ASHLAND — As early pioneers began to settle on large farms and ranches, there became a need to clearly communicate important messages to family, employees, and neighbors who were working in the fields.
Bells were invented in 400 A.D. by Bishop Paulinus of Compagnia and later used at churches, but there is uncertainty as to when or where farm (dinner) bells became popular. It appears they first were used in a widespread fashion sometime in the 1800’s throughout the United States.
Farm bells were commonly manufactured from cast iron and their sound carried for acres, depending on its size, shape and clapper. They were often 10 to 20 inches in diameter.
In comparison, a fire bell was 30 or more inches around which allowed the sound to carry even farther.
The fashion in which a farm bell was mounted was very important because it also determined the unique tone of the bell and how far it could be heard. Bells were mounted on wood or metal posts located on the porch or in the yard, usually near the kitchen area of the home. They were also sometimes mounted up higher so they could be heard farther.
Some homes were built with a small bell tower that housed a bell. A home-installed tower bell had a rope that came through the roof and ceiling above the dining room table. The ropes that rang the bell were pulled from above the table instead of from outdoors. Small children that were asked to ring the bell often had to get on a chair or the table top to reach the rope.
Although farmers’ wives used these bells every day to call everyone to the house for meals, there were many other reasons to ring the bell.
Farm bells were also used to make notifications about bad weather, call others in the case of a fire, alert those nearby of Indian attacks, summon slaves to work in the morning, notify others of a serious home injury, make a death notification, or to ring in the New Year. Since each bell had its own distinct sound, it helped others determine which farm was ringing their bell.
Prearranged messages were used to communicate with a farm bell, almost like a form of Morse code. For example, to make an emergency notification from home, a bell was usually rung as fast as possible for a long period of time. This called farmhands and nearby neighbors to the house to help.
Many area families would go out at midnight and ring their bells simultaneously in order to ring in the New Year.
Death notifications were made by slowly ringing the bell for each year of someone’s life. This let everyone in the area know that the person had died if they suffered from a lingering illness.
In those days, funerals were held in the home. On the day of a funeral, a special notification was made when the funeral was about to start. The bell would toll slowly with more of a “bong” than the normal ring with the clapper hitting both sides of the bell bowl.
Another form of the dinner bell was the triangle-shaped which was also made from iron but the sound didn’t carry as far. It was sometimes referred to as a cowboy dinner bell.
They were usually mounted on the front porch and used for the same purpose on smaller farms. The triangle style was also commonly seen around chuck wagons and campfires. They were simple to make by an iron smith, lightweight, and easy to carry on wagon trains.
Dinner bells were slowly phased out as the telephone was invented and became more common in rural homes but farm bells were still in use well into the 20 th century. Many people restore their old family farm bells and place them on display for future generations to ring and enjoy.
Retold stories about ancestors who rang the bell in unusual circumstances are a popular topic of family gatherings for those who grew up on a farm.
