{"id":14636,"date":"2026-04-27T13:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=14636"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:08:10","slug":"bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/14636","title":{"rendered":"bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

A hollow metallic vessel which gives forth a clear, musical, ringing sound on being struck. In its most common form, it is expanded at the lower part, is furnished at the top with an ear for the purpose of suspension, and has within it a tongue or clapper, by the blow of which the sound is produced. Another form, especially of small bells, is that of a hollow body of metal perforated, and containing a loose solid ball, to make a sound when it is shaken. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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“I saw Brother Alden and he told me he couldn’t raise enough to put a bell in the belfry. The folks in town had given every cent they could, and he lacked just three dollars. So I gave him the money.” – On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 24, “Going to Church”<\/em><\/p>\n

     
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bell sleeves<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

I<\/span>t’s hard to imagine a reader not <\/em>knowing something about all the different types of bells mentioned in the Little House books, or that there were other bells Laura Ingalls must have heard that she didn’t write about, including fire bells, train engine bells, telephone bells, and wedding bells. Did she write about cable car bells in West From Home<\/em>? I haven’t transcribed that book so I can’t look it up easily, but my guess is she did. In this digital era, there are probably young readers who have never heard the ring of a landline telephone bell, or know that there was an actual metal bell inside. Did you know that Caroline Ingalls had a telephone installed in the Third Street after Pa died? Or that the Wilders had a telephone in Rocky Ridge farmhouse? (Do you know which house has a telephone on display?)<\/p>\n

One can argue that bells <\/strong>denote individual prosperity and even an advancement of civilization in the Little House books. Bell sleeves<\/strong> might be cumbersome and unsafe to wear when cooking on a wood stove, but Mother Wilder was fashionable, so her dresses had them. Almanzo Wilder has double <\/em>strands of sleigh bells, so just like Prince and Lady stand out among the other boys’ horses, so do the bells on them. It’s a very big deal for the Congregational churches in Walnut Grove and De Smet to have a large (and specially ordered) church bell to ring out and summon church-goers to Sunday services and to toll at funerals, just as it’s a big deal for the first De Smet school to have a school bell in its belfry, not a hand bell run by the teacher, like in Walnut Grove. The two-story graded school building in De Smet even published a schedule of times their bell was rung. Students could tell the difference between a single stroke and a single tap, and knew that they announced different things that happened during the school day. <\/p>\n

The sound of the church bell rang out on the wintry air Thursday afternoon, being the first notes of that class of music every heard in Kingsbury County. It is a 400 pound bell from the Mc Shane Foundry in Baltimore, and is a beauty, with a very superior tone. Hereafter church goers will be notified of the exact time of services and confusion of time will cease to excuse late arrivals… It will doubtful be heard many miles across the prairies, its tones helping all hearers to forget that this was a howling wilderness but a few days ago. -De Smet Leader, December 22, 1883.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Church bell.<\/strong> In On the Banks of Plum Creek<\/em> (see Chapter 24, “Going to Church”), Wilder wrote that Pa donated his $3 boot money to help buy a bell for the Congregational Church in Walnut Grove, but records show that he contributed $26.15. This may have been a total amount of donations deposited by Charles Ingalls as church trustee, not a single charitable donation made personally by him. The cost of a church bell varied greatly, depending on its size, weight, and quality of bell metals used. It’s unknown how much the Walnut Grove bell cost, but a bell costing $100.38 was purchased for the Congregational Church in De Smet a year after the church was built.<\/p>\n

The De Smet Leader <\/em>reported on the importance of the church bell on December 29, 1883: The new church bell was hung in the belfry of the Congregation church on Friday of last week. On Monday evening, in connection with the Christmas exercises, [the bell] was dedicated with the following ceremonies: Reading a brief history of bells by A. Thomas; Whittier’s poem on the ringing of the bells to celebrate the emancipation proclamation, by Rev. G.N. Annes; Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells,” read by Rev. E. Brown; Tennyson’s poem “Ring Out, Wild Bells,” read by Mrs. L.J. Brown; ringing of the church bell by J.F. Smith; dedicatory prayer by Rev. E. Brown; singing of “Bell Echoes,” a song composed for the occasion by Dr. E.G. Davies, set to music composed by Mrs. Josie Waters, which was beautifully rendered by the children, echoed by gentlemen in the vestibule of the building. This is the first church bell in Kingsbury county. So, one after another, the institutions, the refinements, the social, intellectual and religious privileges of America’s Christian civilization become naturalized and at home where only four years since was a wilderness of prairie grass… but now filled with a population of intelligent, moral and enterprising people.<\/em> <\/p>\n

If Laura was already teaching the Bouchie School, she would have missed the dedication ceremony since it was held on a Monday night. It’s fun to think that Charles Ingalls was probably one of the men echoing from the vestibule the words sung by the students, which no doubt included Carrie Ingalls.<\/p>\n

Both bells survive but are no longer found in the original churches in which they were used: Union Congregational Church in Walnut Grove was disbanded in 1954 and the church is no longer standing; their bell is now used by the English Lutheran Church, 450 Wiggins Street, Walnut Grove. If you’re there at the right time, you can still hear the bell ringing when traveling between the Plum Creek preemption site and town. The original sanctuary used by the Congregational church in De Smet is still standing and is now the De Smet Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, 303 2nd St. S.W.; the bell moved with the congregation to their church building on Highway 14, formerly the U.C.C. Church but now De Smet Community Church, 715 West Highway 14, De Smet. The bell hangs from scaffolding at the east entrance to the church.<\/p>\n

A church bell is mentioned in Farmer Boy<\/em>, and this would have been the one above the clock tower in Centenary Methodist Church, built in 1867. According to the Malone Palladium <\/em>of July 18, 1867, the church bell weighed about 2,000 pounds and was considered the <\/em>bell in town, but by the time the Wilders left New York, it was reported to be giving an “uncertain sound.” Centenary UMC is located at 345 West Main Street, Malone.<\/p>\n

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Some facts as to How Far the Ringing of Bells May Be Heard.<\/strong> In a hilly locality a bell will not be heard half so far as if the land were level, or nearly so. A bell will be heard a great deal further lengthways of a valley than over the hills at the sides. It is frequently the case that bell-rooms are lower than the surrounding buildings and trees, and these obstructions break the sound and prevent its free passage to a distance. It frequently is the case, too, that towers have small window or openings, with the lower boards so close together as to almost box up the sound. In cities the noise of steam and horse-cars, manufacturing establishments, carriages and carts rattling over the pavements, etc., is so great that bells are not expected to be heard at any considerable distance, and this is the reason that in all cities, several bells are used for fire-alarm purposes, it being impossible for one bell, no matter how large it may be, to be heard above the thousand and one noises incident to every large place. The largest bell ever made in this country weighed twenty-two thousand pounds, and, before it was fractured, hung on the City Hall, in New York. On one or two occasions, this bell was heard up the Hudson River thirteen miles, in the night, when the city was comparatively quiet. Water is a good conductor of sound, and aided materially in making the bell heard as above mentioned. It is a great mistake to suppose that bells can be heard in proportion to their weight; that is, that a bell of two thousand pounds will be heard twice as far as one of one thousand pounds. This is not so, for the reason that the bell does not possess anything like twice the resonant surface of the smaller one. What is gained and admired in the larger bell is its deep, majestic, dignified tone, which it is impossible to secure in the smaller one, the weight of a bell invariably governing its tone. A bell of 100 or 200 pounds, in an open belfry, on a schoolhouse or factory in the country, is frequently heard at a long distance, out of proportion, apparently, to one of 1,000 pounds in a church tower near by; and instances of this kind frequently cause no little comment in the way of comparison. The reason for this is, that the small bell has a sharp, shrill, penetrating sound, that must, of necessity, be heard a great deal further in proportion to its weight than the low, mellow “church-going” sound of the church bell. The same principle applies to the whistle of a locomotive, and it is heard a long distance simply because its tone is shrill and penetrating. When hung stationary and struck, or tolled, bells will not be heard, as a rule, half as far as when swung. The swinging motion throws the mouth of the bell up, and not only carries the sound off, but imparts to it a richness that is always absent when the bell is at rest and struck. A great deal is to be gained by ringing a bell properly, throwing the mouth well up, and not lazily jingling it. It is not physical strength that is required in ringing a bell so much as “getting the knack” of catching the rope just right, particularly on the second “down pull.” The windows in the tower should be as open as possible, and the tower should be ceiled just above the windows. -from Scientific American<\/em>, reprinted in The Redwood (Minnesota) Gazette<\/em>, January 15, 1880.<\/div><\/div>\n

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A fine steel composition bell for the new schoolhouse arrived here Wednesday. It has a fine tone and will be most useful. – De Smet Leader, December 6, 1884.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\" Furniture for new schoolhouse ordered as follows: 7 single seats, 28 single desks No. 1, 27 No. 2 single folding desks, 5 teachers desks, 1 bell, 4 Websters Unabridged Dictionary, 1883 edition, 1 No. 3 Victor Heater, 1 set physiological
\ncharts, 1 set Johnson\u2019s grand maps, 2 sets common school maps. – De Smet Leader, December 13, 1884. <\/em><\/p>\n

     
\nSchool bell \/ Hand bell. <\/strong> Miss Beadle rang a hand bell to let the children know that school was about to start (see On the Banks of Plum Creek<\/em>, Chapter 20, “School”). The traditional school bell was made of brass and had a wooden handle; it could be rung with the “bell” pointing up or down. Like many early schools, the first schoolhouse in De Smet had a bell housed on its roof, probably within a little belfry that kept rain and snow from getting into the space above the classroom ceiling. When the schoolhouse was being re-roofed after purchase by the LIW Memorial Society, the original small, square opening for the bell was discovered (see circular inset in photo). A rope was attached to the top of the bell frame and ran through the hole to either the classroom or vestibule below. If the rope had been pulled from outside the schoolhouse, there would have been no need for the hole in the roof below the bell. Today, the schoolhouse on the Memorial Society grounds has a school bell mounted on a pole out front.<\/p>\n

When the new graded school opened in January 1885, it had a bell mounted in a square cupola on top of the building; architect Thomas Wilkin was paid $4 to hang the bell. It’s unknown if this bell was the one used in the original school; it’s also unknown what happened to this bell when the schoolhouse was torn down. If you know, please email! According to the De Smet Leader<\/em>, the bell thundered out the approach, and beginning of school sessions. The “first bell” was rung at 8:30 a.m. and at 1 p.m.; the “second bell” was rung in single strokes at 8:35 and at 1:10, and announced that pupils are to go to their respective classrooms at the start of the day and after lunch; the bell was tapped at 9 a.m. and at 1:15 p.m., standard time, and meant that all students – except delinquents, who entered at the “tardy door” – should be in their seats and ready for business.<\/p>\n

Both Almanzo’s school in Farmer Boy<\/em> and the Burr Oak school that Mary and Laura attended had school bells. In the manuscript for Little House in the Big Woods<\/em>, there’s a story about Laura going to school with Mary one special day because Mary was going to “speak a piece,” and the teacher, Miss Barry, rang a bell to call the students inside. Laura’s first school experience didn’t make it into the published book. There was no bell in the schoolhouses where Laura taught, however; she rapped her pencil on her desk to get her students’ attention. The schoolhouse on Ingalls Homestead has a bell on top, with its rope hanging inside at the back of the schoolhouse. Next time you visit, make sure you give it a ring!<\/p>\n

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sleigh bell.<\/strong> A small bell attached either to a horse when drawing a sleigh, or to the sleigh itself. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Sleigh bells fill the wintry air with melody by spells. – De Smet Leader, December 22, 1883.<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\n\"\"\"\"Sleigh bells \/ Jingle bells. <\/strong> From my old blog, posted January 3, 2009, and titled Happiness Approaches! — While riding in the sled to the dance at Grandpa’s (Little House in the Big Woods<\/em>, Chapter 8), Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that “the horses shook their heads and pranced, making the sleigh bells ring merrily.” The next time we read about Laura and sleigh bells in the Little House books, it’s when Laura hears the sleigh bells on Prince and Lady as Almanzo Wilder approaches the Brewster schoolhouse to take her home for the weekend: “It seemed to her that the wind had a strangely silvery sound… The strange sound grew clearer, almost like music. Suddenly the whole air filled with a chiming of little bells. Sleigh bells!” (These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, Chapter 3) <\/p>\n

Did Charles Ingalls never have sleigh bells on his team after leaving the Big Woods? It makes me think that sleigh bells were tied to happiness in some way, and surely Laura associates the sound of sleigh bells with being happy in the Little House books. It’s the sound she hears every time Almanzo comes to take her home from the Brewster school, and on that last trip home to stay, Laura writes that “her heart was so light that she felt like singing with the sleigh bells.” (These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, Chapter 10) Even if you ignore the fact that sleighs and sleigh bells probably were a luxury (notice they’re on a sled <\/em>in the Big Woods, not a sleigh<\/em>), or that the Ingalls family didn’t have room to pack such frippery when going to Indian Territory, or that Pa didn’t even have horses on Plum Creek for a while, there’s no way around the fact that sleigh bells are just, well, happiness-inducing. LISTEN!<\/a><\/p>\n

Sleigh bells have been around for well over a thousand years, first as good luck charms or to ward off evil spirits, then as a symbol of wealth and status (weren’t Almanzo’s double strands of bells thought better than the single strands worn by the other boys’ horses?). While they are both decorative and beautiful, sleigh bells also served a more practical function in Laura’s day. The sound warned other people on the road that there was someone coming, and they were especially useful during snowy or foggy weather. Like Laura in These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, one can hear the bells get louder as they get closer; that’s your cue to slow down or get a little tighter grip on the reins just in case you’re driving Barnum and Skip that day.<\/p>\n

Next time you visit Burr Oak, why not take a side-trip to Classic Bells<\/a> northeast of Postville, Iowa? While they don’t keep regular “store” hours (call first), the owners have an amazing collection of vintage and new sleigh bells for sale, and they also sell at events; check out their website. No horse? Try some for the dog… or at least a strand for your back door, to let you know when someone’s going in or out!<\/p>\n

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jingle.<\/strong> To sound with a fine, sharp rattle; to clink. To cause to give a sharp sound, as a little bell, or as pieces of metal. A rattling or clinking sound, as a rattle, and the like. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Jingle Bells. <\/strong> When any bell is struck by the clapper or a separate item enclosed in the bell or used to hit the bell with, it causes the body of the bell to vibrate, which displaces the air around it and creates a sound. Unlike bells which clang or gong, jingle bell makes a sharp, melodious and usually pleasant “jingling” or tinkling sound, but other non-bell items can also sound like a jingle, such as coins in pocket that are moved around by the fingers. One song from the Little House books has a line that refers to the “jingle” of money, not the ringing of a bell. <\/p>\n

While even an open bell with a clapper can be called a jingle bell based on its sound, a jingle bell is usually described as a round bell that starts as a flat piece of metal, cut into a flower shape, the petals of which are heated and rounded into a ball shape by hammering into a mold. A small ball bearing or is inserted before the petals are closed around it, leaving one or more small openings. A sleigh bell is a type of jingle bell, and was often a cast bell of brass made in a mold. Sleigh bells were typically numbered – the smaller the number, the smaller the bell. They ranged in size from #1 (1-1\/8″) to #15 (2-7\/8″); having bells of multiple sizes on a string made for a rich and more festive sound. <\/p>\n

In These Happy Golden Years<\/em>, Wilder wrote that when Almanzo surprised Laura at Christmastime when she wasn’t expecting him until spring, Pa had heard the string of bells Prince was wearing when Almanzo drove up, even though Pa was playing his fiddle at the time, but in Pioneer Girl<\/em>, it was noted that Almanzo left the bells at home so Laura wouldn’t hear his arrival!<\/p>\n

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\"\"The only cow bells<\/strong> in the published Little House books are the ones the cattle are wearing in a story Pa tells Mary and Laura about when he was a boy. However, Wilder often mentions cows wearing bells in her handwritten Pioneer Girl<\/em> memoir, including that the cow, Sukey, that Ma mistook for a bear, was wearing a bell, which Ma didn’t hear… because the bear wasn’t wearing one! At Uncle Peter’s house, where they stopped on their way to Burr Oak, Laura and Mary listen for the familiar tinkle of the cows’ bells to be able to find them when they were sent to bring them home each day.<\/p>\n

The only dinner bell<\/strong> mentioned in the Little House books is the one rung at the hotel in Tracy, heard by Ma and the girls after riding the train from Walnut Grove to meet Pa in Tracy (see By the Shores of Silver Lake<\/em>, Chapter 4, “End of the Rails”). A man stands in front of the hotel “swinging a hand bell,” but there were also dinner bells that were more like school bells and were rung by a cord attached to the clapper and used to fling the clapper back and forth against the sides of the bell. Other dinner bells could be hit with a separate metal mallet. Upon hearing the dinner bell ringing, the railroad men begin singing a crude variation of the song that appears the most times in the Little House books: “There is a Happy Land.”<\/a> <\/p>\n

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Pa’s laugh and Pa’s singing voice<\/strong> are both described by Laura in terms of the sound a bell makes. His laugh was described as being “like great bells ringing,” suggesting that Pa’s laughter sounded like separate, deeply resonating “notes.” Did Pa sound like Santa Claus’s “Ho, ho, ho,” only deeper and more booming? Unfortunately, there’s no known recording of Pa laughing (or speaking, for that matter). Too bad that Docia Holland didn’t ask Laura what Pa’s laughter sounded like; maybe then, we’d at least have something to go on. There are multiple instances in the Little House where Laura wrote about her father’s distinctive laugh. <\/p>\n

Pa’s singing voice was described in Little House on the Prairie<\/em> (see Chapter 26, “Going Out”) as sounding like “a deep-toned bell.” The song he was singing at the time, “The Battle-Cry of Freedom,”<\/a> may have something to do with it, being a battle and marching song. In multiple Little House books, Wilder wrote that her father sang bass <\/em>, which is the lowest musical voice in a musical composition. <\/p>\n

     
\n
\nbell<\/strong> (BW 4; FB 1, 6, 8, 23, 26; BPC 20-21, 24; SSL 4, 14, 19-20, 22; TLW 14, 31; LTP 11, 13-16, 19, 21; THGY 3-5, 8-12, 24, 26), see also<\/i> belfry, Florence Bell<\/a>
\n     church bell \/ churchbell (FB 8; BPC 24, 31, 36; LTP 19; THGY 24; PG); see also<\/em> church<\/a>, “The New Year’s Come”<\/a> (lyrics)
\n     cow bell \/ cow-bell (BW 3; PG); see also<\/em> “Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-Ay”<\/a>
\n     dinner (SSL 4)
\n     ground-cherry fruit shape (LTP 12), see ground cherry<\/a>
\n     hand bell \/ hand-bell (SSL 4; TLW 9)
\n     horse (FB 1, 6)
\n     jingle bell (SSL 19; THGY 11), see also<\/em> “Jingle Bells”<\/a> \/ jingle, the sound (FB 1, 6, 23, 26; SSL 22; THGY 4; PG), see also<\/em> “I Wish I Was Single Again”<\/a>
\n     Pa’s laugh like great bells ringing (LHP 13, 15, 21; SSL 6, 9, 13; THGY 1)
\n     Pa’s singing voice like a deep-toned bell (LHP 26)
\n     school (BPC 20; LTP 11; THGY 24, 26; PG)
\n     sleigh bell \/ sleigh-bell (BW 4, 8; FB 23, 26; THGY 3-8, 10-11, 25; PG)
\n     bell-shaped sleeves (FB 2, 8) – Removeable undersleeves typically worn with bell sleeves were called engageantes<\/em>.
\n     train (SSL 4; TLW 31), bell shape of train engine smoke stack, see smoke stack \/ smokestack<\/a>
\n     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The noise-maker, not the milliner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[645],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14636"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18151,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636\/revisions\/18151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}