The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1948-04-29

three men started in the direction
from which the sound had come and
an astonishing sight met their gaze.
Despite their anger the bell hunters
could not refrain from laughing.
The Indians had tied the bell
around the neck of a pony and the
whole tribe, bucks, squaws and
papooses, armed with hickory switch
es, We're running the animal around
and around in the clearing at top
speed and yelling like demons as an
accompaniment to the jangling of
the bell.
Recover Bell
The three backwoodsmen charged
the Indians, stampeded the tribe and
ran the pony away from the vii
lage, where they could take off the
bell with the least trouble. They
then turned the pony loose, did not
molest the Indians further, and re-
turned to Perrysburg.
The bell remained atop of Spaf-
ford's tavern for many years, dur
ing which time the inn was renamed
the Spafford House, the Spafford
Exchange Hotel and the Norton Ex-
change Hotel.
The voice of the bell punctuated
many interesting events. In times
of court the bench and bar from a
large section of the country made
the tavern their headquarters, and
on muster days and at times of
the court-end balls the hotel was the
mecca of the socialites of the whole
community.
Spafford's tavern became one of
the most important inns on the
stage route between Buffalo and st.
Louis, and at public ball held in
it July 4, 1854, the first local victim
of cholera epidemic was stricken.
During that epidemic the population
of Perrysburg declined from 1900
to 600 persons.
Much modernized and remodeled,
the old building now is a shingled,
gray, four-family apartment building
at 1902 Front Street.
When Spafford died the bell
descended to his daughter, Mrs. D.
B. Day, whose husband ran the Day
Hotel at Elmore.
Now in Legion Hall
From the top of the EImore hotel
it summoned guests to meals for
many years until finally, for its
historical value, it was acquired By
the American Legion Post at Perrys-
burg and installed in their head
quarters.
DEPRESSING a bit, it will be inter-
esting to recount colorful episode
in the life of Samuel Brady, one of
the Indian fighters who accompanied
Spafford on his trip to recover the
old tavern bell.
Brady was the Daniel Boone OF
| the Ohio country and lived or
Charters creek on the north side
of the Ohio River-then in Portage
County. He was a man of great
strength and was generally regard.
ed as the leader of the white settlers
in most of their incursions into the
Indian country north of the river.
1t was Brady who made the cele-
brated and historic "Brady's Leap
-22 feet from cliff to cliff across
the Cuyahoga River, near Ravenna
That occurred in 1880 during Brady's
young manhood and when he was
strongly outnumbered and pursued
by a hostile band Of savages.
1t was a leap for life and Brady
made it. Far below the high bluffs
which narrowed the river at thai
point, the waters splashed, racef
and roared among the rocks like I
wild mill-race. Not to have gottel
safely across would have meant
death to the frontiersman in tht
boiling waters Of the Cuyahoga, ever
had he escaped the Indians. He We
forty two years older when he Wen
with spafford and McCallister tt
recover the stolen tavern bell