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A few clouds. Low 58F. Winds light and variable..

A few clouds. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.

In this 2016 file photo, the 650-pound bell originally cast in 1854 as the school bell for Female Academy hangs in the bell tower of the Henry County Courthouse. The maker’s name, WM. Kaye, and a decorative relief appear on the bell.

In this 2016 file photo, the 650-pound bell originally cast in 1854 as the school bell for Female Academy hangs in the bell tower of the Henry County Courthouse. The maker’s name, WM. Kaye, and a decorative relief appear on the bell.

It seems ironic that the sale of a courthouse would spark a Chancery Court case — but that’s exactly what happened in 1885 in Henry County.

The story began when William Kaye, the owner of a well known bell and brass foundry in Louisville, cast a 650-pound bell for the Female Academy, a girls school located at the corner of Market and McNeill streets in Paris.

According to an article by Doreen Forrest, several silver dollars had been contributed by Parisians so they could be melted with other metals to give the bell a sweeter tone.

It was used by the school, which changed names over the years, and by the owners of the school — Odd Fellows Buena Vista Lodge #56.

Roughly 20 years later, the lodge ran into financial difficulties, and the school and its bell were eventually sold to local Baptist minister W.B. Jones.

Jones opened a woman’s school called the Seminary on the property, and gave the bell to Free Will Baptist Church, which happened to be a short distance from the school.

Unfortunately, the church building was too weak to support the roughly quarter-ton bell, so it stayed where it was, and had to be rung for services from inside the Seminary.

In 1878, Jones sold the school to R.M. and Martha Dickson, but specified that the bell, still owned by the church, would stay in the school, and church members must be able to enter the school in order to use it.

That agreement lasted until 1882, when the school property was sold to T.C. McNeill. The Dicksons failed to mention the bell’s ownership, and the church, by now in a new building four blocks away, never claimed it. After three years McNeill finally sold it to Henry County for its new courthouse.

The church’s deacons took McNeill to court, and McNeill was ultimately ordered to pay the church $75, plus $7.50 in interest.

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