In 1892, Union veterans from the13th Massachusetts Company I showed up at Elizabeth Snyder’s door. For 31 years, Mrs. Snyder had kept a bell for the soldiers. Mrs. Snyder and her late husband William Ensminger owned boats that the soldiers used to ride on in Williamsport.

In August 1861, the Company was dispatched to protect fords used to cross the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry. The soldiers were ordered to seize anything of value and send it back to the War Department. The men went into the U.S. arsenal and moved weapons out. They were fascinated by the arsenal because two years earlier this was where John Brown launched a raid to start a rebellion to free the slaves. However, he failed to hold the arsenal and was hung for treason, conspiracy, and murder.

Because of the arsenal’s historical significance, the soldiers wanted a souvenir from the arsenal. Someone noticed the bell on the top of the engine house and that is what they wanted. Under the leadership of Second Lieutenant David L. Brown, 16 men returned to take the bell. They had to lower the bell from the top with some old dry rope, causing it to fall and some of the edges to chip off. They loaded it onto a boat and began to cross the river. They debated if they bell belonged to them or the government. They asked the provost marshal when they got to camp and filled out some papers asking the War Department to keep the bell. The War Department said they could keep the bell.

They made a box and but it on a boat, but they got orders to move to Williamsport. While in Williamsport, the Company became acquainted with Mr. And Mrs. Ensminger. However on March 1, 1862, they were ordered to leave and Mr. Endminger agreed to keep the bell for them.

In 1892, 6 of the 16 men that had taken the bell assembled at the national encampment of Civil War veterans in Washington, D.C. They decided to go to Willamsport to see what happened to the bell. Mrs. Emsminger, now Mrs. Snyder, showed them the bell and told them the story of the bell for the past 31 years. In September 1862, she had the bell buried to prevent it from being stolen and dug it up seven years later.

A few days after the men left, James Gleason showed up and shipped the bell to Marlborough on October 31. The bells was placed in front of the John A. Rawlins Post 43 of the Grand Army of the Republic. On November 22, 44 surviving members of the Company gave the bell to the John A. Rawlins Building Association for one dollar. Mrs. Snyder was the first person to ring the bell in its new location.

A few years later, one of the veterans returned to Harpers Ferry and asked what happened to the bell. One of the locals said it was confiscated by the South, ignorant of what really happened to the bell.

The bell would stay in front of the John A. Rawlins Building for 76 years. In June of 1968 the bell would be moved to the John Brown Bell Tower, constructed to hold the bell. On September 2, 1968, Congressman Philip J. Philbin dedicated the bell and said it was a symbol of peace and freedom.

WORKS CITED

Carriker, Robert M. and Mary Farmer-Kaiser. Optimism, Struggle, and Growth: Readings on an Expanding American. Vol 1. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2001.