Te journey of the second-most important bellin American history,from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia,to Marlborough Massachusetts

researched by Joan Abshireresearched by Joan Abshire

Te journey of the second-most important bellin American history,from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia,to Marlborough Massachusetts

ii The John Brown Bellwww.HistoricMarlborough.org

The John Brown Belliiiwww.HistoricMarlborough.org

Preface

This story is from a presentation given at the Marlborough Historical Society on 26 February2008. In the course of my research, I had accumulated quite a bit of information from manysources: people, books, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet – there is a bibliographyat the end. But I thought it would be helpful to visit the place where the bell came from,so I took a trip to Harpers Ferry and Charleston, WV, and on the way back stopped inWilliamsport, MD.In the end I had much more information than I could possibly use in one evening, so I put together as much as I could of what I felt was the most interesting, or necessary tofully understand the story. I saw it in my mind as a spider web, with people and eventsscattered about, some connected to each other here and there, but all leading to the bell atthe center.If anyone who reads this narrative has any information about the bell that they would liketo share I would be very glad to have it. You are welcome to copy any portion of the story,including photos. I only ask that if you use a photo that isn’t one of mine, please provide

credit information. A few photos have unidentied sources. In those cases, either there were

none available, or I could not remember where they came from. I welcome all questions,comments, photos and information.Joan Hartley Abshire12 March 2008 jhabshire@comcast.net