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In 1895, America’s sacred relic went on a national tour to reconcile the nation.
Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
George Davis took this photo of the Liberty Bell during its stop in Roanoke. Hotel Roanoke is in the background.
In October 1895, America’s Liberty Bell left Philadelphia for display at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. An October 4 front page headline in the New York Times noted at least one stop along the route — Roanoke. “Liberty Bell Going to Atlanta; A Grand Demonstration to be Made at Roanoke in Its Honor.”
Roanoke was one of several stops the bell made in its three-day journey by rail secured to a flatbed car pulled by a specially commissioned train of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Roanoke was well-prepared to celebrate its arrival. Aboard five Pullmans were top executives of the railroad, the mayor and a cadre of other officials with the City of Philadelphia and a military guard.
An estimated 10,000 gathered to view the bell at Pennsylvania Station in Washington, D.C., on October 4. As with the other stops, there were speeches, music and much patriotic fervor for what newspapers described as the nation’s most sacred relic. From Washington, it passed through Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg and Lynchburg before making its arrival in Roanoke at 5:40 p.m. on October 5.
Roanoke Times
This ad appeared in the Roanoke Times a day before the bell’s arrival.
City leaders had established several committees to plan the Magic City’s reception of the bell, the result of the mayor convening a town meeting two months in advance. The biggest element was a parade participated in by an estimated 3,000 persons. Masonic and other fraternal organizations, the fire department, bands, Confederate and Union veterans’ camps, church groups, military and all the employees of the Roanoke Machine Works (later the Norfolk & Western Shops) marched. Col. S. S. Brooke was the parade’s marshal.
The parade assembled at 3 p.m. and an hour later made its way along several downtown streets, passing residences and businesses adorned with American flags and patriotic bunting. The Roanoke newspaper noted that the presence of so many flags just 30 years after the Civil War “was a sight calculated to make the lover of his country glad with hopefulness, and which would put to shame all charges that patriotism is not as warm South of the Mason and Dixon’s line as it is to the North of it.”
Leading the parade was the Park Street Band followed by the Jeff Davis Rifles of Salem, Roanoke Light Infantry and the Boys Brigade of First Presbyterian Church. The procession was a mile long. The terminus was the depot of the Roanoke & Southern Railway near Jefferson Street, where the Liberty Bell had stopped alongside a large stand constructed by railroad carpenters using six flatbed rail cars with boards between them to create a 164-foot long platform. Flags were posted at each corner, bunting draped the sides and lights helped illuminate the scene.
Courtesy of The Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
The Stone Printing Company produced this dual image card as a souvenir of the Liberty Bell’s visit to Roanoke.
When all had assembled, a well-rehearsed mass choir sang the “Doxology,” followed by prayer, and then the singing of “Columbia.” J. D. Hobbie of Hobbie Music Company had provided a new piano to accompany the voices. Roanoke Mayor S. E. Jones officially welcomed the mayor of Philadelphia, and then both addressed the crowd. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was sung and the Declaration of Independence read. Allan Watts delivered the main speech, invoking the memories of the Founding Fathers. Watts’ main emphasis, however, was the end of discord in civic life. “Instead of having a new North or a new South, we have one grand united people who are ever ready to sacrifice their all for the principles involved in the story of the grand old Liberty Bell!” Local papers said the crowd yelled themselves hoarse in response.
Special artillery located on a knoll in Woodland Park had greeted the bell’s arrival with a roar in salute. The whistle of the Roanoke Machine Works pierced the air with its shrill sound, signaling for all the church bells to be rung, much to the pleasure of the flag-waving throng of 15,000 gathered around the speakers’ platform. Schoolchildren, corralled by their teachers and mothers, were allowed to pass by the bell in review, as the men stepped back. The Roanoke Valley had embraced the national symbol with enthusiasm.
To protect the Liberty Bell, policemen from Philadelphia stood guard around the clock. The bell was hung from a yoke and surrounded by a brass railing to which was tethered the clapper. The mount contained six massive springs underneath to cushion the artifact as it traveled.
The 1895 tour of the Liberty Bell was the third time it had left Philadelphia, having previously done so in 1885 to New Orleans and in 1893 for the World’s Fair in Chicago. The Liberty Bell’s cache as a unifying symbol of the American experience prompted its tours in an effort to promote national reconciliation. Leaders in New Orleans had developed the idea and helped inaugurate the first tour. Jefferson Davis delivered the main address in that city upon the bell’s arrival and spoke of one America. Roanoke was part of the bell’s second tour to the American South, a tour orchestrated for the same reason. Following its seventh tour in 1915, the Liberty Bell had become too fragile and would not leave Philadelphia again.
The Liberty Bell’s stop in Roanoke on a Sunday afternoon was received, much as elsewhere, with the same intention it was sent. A reporter for Philadelphia Public Record observed that in the Roanoke Valley the bell was embraced “like a benediction on an ideal Sabbath.”
The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!