The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-16
AN ANCIENT BELL.
Was Cast 1,1OO Years Ago-Now a
East Haddam as a Relic.

Was Cast 100 Years Ago-Now at
East Haddam as a Relic.
At East Haddan only short dis
lance from the Nathan Hale school
house, which was dedicated with such
imposing ceremonies by the Sons of the
Revolution and the people Of the town,
Wednesday. is an old bell which ante
dates the schoolhouse by more than
nine hundred years 1t has a position
on the stone wall at The rear of the
pretty little stone church. just on the
edge of the cemetery, and from its APP
pearance none would suppose TIA. It
had known the heat of summer and the
cold Of winter for almost eleven cantu-
ries 1t is not very large, and the
greenness of old age SO common TO
copper has made but slight inruads
upon 1t.
When Nathan Hale died for his COIN
try this old bell was of the age Of Me
thuselah, the oldest patriarch If Bible
record At the time Christopher Co.
lumbus discovered America it had been
ringing cut the days of more than falf
thousand years. It tolled the deaths
of the thousands of Spaniards who
were lost in the destruction of me
great Armada; witnessed the incur
sions of the Moors and Arabs across the
Straits of Gibralter as they despolled
the fair vineyards of CASTLE and for
more than four hundred years knew
none but Moorish rule.
Europe was hut wild, unsettled,
savage country when this old bell was
cast, and the British Isles were but so
much territory ruled by clannish bar
ons with might the only known law
When Ferdinand and Isabella as
cended the throne of Spain the little
old bell in the East Haddam church
yard helped to ring out the tidlngs to
all the country round. 1t was then in
the tower of one of the churches of
Aragon, the home province of Ferdi-
nand. For more than six hundred
years 1t had been there, calling the
people-rich and poor-to service; ring
ing out the joy of their marriage ce'e-
brations, and toling the death re-
QUEEN.
Early in this century, when Napoleon
started on his sacking tour of SPAIN
and was finally overthrown by We'll
llDS lOll, llilS DSll, lDSttiel WIN many
others, was taken from it's place in the
belfry of the stone church which it had
occupied so long and then RACED to the
ground. Twenty years afterWard in
1894 or S5. shipload of bells from
Spanish churches, which Napoleon
had destroyed, were sent to this coun-
try, consigned to various bell foun-
dries, to be reeast for bells for Ameri-
can churches. The old East Haddam
bell was in the lot. William WHY'S
Pratt, New York ship chandler. was
in business at that time. His wife was
a daughter Of the late Captain Oliver
Atwood of East Haddam. Mr.. Pratt
and his wife were interested in st.
Episcopal church at East
Haddam and as the church was with
out bell, Mr.. Pratt purchased the old
Spanish bell from among the hundreds
of others in the shipload. 1t was sent
to East Haddam and mounted in the
church belfry-the old church, which
stands on an eminence to the north
and east of the town.
For years the Spanish bell did its
duty loyalty but finally it became
harsh. When the new church was
built, close by where the old Nathan
Hale schoolhouse now stands, the bell
was taken from the steeple of the old
church, and has not since been used,
but rests quietly in the churchyard,
viewed reverently by hundreds every
year.
1t was cast in the year S15. The
marks of the tongue, where for years it
struck against the side, are deep and
broad. The Arabic numerals which
form the date show that it was cast not
long after Spain was conquered by the
Moors. The inscription on the ancient
bell is in Spanish and can be read very
plainly 1t is as follows:
The Prior being the Most Rev. Father
Miguel Murva. The Procurator, the
Most Rev. Father Josef EStivan.
Corrales Made Me. Made in Year A.
D. S15.
The people of st. Stephens church
value the old bell very highly, and it |
will doubtless always remain in possess
sion of the parish.