Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1897 — The Old Court House Bell. [ARTICLE]

The Old Court House Bell.

Has Gone to Fair Oaks to Call People to Worship. The old court house bell was loaded on to a dray yesterday and hauled to the depot, to be shipped to Fair Oaks. It has been sold to the new Methodist church at that place. It will surely be a source of gratification to every resident of the county, and more especially to Rensselaer people, that this old bell has found so honorable a destiny. The bell was bought in 1865, at a cost of $lB5, and weighed about 1600 to 2000 pounds. It took the place of an older bell which was cracked and ruined when the court house was burned, in the winter of 1865. It was bought, at first by a popular subscription; 35 persons giving $5 each and four giving $2.50 each. This money was afterwards voluntarily paid back to the donors, by the county sionersThe Fair Oaks people paid S4O for the bell.