Antique CS Bell Crystal Metal No 2 Cast Iron Farm Dinner Bell & Upright 25"

Description

A large and heavy antique cast iron swinging farm / church / school / factory / dinner bell and yoke, attributed to CS Bell Co, marked Crystal Metal No 2.

Bells were invented in 400 A.D. by Bishop Paulinus of Compagnia. They were not used in churches until some two hundred years later. A bell is described in the dictionary as “a hollow cup-shaped instrument that gives forth a clear, resonant note when struck with a clapper.” The world has been greatly benefited by the melodious tones of the bells manufactured originally by the C. S. Bell Company of Hillsboro, in Highland County. Today, those original patterns are used by Prindle Station to manufacture historical C.S. Bell Company bells for customers around the world.

Charles Singleton (C. S.) Bell and his son Charles Elliott (C. E.) Bell dominated the Bell business for 50 years from 1870 to 1920. They did it by creating an environment that attracted talented, creative individuals.
Just as important was branding their bells ‘Crystal Metal’, their secret formula.
Branding is critical in building a business. Bell and his son not only understood it they eliminated many of their competitors by partnering with them. For example, James Haven started in the foundry business in Cincinnatti at the same time as Bell in Hillsboro in 1858. Haven was very successful focusing on household hardware, appliances and bells. He soon created his own catalogue and went head to head competing with C. S. Bell in the bell business. Haven achieved great success but could not produce the same quality cast iron bell.
Sometime in the 1870s James Haven gave up making bells and paid a premium to put their name on C. S. Bell patterns.
J. L. Haven is just one example. Sears Roebuck & Co, Montgomery Ward, Henry Field Seed Co. & The Belknap Hardware Co. of Louisville are just a few examples of others who sold
C. S. Bell bells with their own name on the yoke.
Hundreds of other, mostly smaller merchants and mail order companies purchased and resold thousands of C. S. Bell bells branded as ‘Crystal Metal’ with no other identification.

C.S.Bell Company

In 1889 over 20,000 bells were manufactured and sold. They were sent out by horse-drawn wagons, by ship and by rail to all parts of the civilized world. Charles E. Bell, son of the founder, was taken into partnership in 1882 and the C.S. Bell Co. was formed. The son became a world traveler and built up outlets in many foreign countries. Orders poured in from South Africa, Brazil and Central America for cane mills and evaporators. Rice mills were shipped to China feed and grinding mills, corn shellers, stoves and other items were shipped to all points of the compass.

By 1892 over 100 men were employed in the various departments in the new plant erected on a seven-acre tract of land at the edge of town. With the new facilities the C.S. Bell Co. produced 2,000 tons of bells, 400 tons of cane mills and 400 tons of other manufactured items per year. The company with its increased business was incorporated in 1894.

Charles S. Bell died in 1905. Charles E. Bell and Co continued the business. The sale of the bells was slow, so the company again concentrated on the manufacture of laborsaving machinery for the farm. About 1,000 bells per year were produced. The members of the C.S. Bell Co. in 1912 were Charles E. Bell, president; Libby Boyd, vice president; Ernest W. Shumacher, treasurer; and Blair M. Boyd, secretary.

Virginia Bell, daughter of Charles E. Bell, obtained a good education, traveled extensively in Europe and spent some time in New York City. When her father died in 1929 the foundry was taken over by relatives. The business of the factory began a steady decline. Miss Bell gave up a theatrical career to return to Hillsboro. She gradually brought order out of chaos in her grandfather’s beloved bell foundry. The company was re-organized in 1934 with the following officers: Joseph M Gaites, president; Loyd E. Shirley and Charles “Chuck”, son of Charles E. Bell, vice presidents; and Virginia Bell, secretary, treasurer and general manager.

The defense armament in pre-World War II days caused a shortage of metal, especially brass and copper used in most bells made by government contract. Virginia Bell learned that the Bureau of Ships was looking for a metal bell to substitute for the regulation bells. She personally obtained a contract from the Navy Department to furnish them certain types of bells.

The Bell Foundry began producing bells by the thousands. They were made for all classes of ships in the U.S. Navy, for the British Navy with “H.M.S.” on them and also for the Russian Navy. Dignitaries of the allied Navies arrived in Hillsboro to visit the largest bell foundry in the world. Flags were flown and many state and town officials were on hand as a reception committee to welcome both British and high-ranking Russian officers.

Many references were made to the “Old Bell of ‘76” and how vividly the patriotic pen has pictured its sacred associations. How they had described the old sexton, leaning from the bell tower of Independence Hall, anxiously waiting the signal from below that a new nation had been born:


“High in the belfry the old sexton stands,

Grasping the rope in his thin, bony hands.

Fixed in his gaze, as by some magic spell,

Till he hears the distant murmur, “Ring the Bell!”


In 1959 over 100 years after Charles Bell opened the small foundry on Beech Street, the C.S. Bell Co. moved into an ultra-modern steel-fabricated concrete block plant. The streamlined new foundry whose products are sold in a worldwide market is located near the railroad at the western edge of Hillsboro. It is still considered a true example of American free enterprise. Virginia Bell (Mrs. John Thompson) managed

the plant successfully from 1934 to 1969 when the factory was sold. When the new building was planned, they took into consideration railroad loading facilities, acreage for an airplane landing field with a motor outlet on U.S. 50.

Bell’s Foundry is one of the largest factories of its kind in the World today. From a small beginning in Hillsboro where his wife “baked” the early cores in the oven of their home, Charles Singleton Bell made his name synonymous with bells wherever one chooses to travel. Bell’s bells ring out their gleeful tiding or their mournful tremors around the world. The magnificent and melodious bells from Hillsboro have rung out their delightful tunes for over a century. Kindly their tones will continue to mingle with our thoughts and our future for many years to come, for the bells produced were “strong, sturdy, and very durable.

Condition

Good antique condition, wear and distressing commensurate with age and use, heavy rust, discoloration, missing yoke and crank.

Dimensions

24.5" x 15" x 13" (Width x Depth x Height)