by HFFI Preservationist, Danae Peckler
In celebrating the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride this April 18th-19th, we think about Fredericksburg’s piece of Paul Revere’s legacy – the bell hanging in the Renwick Courthouse tower.
One of 14 Revere & Sons’ bells located outside of Massachusetts and one of the last to be cast in America’s most famous silversmith’s foundry, Fredericksburg’s bell was gifted to the City in 1828 from a wealthy New York-born merchant, Silas Wood (ca. 1787-1852).
Silas Wood moved to Fredericksburg sometime around 1810, when advertisements for his mercantile store frequently appeared in the local newspaper (Virginia Herald, 30 June 1810, p. 1). In 1813, he purchased all of Lot 58 at the southwest corner of George and Princess Anne streets where the Presbyterian Church is now located, and later purchased other lots in town (City of Fredericksburg Deed Book E, p. 29). Silas Wood married Julia Ann Chew Brock (1789-1863) in the spring of 1816, the daughter of Joseph Brock III and Julia Ann Fox Chew and a native of Spotsylvania County.
Tower interior showing the city’s Revere bell.
In addition to owning a prosperous shipping and trading business, Silas Wood served as a fireman as early as 1815 and became a Director of Farmers Bank in 1820. In the decade after their marriage, Julia Ann had given birth to several children and by the late 1820s, the family relocated to New York City, where Silas Wood & Co. continued trading with businesses in Fredericksburg and major cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, as well as the country of Haiti and beyond.
Perhaps it was his trading connections in Boston that led Wood to commission a 600-pound bell from Revere & Sons’ foundry, or maybe it was his own idea to bring a piece of Paul Revere’s legacy to Fredericksburg. Regardless of his intention, Wood’s donation first appears in the Virginia Herald on June 3, 1829. In 1929, upon celebrating the bell’s 100th birthday, a romantic story was printed in the local newspaper about Wood’s gift–as he exchanged one belle in Fredericksburg for another (bell).
In a small book printed by the Revere Memorial Association and sold at Revere’s house and museum in Boston, The Bells of Paul Revere, His Sons and Grandsons, scholars have located and identified 146 bells inscribed with the Revere name, though company record books list more than 950 bells produced between 1792 and 1828. Paul Revere started making bells at his Boston foundry in 1792 with his sons, Paul and Joseph Warren, and continued producing them after moving his foundry operation to Canton, Massachusetts in 1807. Joseph Warren Revere had studied copper rolling in Europe and took over the family business in 1811, as his aging father became less active in the operation and died in 1818. Joseph continued to make bells under the name of “Revere & Son” and “Revere Boston” until 1828, when he reorganized the company as “Revere Copper Company” and produced his last seven bells.
Did Silas Wood know about Joseph Warren Revere’s plans to close up shop? Perhaps Wood acted swiftly to secure this bit of Revolutionary history to reflect the American spirit shared between Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Boston, Massachusetts?
We cannot be sure, but according to Edward and Evelyn Stickney, authors of The Bells of Paul Revere, His Sons and Grandsons: “There is no entry in the Revere ledgers for the sale of this bell. It could have been one of two bells in the 600-pound range leftover when the company reorganized in 1828.” So it seems that Mr. Wood was in the right place at the right time to secure and personalize this unique piece of Revere’s craftsmanship.
Excerpt from the Virginia Herald, 3 June 1829 (p.3).
After the bell arrived in Fredericksburg, it was “suspended in a Cupola erected for the purpose upon the Courthouse, which has been otherwise enlarged and improved” (Virginia Herald 3 June 1829, p. 3). Thus, it seems the Renwick Courthouse tower was built and designed two decades later with this mighty edifice in mind.
Fredericksburg’s Renwick Courthouse bell tower.