Down the Rabbit Hole

As I mentioned in Part One, I found a total of 8 other towns with a bell story. I’m going to list them in the order the stories were published, rather than the order in which the towns were incorporated.

• Douglas “It is said also that a bell was promised to the Center School by Doctor Douglass, besides £50 a year for seven years for the support of the ministry, though quite a portion of these pledges was never received by the town.” (Source) (1878)
• Blandford, then known as New Glasgow, was supposed to get a bell from the city of Glasgow, Scotland but at the last minute the Governor (it’s always the governor!) swapped Glasgow out for Blandford after the name of the ship that brought him to North America. (1879)
• Boylston: “He gave the town a bell and Bible, which is sufficient reason for the belief that the town intended to compliment him in the selection of the name.” (Source) (Boylston is mainly included as contrast to the other stories.) (1883)
• Littleton “It is said that the name Littleton was given as a compliment to Hon. George Lyttleton, M.P., one of the commissioners of the treasury, and that in acknowledgment he sent from England a church-bell as a present to the town but on account of the error in spelling by substituting ” i ” for “y,” the present was withheld by the person having it in charge, who gave the excuse that no such town as Lyttleton could be found, and sold the bell.” (source) (1891)
• Medfield “Several reasons have been given for the selection of this name. The most plausible is that the towns of Dedham, Medfield, and Wrentham in England lay near each other; that the early settlers here came from that vicinity, and perpetuated the memory of their native locality in naming these towns. This view is strengthened by the tradition that this town once received the gift of a bell from Medfield in Old England. There is no record, however, in any way relating to it.” (Source) (1887)
• Paxton “It is said that Paxton promised the town a church-bell if it was named for him; this promise was never fulfilled. ” (Source) (1889)
• Russell “Local legend has it that Russell was so flattered that he pledged to give a bell to the new town’s church. Either Russell died before he could make good on the promise, or the church burned before the bell could arrive.” (Source) This story was recounted in a 1992 booklet, but it’s much older if it’s a “local legend.”

Then there is this outlier:

• Franklin: “In 1778, when the town was incorporated, the designated name Exeter was changed to Franklin in honor of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. In return Franklin was asked to donate a bell for the town’s church steeple.”(source) Unfortunately, Franklin was not much of a church-goer, so he sent books instead. This really happened. You can read the letter here. This is the only evidence I have that there was, in fact, an expectation that a town’s namesake would donate a bell.

All in all, the accounts are mostly from Victorian histories. I suspect the Russell story can be found in a similar tome somewhere.

But why bells?

“A church bell served many societal purposes during this period: to summon the worshippers to weekly church services; announce births, weddings, deaths, or executions; indicate the time of day and curfew; sound alarms for fires, floods, and other emergencies; gather people to hear the reading of official proclamations; as well as for a variety of other purposes.” (Source) A town without a bell was a town that couldn’t communicate.

I have found a few other bell stories outside Massachusetts, but it’s very hard to search for something that didn’t happen:

• From Lyman, Maine – “Theodore Lyman, our town’s namesake, wanted our town’s name changed from Coxhall and offered a barrel of rum and a bell in exchange for the name change! His son was the one who actually delivered on his father’s promise on the bell.” (Source)
• Wikipedia claims this same situation (minus the rum) happened in Blaine, Maine, which was named Alva until James G. Blaine offered a bell in exchange for naming rights. (He did not deliver) I don’t have access to the book cited, but I have ordered it, so I’ll update soon. UPDATE I obtained the book in question (Maine, a guide “down east”) and it confirms that the town was renamed for Gov. Blaine, but does not mention a bell.

So there are three scenarios:

1. Town chooses a namesake, namesake finds out and offers a bell. (Russell)
   
2. Namesake offers bell preemptively in exchange for the naming rights. (Paxton)
   
3. Town chooses a namesake and flat-out requests a bell. (Franklin)

Ok, a possible fourth scenario is that all of these “we never got a bell” stories are Victorian inventions.

Do all these bell-less towns know about each other? I’m going to contact some and find out.

Watch this space.