Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

South Jersey has its own ‘liberty bell’ to ring in July 4th | Opinion

We’ve all heard about Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, but Cumberland County’s has a rich past that predates the Revolution.

Cumberland County's liberty bell
Cumberland County's liberty bellRead moreCASSANDRA RODRIGUEZ (custom credit)

As a symbol of freedom, the Liberty Bell stands out as a Philadelphia landmark that attracts visitors from around the nation and the world.

However, South Jersey has its own bell with a rich past that predates the American Revolution. Less heralded than its counterpart across the Delaware River, the Cumberland County Liberty Bell can be seen at the county courthouse in Bridgeton, about an hour’s drive from Center City. It’s had enough durability to have been rung in four centuries.

“A lot of people are unaware of the bell and its history,” says Bill Chestnut, a retired teacher and Upper Deerfield Township resident.

To help remedy that, he wrote Legend of the Little Liberty Bell, a book published in 1998 to coincide with Cumberland County’s 250th anniversary. “I wanted to write something about the bell that children could understand,” he adds.

Cast in Bridgewater, England, in 1763, the bell, which is about two feet high, was shipped to the county for installation in the courthouse. In Colonial times, bells played a key role in their communities, alerting people to a fire or other emergency or notifying residents of an upcoming meeting or important news.

The latter was the case on Aug. 7, 1776, when the bell summoned citizens to hear Dr. Jonathan Elmer read the Declaration of Independence. Elmer, who would serve as a member of the Continental Congress, was both celebratory and somber in his remarks:

“While we rejoice in being formally emancipated from our haughty and imperious taskmasters,“ Elmer said, “let us remember that the final termination of this grand event is not likely to be brought about without shedding the blood of many of our dear friends and countrymen.”

On each Independence Day until 1846, the bell was rung in celebration of freedom. That year, the original courthouse was torn down and the bell relocated to various sites in Bridgeton over the following decades.

It was initially placed in Firemen’s Hall as a fire bell. The bell later was relocated to the belfry of the West Jersey Academy, where it rang to mark the start and finish of the school day until the school graduated its final class in 1910. The Bridgeton School District took over the bell and it was installed in the cupola of the Senior and Junior High School.

The Cumberland County Liberty Bell took a spot on the national stage when it helped to provide the soundtrack for the nation’s sesquicentennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1926. The bell rang to mark the beginning and end of each day’s festivities, according to Chestnut.

That year in Philadelphia, President Calvin Coolidge referred to the bell in his remarks. “Such symbols of the birth of our country remind us of the sacrifices of our forefathers and should inspire all to do their part to keep the liberties they established,” he said.

Since the sesquicentennial, the bell, which serves as the centerpiece of the county flag, has been kept in the county courthouse. It rang in 1945 to mark the end of World War II, the 200th anniversary of Cumberland County in 1948, and the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

The bell was last taken outside and rung in June 2011 when it was paraded through Bridgeton to celebrate the city’s 325th anniversary. Will the bell leave the courthouse and be rung again? That remains to be decided by county officials.

“There has been no determination as to the bell’s current condition or ability to move it,” says Matthew E. Pisarski, assistant planning director for Cumberland County. “So for now it is remaining in the courthouse.”

With its history of durability, however, don’t count out this bell. There may be a place for it at the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration in Philadelphia — in 2026. For now, the bell can be seen on weekdays at the county courthouse, 60 W. Broad St., Bridgeton, where it is a year-round reminder of the successful fight for independence.

Tom Wilk is a former Inquirer copy editor and coauthor, with Jim Waltzer, of Tales of South Jersey: Profiles and Personalities (Rutgers University Press).