The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-04-04
AN OLD SPANISH BILL

Cast Nearly Eleven Centuries Ago, 1t Ia
Owned by a Connecticut Church.
At East Haddam, only a 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, recently, is an old bell which
antedates the schoolhouse by more
than nine hundred years. 1t has po-
sition on the stone wall at the rear
of the pretty little stone church, just
on the edge of the cemetery, and from
its appearance none would suppose
that it had known the heat of summer
and the cold of winter for almost
eleven centuries. It is not very large,
and the greenness of old age so COM
mon to copper has made but slight in
roads upon it.
When Nathan Hale died for his
country this old bell was of the age
Of Methuselah,- the Oldest patriarch OF
Bible record. At the time Christopher
Columbus discovered America 1t had
been ringing out the days of more
than half thousand years. 1t tolled
the deaths of the thousands Of Span
iards who were lost in the destruction
of the great Armada; witnessed the
incursions of the Moors and Arabs
across the Straits of Gibraltar as they
despoiled the fair vineyards of CASTLE
and for more than four hundred
years knew none but Moorish rule.
Europe was but a wild; unsettled,
sava re country when this old bell was
cast, and the British Isles We're but
SO much territory ruled by clannlsh
barons with might the only 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 tidings to
all the country round. 1t was then
in the tower of one of the churches of
Aragon, the home province OF Ferdl-
nand. For more than six hundred
years it had been there, calling the
ipeople-rich and poor-to service:
ringing out the joy of their marriage
celebrations, and tolling the death re.
QUEEN.
EARLY in this century, when Napo-
leon started on his sacking tour OF
Spain, and was finally overthrow by
Wellington, this bell, together with
many others, was taken from It's place
in the belfry of the stone church which
it had occupied SO long. Twenty
years afterward, in 1884 or 1888, a
shipload of bells from Spanish church
es, which Napoleon had destroyed, was
sent to this country, consigned to var
ious bell foundries to be recast fof
\ oh
East Haddam bell was in the lot. VIII
liam WHY'S Pratt, a New York snip
chandler, was in business at that time
His wife was a daughter OF the late
Capt. Oliver Atwood Of East Had
dam. Mr.. Pratt and his wife were In
terested in St. Stephens Episcopal
church at East Haddam, and as the
church was without a bell, Mr.. Pratt
purchased the old Spanish bell from
among the hundreds of others in the
shipload. 1t was sent to East Haddan
and mounted in the church belfry-
the old church, which stands on ar
eminence to the north and east Of
the town.
| For years the Spanish bell did its
duty loyalty, but finally it became
CIdChcu dAO 40 SOAO was OAOAASAA SSAS
/ harsh. When the new church wa:
| built, close by where old Nathan Halt
schoolhouse now stands, the bell was
taken from the steeple of the OF
church, and has not since been used
4 but rests quietly in the churchyard
viewed reverently by hundreds every
4 day.
It was cast in the year S15. Thu
marks of the tongue, where for year;
it struck against the side, are dcel
and broad. The Arabic numerals
which form the date show that it wal
cast not long after Spain was con
quered by the Moors. The Inscription
on the ancient bell is in Spanish ant
can be read very plainly. 1t is al
follows:
"The Prior being the Most Rev
Father Miguel Villa Murva. The Pro
curator, the Most Rev. Father Jose
q E'Stivan. Corrales Made Me. Mad
in Year A. d. 815."
i, The people of st. Stephens church
value the old bell very highly, and i
will doubtless always remain in pos
session Of the parish Hartford Dali,
Times.