It Happened Here -- Big Bells, Little Bells 

Part II

About the same time Andrew Meneely was starting up  his foundry to cast large bronze bells in what would become Watervliet,  William Barton III had moved from East Hampton Connecticut to the little town of Cairo, New York,  on the Susquehanna Turnpike and set up shop, to cast

Rte 23B, Cairo

bronze sleigh bells.  (1826 v, 1828).  The Bartons had been making bells in the East Hampton area for several generations, with Captain William Barton making his first castings of horse bells in Wintonbury (Bloomfield)  as early as 1778.

The Connecticut Bartons rediscovered the process of making one piece sleigh bell castings. The "jinglet" or "pea" in the spherical bell (crotal) was packed in a ball of molding sand. A second round, two piece sand-mold was placed around this ball of sand. The ball of sand was supported on a small column that was later drilled out when the throat slots and holes were cut into the bell.  After liquid bronze or brass had been poured in the mold and cooled, the sand surrounding the jinglet was shaken out, allowing the jinglet to rattle freely around the inside of the bell. The completed bell was polished by tumbling it in a barrel of sand, a process developed by one of Barton's sons, Jason, who accompanied him to Cairo.  The whole process though seemingly complex, was less time consuming than producing a crotal in two separate halves, turning each half on a lathe to remove imperfections, then soldering the halves together.  It also made a stronger, better sounding bell.

 William Barton's  Connecticut foundry had burned in 1816. but after he rebuilt it, around 1823,  Barton bought 160 acres south of Cairo, New York.  There he built a sawmill and a new foundry on what became known as Bell Creek, a tributary of the Shinglekill, which emptied into the Catskill Creek. There were several possible advantages to this move.  First, his new New York foundry, located on the Susquehanna Turnpike, only a few miles from the Port of Catskill on the Hudson, offered ready access to raw materials -- copper and tin or zinc. His 160 acres, no doubt heavily forested,  provided an ample source of wood both for his sawmill and for charcoal for his foundry. (Soon after he began operations,  coal, too,  would become available via the D& H canal that would connect the coal fields of Pennsylvania with Kingston.) The streams flowing out of the Catskills were a natural source of fine alluevial sands/clays for the casting processes, and even the Susquehanna turnpike, itself, with its steady stream of wagons pulled by horses carrying settlers to new farmlands in western New York and the Ohio valley would be a market for Barton's horse bells.

Along with his sons, William and Jason, Barton hired apprentices, including Abner and William Bevins. After they had fulfilled their apprenticeship contracts in Cairo the Bevins brothers returned to East Hampton to establish their own foundry there, which continues in East Hampton to this day.  Over the years, William Barton taught the secrets and special skills of his trade to many apprentices, both family members and outsiders.  By the close of the 19th century 35 bell makers had set up shop in East Hampton.

From 1828 to around 1845 William Barton produced sleigh or horse bells in Cairo. Sleigh/horse bells, besides being a cheery ornament,  were an important safety device, warning pedestrians when a horse drawn vehicle was approaching. This became especially important when a light snow muffled the sounds of horses' hoofs and a sleighs could skim over the snow virtually silently.  Some locales even required horses pulling sleighs or carriages to wear sleigh bells.

Besides sleigh bells,  the bell works at Cairo were also known to produce other bronze or brass pieces.  Saddle chimes, trivets and even a few church bells, such as the one hung in the Presbyterian Church in Cairo were thought to have been produced by William Barton's company. In 1845 Barton sold the property on which his foundry had been built.  He retired back to East Hampton and died in his Connecticut hometown, four years later. ¹

1Many thanks to Robert Uzzilia, Cairo Town Historian who has written about the Cairo Bell Foundry and generously shared the information he had.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead
 New Year's week is as good a time as any to glance back and look ahead a little.  This week's post is the 48th weekly installment of  New York State Historical Markers:  It Happened Here, first posted on February 3d, this year. Over these eleven months we have looked at some 125 New York State (type) Historical Markers -- not a bad start until you realize there are probably between 3500 and 4000 of them out there and more are being created every day. Of course, not every blue and yellow cast iron/aluminum marker is of historical significance, except in the most narrow sense of the word, and then only to the local town board, church consistory, or chamber of commerce, etc. that chose to create them. Fortunately, I don't have to judge what is historically significant, but only pick those that strike my fancy, or seem to illustrate the story I am presenting,  and I am certainly grateful for all the material that is out there.

You may have noticed that most of the markers I have featured come from an area of some half a dozen counties around Albany.   I am looking forward to the prospect of going farther afield in the coming year.  I am excited about writing about the War of 1812 that sputtered and flared along New York's northern borders from the Niagara frontier, to Sackett's Harbor, to Plattsburgh, with repercussions far inland;  I am excited about learning more about the Underground Railroad, that I barely touched upon this year, and the whole constellation of reform movements that sprang from the religious reform movements that took root in central New York in the early 19th century-- abolition,  temperance, women's rights and labor reform.  And I am looking forward to renewing and deepening  casual acquaintances I have had with so many New Yorkers, including Teddy Roosevelt, George Eastman, Samuel Clemens,  George (and DeWitt) Clinton,  Frederick Douglass, George          Westinghouse,  Sojourner Truth,  James Garfield,  Abner Doubleday and many others.

So I am looking forward to a Happy New Year, and I hope you have one too.  And please watch out for the little blue car, parked (probably illegally) in front of a New York State Historic Marker,  near you. -- Tom