In 1915, as war raged in Europe, the Liberty Bell came to Everett

EVERETT — The Liberty Bell no longer rang and it wasn’t on time, but 100 years ago this month the bronze symbol of American freedom rolled into Everett on a train.

It was 4 a.m. July 14, 1915, when the bell, mounted on an open-top train car, arrived here on its way to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The Panama Canal had opened in 1914.

It wasn’t the bell’s first train trip — there had been six others, but none to the West. The 1915 journey that included Everett and Seattle would be its last absence from Philadelphia, where historians believe the bell was rung July 8, 1776, to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

According to Everett Daily Herald archives, a 21-gun salute by local Spanish-American War veterans greeted the Liberty Bell train. It had been scheduled to arrive in Everett just before midnight July 13, 1915, but a delay tested the crowd’s patience.

By sunup, people were pressing toward a platform to get a close look or even touch the bell. The train was stopped at a rail siding near a freight depot at the east end of Everett’s Wall Street, which was festooned with banners. Before heading south to Seattle and Tacoma, it could also be seen at the Great Northern depot along Everett’s Bayside waterfront.

Local historian Jack O’Donnell, who for many years wrote The Herald’s “Seems Like Yesterday” column, is a postcard collector. He has two postcards showing pictures of the Liberty Bell in Everett. O’Donnell found them on eBay, and said they cost $10 to $20.

One shows the bell with an American flag made of flowers, a gift from the Everett Rose &Dahlia Society. And a floral wreath was presented by the Everett chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Spurred by his postcards, O’Donnell researched the bell’s visit, and several years ago wrote an article about it for Senior Focus, a Senior Services of Snohomish County publication.

“Tears and cheers were many as people lovingly stared at the time-scarred emblem of liberty,” O’Donnell wrote. Citing The Everett Herald, O’Donnell wrote that Gov. Ernest Lister and Mayor William H. Clay gave stirring speeches before the train departed.

William Rorabaugh is a University of Washington history professor and co-author of “America’s Promise: A Concise History of the United States.” He notes that in an era before TV and easy travel, the effect of seeing the Liberty Bell in person would have been immense.

An essay on the HistoryLink website about the bell’s stop in Seattle includes details about an elderly couple kissing the bell’s surface and kneeling in prayer.

“The bell is a physical object, and touching it is an act of physical connection to the American Revolution,” Rorabaugh said. “Now we’re visually connected to the entire globe. It’s difficult for younger people today to understand the hunger there was, especially in remote places, for connections to places that were seen as central.”

Few people in Everett would have traveled to Philadelphia at that time. “These days, we are so saturated with imagery, we don’t need to travel to feel the immediacy,” Rorabaugh said.

World War I was under way in Europe in 1915, although the United States wouldn’t enter the Great War until 1917. Rorabaugh sees in the Liberty Bell tour an aspect of promoting patriotism, particularly among a populace made up of a growing number of immigrants — many from Germany.

“The big question at that time would have been the war in Europe. Everyone knew there was a chance the U.S. would become involved in it,” he said.

According to The San Jose Mercury News, the Liberty Bell’s trip to San Francisco was bolstered by California schoolchildren being told the story of the bell and signing petitions. “At that time, there were all these American-born children of immigrant families,” said Rorabaugh, who sees the bell tour as partly a push for patriotism as war raged in Europe.

Steven Beda, a UW postdoctoral instructor who teaches Northwest history, said the bell’s 1915 tour was “a celebration of American empire.” On its six previous train trips, the Liberty Bell hadn’t gone west of St. Louis. “People in the Northwest were excited about the Liberty Bell coming through, and that the Northwest was now part of the global empire,” Beda said.

Postcards don’t tell the whole story. “A picture is not always representative of the entire population, especially in 1915 in Everett,” Beda said.

The Everett shingle mill strike that eventually brought the Industrial Workers of the World, or “Wobblies,” to town started May 1, 1916, Beda said. That would lead to deadly labor strife on Nov. 5, 1916, that became known as the Everett Massacre.

“By 1915, radicalism was extremely prevalent in many parts of Everett’s society,” Beda said. Many people, working-class immigrants in particular, “weren’t so eager to celebrate American empire as the Liberty Bell rolled through town.”

O’Donnell has seen the Liberty Bell several times in Philadelphia. The first time, when he was in his 20s, the bell was still in Independence Hall. It’s now on display in the Liberty Bell Center at Independence National Historical Park.

He was there July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial.

“It rained like crazy,” O’Donnell said. “It was cool being there on the Fourth of July, and knowing it had actually come through Everett.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

About the bell

*It is bronze (copper and tin) and weighs 2,080 pounds.

*Its strike note is E-flat.

*It was first cast in 1752, and recast in 1753 by John Pass and John Stow.

*It did not ring July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted for independence.

*It is believed to have rung July 8, 1776, to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

*It was originally in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall.

*It is on display in Liberty Bell Center at Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia.

*There is no known record of when or why it first cracked.