For an explanation of what this index contains (and does NOT contain), and of the additional details on each entry, see the Bellfoundry Indexes Advice.
PHILADELPHIA - STST : USA - PA 1853 C [chime] St.Stephen's Episcopal Church LANCASTER - T : USA - PA 1853 C (chime) The Evangelical Lutheran Church of The Holy Trinity (ELCA) LOWELL - STA : USA - MA 1857 C chime St.Anne's Episcopal Church STORRS - STM : USA - CT 1860*C chime St.Mark's Episcopal Chapel * originally installed elsewhere NEW HAVEN - SH : USA - CT 1860 C [chime] Suburban Home School DETROIT - CC : USA - MI 1864 C chime Christ Church Detroit (Episcopal) (also called Old Christ Church) HARRISBURG - Z : USA - PA 1868 F chime Zion Lutheran Church (ELCA) HARRISBURG - Z : USA - PA 1869 E chime Zion Lutheran Church (ELCA) BALDWINSVILLE : USA - NY 1870 C [chime] M.E. Church CHICAGO - MA : USA - IL 1870 C [chime] Michigan Avenue Baptist Church HAGERSTOWN : USA - MD 1870? C [chime] Trinity Lutheran Church ORANGE - OV : USA - NJ 1870 C chime Love of Jesus Family Church (was Orange Valley Congregational Church, later Highland Avenue Cong.Church) COHOES - STB : USA - NY 1871 C [chime] St.Bernard's Church CLEVELAND -- : USA - TN 1871*C chime Lee University * originally installed elsewhere WASHINGTON - MM : USA - DC 1871 C [chime] Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church LEBANON - CC : USA - PA 1872 C (chime) Christ Church (Presbyterian/PCUSA) NORTH ADAMS - STF : USA - MA 1872 C chime St.Francis of Assisi Catholic Church ASTORIA : USA - NY 1873 C chime Episcopal Church of the Redeemer EVANSVILLE : USA - IN 1873 C [chime] Catholic Trinity Church MADISON - GC : USA - WI 1874 F non-trad* Grace Episcopal Church POTTSVILLE : USA - PA 1874 C chime Trinity Episcopal Church DOVER : USA - NH 1875 C chime St.John's United Methodist Church WILLIAMSPORT - T : USA - PA 1875 C chime The Maynard Chime Trinity Episcopal Church JIM THORPE : USA - PA 1876 F chime Episcopal Parish of St.Mark & St.John (formerly St.Mark's Church) city previously named MAUCH CHUNK DETROIT - STPP : USA - MI 1879 C chime SS.Peter & Paul RC Church ALLENTOWN : USA - PA 1884 C chime St.John's United Church of Christ (UCC) (was St.John's Reformed Church)
The Jones bellfoundry was started in 1852 by Eber Jones and James Harvey Hitchcock, in the industrial city of Troy, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River in the state of New York.
Eber Jones was born in Vermont, but little is known of his life before this enterprise.
James Hitchcock had previously worked in Andrew Meneely's bellfoundry in West Troy, NY, on the western bank of the Hudson River River above the city of Albany. Hitchcock was related by both descent and marriage to the Meneely family (see the Hanks-Meneely genealogy), and at the time of Andrew Meneely's death in 1851 he was foreman of that bellfoundry. It seems likely that Hitchcock's move to Troy was prompted in part by an unwillingness to work for Andrew's sons, who were younger than he was.
(Hitchcock was also related by marriage to the bellfounders of the Hanks family; his brother Alexander was married to Philena Hanks Meneely's younger sister Abigail Irena.)
The foundry was initially located on the northwest corner of Adams and First Streets in Troy, but in 1854 it was relocated to the southwest corner. It burned in the same year, but was promptly rebuilt.
This firm later claimed that the chime they made in 1853 for St.Stephen's Church, Philadelphia (see above), was the first chime made in America; they may have been unaware of other competitors for that claim. (See Milestones in the history of chimes in North America.)
James Hitchcock retired from the business in 1857; he was replaced by H.J.King, and the name of the firm was changed to "Jones and Company, The Troy Bell Foundry." By 1865, H.J.King had been replaced by Sylvanus Birch, and Eber's son Octavous (sometimes called Octavius) had joined the firm.
Eber Jones died unexpectedly at age 51. This may be what prompted the further change in the name of the foundry to The Jones & Company Troy Bell Foundry, a rather curious nomenclature. (Some bells are known that read simply "The Jones & Company"!) Octavous Jones then took over management of the company, and was joined by his older brother Marcus R. Jones. Marcus left the firm about 1873, moving to Baltimore and becoming involved with the McShane bellfoundry there. The Jones foundry closed about 1887, possibly because it was unable to compete successfully with the two Meneely bellfoundries.
Sources:
1) Neil Goeppinger, article in "The Bell Tower", V60#2, Mar-Apr 2002, p.5
2) Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, "The Bell-Foundries of Troy," in his
History of Rensselaer Co., New York, Philadelphia, Everts & Peck, 1880, p225ff.
Some individual Jones bells:
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