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Show AN OLD BELL, (New Mexican.)' In the office of C. T. Brown of the Buckeye Mining company, with office at Socorro, is found what is alleged to be the oldest bell in the United States. This historic bell was made in 1549. In 1680 the church was destroyed by the Indians. In 1734 the bell was dug out of the ruins of an old church at Gran Quivera, an old pueblo and Spanish city, said by several Spanish historians to have exceeded 20,000 in population. From Gran Quivera the bell was brought back to Socorro and nun?- in the old San Miguel church. In 1781 this church at Socorro was destroyed de-stroyed by Indians and the people driven driv-en south to Isleta, near El Paso. In 1806 a colony of seventy families came from Belen, on the Rio Grande, and resettled re-settled Socorro and repaired the old church, which stands to this day. This; old bell was again resurrected and placed in the church. - The bell weighs 461 pounds. The metal used in it came from a mine in Grant county, called the Santa Rita de Copie. The women added all their jewelry of silver and gold to it. Chippings from the old bell have been assayed and it is found that it is worth over $400 in gold and silver. The bell was the first to Tins on the American continent, and that on the banks of the Rio Grande. Seventy years before the Mayflowers sailed into Bos-i Bos-i ton harbor this old bell, with Its clear tone, was calling together a brave little lit-tle band of worshipers with their weapons wea-pons of defense in one hand and the cross in the other. |