Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell

Subject: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 May 05 - 02:32 PM

North of Sacramento, there are a number of small county seats that look like time stopped there a century ago. There aren't many murders on Northern California. When one takes place, the trial isn't handled like it would be in the big cities.

In the early morning hours of November 19, 2002, a young man shot a police officer in Red Bluff, California. The officer was refueling his patrol car at a gas station, and the out-of-state man shot him as a "political statement." It was the first time a police officer had been killed in that county in 100 years. The trial took place in neighboring Colusa County in March and April, 2005. The young man admitted he shot the police officer, so the jury deliberations took only 25 minutes.

When the jury reached a "guilty" verdict, a bell tolled on the roof of the county courthouse.

So, that's my question - is this a common practice, to have a bell on the courthouse and to use it to announce a jury verdict? Are courthouse bells used for other purposes?

Seems like there should be songs about courthouse bells if this is a common practice. Was it a courthouse bell that Nellie hung onto to save her father?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 May 05 - 02:51 PM

Never heard of it in all the places we've lived. Never saw a courthouse that had a bell either.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 05 - 05:57 PM

Both the Colusa County Courthouse (1861) and adjacent Hall of Records and County Jail (1861) are on the U. S. Parks list of Historic American Buildings. Photos of both here: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?pp/hh:@FIELD(SUBJ+@od1(+california++colusa+county++colusa+))
Colusa

These buildings were often multi-purpose. The bell could have been used for general alarm, fire, announcements, etc. I have seen a bell cupola on some old courthouses in the South, but whether any were used to toll a court decision, I don't know.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 05 - 06:05 PM

The old bridge at Colusa, with its swing section, also is on the historic register. Pictures at the website posted above. Swing section with controller's roost shown on image 8.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 05 - 07:37 PM

Wharton County, Texas. Old photo showing bell cupola.
They are restoring the building and currently the bell is on tour to schools.
Courthouse
The bell on tour:
Bell

Courthouse bell in NC, with comments on usage- Open court sessions, when election results were in.
Bell

Many tales in google.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 05 - 07:38 PM

I found this article: Ring the Bell: Reviving an Old Tradition from the Hinds County [Mississippi] Gazette. They are talking about ringing the bell to announce that court is in session.

By searching for "ring the courthouse bell" (and variations, such as ring + "courthouse bell") with Google, I found several references to ringing the bell on special occasions such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Christmas Day, the anniversary of 9/11, and also about ringing it as a curfew, or on the hour, or to alert volunteer firemen.

Here's a story about a New Year's Eve tradition.

Here's a story about using the courthouse bell to announce births and deaths. (I believe a similar tradition once existed in England, except it was the village church bell).

Here's a story about a 1912 trial at which the judge "issued instructions that the custom of ringing the courthouse bell be dispensed with."

This page about Chester, OH, says that children "especially like the story about the courthouse bell, how every courthouse had a bell, and why. That was because in the old days, they had no telephones, so the only way that they knew that the court was in session was the bell rang. And then if the person was free, they were innocent, with a bell ring. If he was guilty, the bell tolled."

There's probably more info out there, but I sort of got tired of looking.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 05 - 07:43 PM

Courthouse bell mentioned in this parody, "The Gallant Old Backwoodsman": Song

Subject: RE: Folklore: Toll of the Courthouse Bell
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 May 05 - 10:47 PM

G'day Joe,

A rather less formal (Australian) occasion of the bell ringing for an acquittal is cited in a rather 'close to the edge' song I did publish in Mulga Wire ... about 150 2-monthly issues back! (Yike ... That's 25 years ago!)

The song is by one of Sydney's less than reverent songwriters, John Dengate ... and sets out to flesh out a short, collected, portion of a song from the time of the events (~ 1913 ... ?), when the local young men in the New South Wales country town of Binalong, decided to disturb the order of things, by which the town's dances maintained a social divide - either a chalk line through the centre of the hall to keep the common folk in the outer darkness ... or the closed events that didn't allow hoi polloi.

The tactic selected was extreme: during an invitation-only ball, toilet pans from the local hotel were conveyed to the hall and thrown in the windows - thus the song's title: The Shit Flung on the Floor! Several local lads were arrested ... on the sole testimony of one woman who had been outside the hall at the time and claimed to have recognised some of them. Apparently the father of one of these lads actually had enough money to hire a Sydney lawyer ... and, when he pressed the woman as to what she was doing outside the hall - and with whom - she refused to answer and the case collapsed.

Supporters of the accused then rang the courthouse bells, as in John's song:

"... So the courthouse bells are ringing
And the Binalong boys are singing,
For the shit flung on the floor!"

I guess this tends to support the idea of a tradition whereby the courthouse bells would be used to signal important events ... even if this time was not sanctioned by the court.

(Errr ... I could post the song ... though I might be cutting a bit close to John Mehlberg's territory!)

Regard(les)s,

Bob