USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > Bridgeton > Ringing through history! : Cumberland County's Liberty Bell, Bridgeton, New Jersey > Part 1
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Ringing Through History!
Cumberland County's Liberty Bell
BRIDGETON, NEW JERSEY
By CHARLES L. SCARANI
200
Old Court House Bell Holds Glorious Past!
In the main lobby of the Court House in Bridgeton, displayed in a fitting showcase and appropriately inscribed, is Cumberland County's Liberty Bell.
The conception and history of this bell are interwoven with the history of Cumberland County, the story of its public buildings, and the chronicles of the Board of Freeholders.
County business during Colonial days was transacted by a board composed of two freeholders elected in each township as provided for in an Act passed in 1714 and of all the Justices of the Peace of the country. The Justices were appointed by the Governor and the Council. This board met, from time to time as the need arose at various taverns in the area which were customarily used as the place of assembly.
The first Court House and Jail, built in 1752, were very small, temporary buildings. The Jail soon was found to be inadequate and insecure. Therefore in 1753, the Board of Freeholders of Cumberland County raised money to build a permanent brick jail including stocks and a pillory. The first Court House stood for only six years, for as reported by Thomas Cushing and Charles E. Sheppard in their History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland, New Jersey; "After the trial and hanging of Pickering for horse- stealing court was held there on Dec. 6, 1758, and before Jan. 4, 1759, it took fire and was burned."
The following minutes of the Board of Freeholders for January, 1759 describe the plans for a new court house which was to include among other things, a bell, and provide the earliest known record of our precious Liberty Bell:
"At a special meeting of the Justices and Freeholders for the County of Cumberland held at John Keen's on Thursday the fourth day of January, 1759 - The Freeholders agreed to build a Court House thirty four feet long in the clear and twenty four foot wide in the clear to be built of brick. The wall from the surface of the ground to the height of the first story to be eighteen inches thick and said Court House to be finished the inside after the same manner that the Old Court House was with the addition of one window to be over the Judges seat and its likewise agreed that a cupola be built on the roof of said house to hang a bell. The said bell to be purchased by subscrip- tions. Ebenezer Miller, David Shepherd, Samuel Fithian, appointed managers to build said Court House and whom or any two of them to employ work- men and purchase materials to build the same to which the Justices present agreed."
It is of interest to note that the Freeholders present were Greenwich - David Shepherd and Thomas Ewings; Stow Creek - Richard Buckor and Elijah Bowen; Hopewell - Sam G. Harris and Benjamin Holmes; Deerfield -
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Ephraim Seeley and Daniel Ogden; Fairfield - Joseph Ogden and Stephen Clark; Maurice River - Abraham Jones and the Justices were Richard Wood, Alexander More, Jeremiah Buck and Samuel Fithian. Many of these mid- century surnames are still familiar names in Cumberland County today as descendants of these early settlers of the county still reside in this area.
During the years 1760-61 this house was built, and stood in the middle of what is now Broad Street, opposite the dwellinghouse of the jail keeper.
Bells, in Colonial days, were used to call people together for worship or to hear some important news concerning them from England or the Governor. The Court House was the place of assembly and was used for many years on Sundays and evenings for religious meetings. It was therefore especially fitting to have a bell in this Court House.
The bell was purchased by subscription several years later but the exact date is not known. The bell, according to an inscription thereon, was cast in Bridgewater, Me. The tone of the bell was "F", and it was placed in the ENGLAND Court House cupola sometime before 1776.
During the 1770's, the story of the bell in the court house cupola is related to familiar things in American History. Remember "Taxation without Repre- sentation" and the Boston Tea Party? Well, Cumberland County had a party, too.
In the summer of 1774, a brig called the Greyhound, bound for Philadel- phia with a cargo of tea, came into the Cohansey River, landed her tea and had it stored in the basement of a house standing in front of the then open market square. Imitating the example of the Bostonians, a group of local men, with the concurrence of the Committee of Safety of the County, dis- guised themselves as Indians, and on the night of Dec. 22, 1774, took out the boxes of tea and burned them in an open field.
One of the party, a man named Stacks, it was said, tied strings around his pantaloons at his ankles and stuffed them with tea, which he carried home to his family, and thus got the name Tea-Stacks.
Many of Cumberland County's people entered earnestly into the measures of opposition to the encroachments of the British Government on the rights of the people of America and organized Committees of Vigilance for defense. The County was alive with military preparations especially after news of bloodshed at Lexington on April 19, 1775.
Companies were organized and officers chosen, and frequent drills took place. Richard Howell, afterwards Governor, raised the first Company of -one-year men that left the County by recommendation of the Committee of Safety, in October, 1775.
In the succeeding spring another Company was raised as proposed by Joseph Bloomfield, afterwards governor of the state, except that Joshiah
Seeley, having concluded to take a wife and stay with her, another person was commissioned as First Lieutenant while marching for the Northern Frontier in March, 1776.
Several times during the Revolutionary War, fully half the Militia of this County was in actual service. John Gibbon, among others, was taken prisoner and was the only one from Cumberland County who died on board the Jersey prison ship at New York.
These anecdotes are intended to suggest the love of Liberty and sympathy with the cause of the local people. It led to the joyous ringing out of Liberty on their own bell, which hung in the cupola of the Brick Court House, when the first courier arrived on horseback from Philadelphia to report that the Declaration of Independence had been signed by our representatives there assembled. Col. Peter Force in his work, The American Archives, gives this interesting account of what took place in Bridgeton on that historic day:
"Declaration of Independence proclaimed at Bridgeton,: New Jersey on Wednesday, the 7th instant, the Committee of Inspection for the County of Cumberland, in the State of New Jersey, the officers of the militia and a great number of other inhabitants having met at Bridgetown went in procession to the Court House, where the declaration of Independence, The Constitution of New Jersey, and the Treason Ordinance were publicly read and approved of. These were followed by a spirited address by Dr. Jonathan Elmer, Chairman of the Committee, after which the King's Coat of Arms were burned in the street, The Affair was conducted with the greatest decency and regularity."
The Cumberland County Liberty Bell won its fame at this Celebration for ringing out the news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the liberty loving people of Bridgeton and vicinity.
As stated by William C. Mulford, "This Liberty Bell remained in use on the Court House for many years always joining in the celebration of the Fourth of July until a new brick Court House was built in 1844 on the south side of Broad Street, where the present Court House now stands."
During the war with Great Britain in 1814, a brigade of Militia of South Jersey was drafted and encamped at Billingsport for the defense of Philadel- phia, under command of General Ebenezer Elmer, then Brigadier General of the Cumberland Brigade.
During the summer of that year an English ship of the line, under com- mand of Sir John Beresford, lying in Delaware bay, succeeded in breaking up navigation as high as the Cohansey.
To prevent boats from the enemy's ship coming up the river in the night and plundering the town, a nightly guard was detailed and posted on the river two or three miles from the town. All boats passing the guard during the night were hailed and required to give an account of themselves. If an enemy appeared, a messenger would be sent to town and an alarm would be sounded
by firing a cannon and ringing the Court house bell.
About two o'clock of a mid-summer night the gun was fired, and the bell rang out with great animation. One can imagine the scene that followed and the terrible fright of the people, for no one doubted that the enemy was close at hand. An attempt was made to organize the Militia for action.
But the alarm turned out to be a false one. It started with a foolish skipper of a small sloop, who passed the guard without answering their challenge and who brought on himself and his crew a volly of musketry and was almost killed by a ball which passed over his head.
After the year 1830 there began to be a desire to have a new court house, and in 1836 a lot was purchased.
In 1843 the Board of Freeholders met and voted to build a new court house which was finished and first occupied in 1845. This was the third Cumberland County Court House to be built.
The old Cumberland County Court House was razed in 1846, and the famed Liberty Bell was sold and used as an alarm bell on the roof of Fire- man's Hall which stood on the south side of Commerce St. near the bridge.
In 1852, the West Jersey Academy was built and maintained by the Pres- byterians of South Jersey, who also conducted the school. It was of native sandstone, square in general shape, three stories high and basement, and surmounted by a tower. The Academy was erected by David A.F. Randolph, a contractor, for the sum of $6,999, and was located on the square bounded by Commerce, Lawrence, Broad and West Sts., property which was bought at a cost of $1625.50.
The school was opened in 1854 at the sound of Fireman's Hall alarm bell (the old Liberty Bell) which had been secured by the trustees of the West Jersey Academy and placed in the cupola of that school. During the time it hung in the belfry of the old Academy, it was used to call the students, while other listening ears could tell the time of day thereby.
Frank S. McKee, Esq., an alumnus of the West Jersey Academy, told me this story, among others, about the bell in the Academy belfry:
"One cold winter night a group of students sneaking up the bell tower turned the bell mouth up and filled it with water, scheming to douse the bell-boy when he pulled the bell-rope for reveille. As it turned out, the night was so cold, the water in the bell froze and when the bell-boy went to sound the bell the next morning he pulled the rope so hard it broke and came falling down on him instead of the water as was intended. On replacing the rope the students' plan was exposed, but, the ringing of the bell had to wait the thawing of the frozen water and bell clapper."
The West Jersey Academy building was acquired by the Bridgeton Board of Education May 17, 1912, for $18,200. It was used as a Junior High School
until 1923. The bell, having been placed in the belfry of the Academy, came into possession of the City of Bridgeton as part of the school property and continued to be used to summon the boys and girls to their studies. For many years the bell was regarded as a school bell and nothing more. There were very few who knew its real history.
The credit for making known the bell's glorious past goes to the Green- wich Tea Burning Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Oscar Anderson, a member of the Chapter, came across the story of the bell in newspaper clippings saved by the late Mrs. Martin Anderson.
In 1922, the West Jersey Academy was remodeled and converted for use as the Bridgeton High School.
At the dedication of the High School in 1923, the Greenwich Chapter of the National D.A.R. bought and had placed in the main corridor of the building a bronze tablet 24" x 18", giving many of the facts about the history of the bell. This tablet now on the case holding the bell reads:
The Bell That Hangs in this Belfry Rang The Tidings of Liberty in 1776 from the Cupola of Cumberland County's First Brick Court House And on Every Independence Day Until The Court House was Razed in 1846. The Bell was Purchased by Subscription And was Cast in Bridgewater Mass. in 1763. Tablet Placed by Greenwich Tea Burning Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in 1923
It is diplayed there by the Cumberland County Historical Society so that all people passing it may say a little prayer of thanksgiving for the liberty that they now enjoy.
When the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Indepen- dence was celebrated by an exposition in Philadelphia, Bridgeton's Board of Education consented for the Chamber of Commerce to take the sacred and historic Liberty Bell to the Sesqui-Centennial. The Ancient Cradle upon which the bell hung in the tower of the West Jersey Academy was taken down and reconstructed. The bell was mounted upon a pedestal and placed upon a decorated float to be conveyed to Philadelphia.
Festivities pertaining to the sending of the bell to the sesqui-centennial celebration began in the evening of Aug. 24, 1926 at 8:15 in Morningside Park where the weekly community band concert presented a formal program for the memorial occasion.
The bell left "Cumberland Corner", Commerce and Pearl Sts., at 8 A.M. on Aug. 25, 1926 with a royal send-off indicative of the growing appreciation of Bridgeton's priceless relic.
1
The huge motorcade was escorted by a detail of State Police provided by Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. A squad of former service men, uniformed and carrying arms, served as an honor guard. Martial music was played by the Boy Scout Fife and Drum Corps. A stop was made at Woodbury at 10 A.M., and at 11:30 Mayor Victor King of Camden welcomed the bell and the Cumber- land citizens at the Bridge Plaza.
Traffic officers from Philadelphia met the Bridgeton party on the west side of the bridge and led the procession through the city to the fair grounds. Bridgeton's Liberty Bell, carried by the six ex-service men and an escort from the sesqui-centennial, arrived at 1:30 P.M. with military pomp amid cheers of the large crowd. The bell was carried to the Palace of Liberal Arts where the Bridgeton booth was located.
Mayor Kendrick, of Philadelphia, received the bell at 4 P.M. and acclaimed it as Bridgeton's most precious possession. The uncracked Liberty Bell is the only one in New Jersey and the only one which has been used continuously since it rang out the happy news of Independence in 1776.
While at the fair, the bell served as a closing signal. Every evening at 9 o'clock and at 6 o'clock on Sundays, John Burns came to the Bridgeton booth and pulled the cord of the Liberty Bell telling the people it was time to clear the building. The bell could be heard with its resounding tone through- out the entire building. Each time the bell was rung, people were heard to say, "That's the Bridgeton, New Jersey, Liberty Bell ringing."
At the conclusion of the fair the Liberty Bell was returned to the Bridge- ton Board of Education. In 1929, the bell was moved to the rooms of the Cumberland County Historical Society at the court house and entrusted to its care.
When the report was received in Bridgeton that World War II had come to an end, a group of happy and excited citizens rushed to get the Liberty Bell. They mounted it on a truck and started down the streets of Bridgeton ringing the bell for all it was worth. The crowd was becoming very emotional and getting out of hand. Fearing that damage might result to the bell, calmer heads saw that it was hurriedly returned to the rooms of the Historical Society.
In 1948, at the 200th anniversary celebration of Cumberland County, the bell was again given an honored position as it led the massive parade through the streets of Bridgeton, proudly displayed on a well decorated float for the occasion.
Though overshadowed by the fame of its muted sister in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Cumberland County's Liberty Bell is now enshrined with its original hanging and bell rope wheel, in the main corridor of the Cumber- land County Court House.
BY PERMISSION - THE CUMBERLAND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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