Margaret Frances Cesareo, of High Spring, Fla., is shown with the old Civil War gunboat bell that has rung at Tusculum College for more than a century. Her great-great-grandfather was a fireman on the gunboat upon which the bell originally hung. The inset picture at lower left shows a better view of the bell itself. (Tusculum College photos)

Woman visits campus to see historic bell once part of the life of her ancestor

A High Spring, Fla., woman came to the Tusculum College campus on Wednesday (April 9) to see and hear the same bell that used to ring from a Civil War gunboat upon which her great-great-grandfather served as a fireman.

Margaret Frances Cesareo, who made a recording of the bell's peal while she was on campus, said that her ancestor Alfred Lyons Battersby, 1845-1882, served on the U.S.S Wyalusing, a naval gunboat upon which the bell once was emplaced. Cesareo came to Tusculum because of her interest in genealogical research. She encountered the story of the Tusculum bell on the college's Web site.

The bell, upon which are engraved the words "U.S.S. Wyalusing C.H.&W.M. Cramp Builders Phila. 1863," has been in the McCormick Hall bell tower since 1890, having apparently been given to the college in payment of a debt. Details of the history of the U.S.S. Wyalusing and the bell may be found by clicking the link on the Tusculum College Web site home page at www.tusculum.edu/pr/releases/bell.html. More information and pictures may also be found at www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-w/wylusng.htm.

Coincidentally, Battersby was from Greene County, New York, a county with the same name as Tusculum's home county. He went on after military service to become a New York City policeman. He died at a relatively young age, possibly of meningitis, Cesareo said.

While on the campus, she visited with Myron "Jack" Smith, library director and researcher and writer on the U.S.S. Wyalusing and its bell. Smith took Cesareo to the bell tower, where she examined the bell close-up and had pictures taken. Cesareo is descended through the line of Battersby's daughter, May.

Tusculum College's bell rings on the campus of the oldest college in the state of Tennessee and the 28th oldest in the nation. The bell at one time was used to mark the break between classes but now remains simply as a part of the college's heritage. Visitors to McCormick Hall are encouraged to ring the bell, and students frequently ring it while coming and going from classes in the building.