge
on the crowd and succeeded in driving the
pony away from the village, where they could
secure the bell without trouble, which they did
and got safely home without being pursued or
having any fight with the Indians. The bell
was taken back to Perrysburg, where it re-
manned for many years performing the duty
for which 1t was cast. When Mr.. Spafford
died his daughter, now Mrs. Day, claimed the
bell and, as her husband became hotel keeper
at Elmore, the old relic naturally reached its
present position on the top of the house, where
she is the landlady.