The "The Revere Family Cast Some Fantastic Pieces" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Reading several stories about a bronze bell that was allegedly cast in 1834 at Paul Revere's Massachusetts foundry.   Paul Revere opened a foundry in 1792 in Boston and became one of the few competent bell makers in the United States at the time.  Between the years 1772 and 1828 the foundry cast a total of 398 bells that varied from 500 to 2500 pounds.  Most of the bells had pleasant tones and were used in schools, on ships and for communication.  

Bronze bell forged in 1834 by Paul Revere's son Joseph Warren Revere.

Bells were rung to let the community know of a weekly church service or perhaps a wedding or funeral.  One of the bells that was cast at the Revere Bell foundry was used at the Bath City Hall beginning in 1936 and was rung daily; morning, noon and evening as well as to announce hours of religious services and alarms of fire, tolling for departed citizens and pealing in honor of independence days and other occasions of joy.  The historic bronze bell that was cast in 1834 has recently returned home after a nearly two-century, cross country odyssey that saw it hauled by oxcart from Boston to churches in Ohio before spending decades in a California garage.  Finally the historic bell was returned to the site where it was created 188 years ago at the foundry in Boston.  The original bell was made by Paul's son, Joseph Warren Revere, who took over for his father in 1804.  Then, 32 years ago, real estate agent Jeannene Shanks became the bell's accidental owner.  She had helped broker the sale of what at one time was the First Baptist Church in Vermillion, Ohio.  A fitness center had purchased the church and found it didn't need the heavy bell so Jeannene, not wanting to see it scrapped, made a $1,000 donation for the bell.  When Jeannene and her husband retired to Chino Hills, California, they hauled the 1,000 pound bell with them.  For the next couple of years they would open the garage door on the Fourth of July and ring the bell for the neighborhood where they had moved.  When the Shanks died their daughter, Amy Miller, moved the bell to her garage where it sat since 2009.  Eventually a Texas collector offered her $50,000 for the bell which happened to bear the Revere's marking. The buyer said if he didn't want it any longer he would melt it down.  Amy Miller did some online investigating and after finding out it was cast in Boston decided not to sell it to the Texas collector.  But, she decided she didn't need it in her garage so she donated it to the Massachusetts Museum in Canton, Massachusetts.  She realized that the bell had a story to tell that was never going to be told in her garage.  The bell represents what our history and our country are all about.  It needed to go back to where it had once begun it's life as an ingot of bronze.  Interesting story of a bell that at one time was a block of metal in a foundry in Boston and today has found it's way across the country to a new home at a museum in Boston.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.