Wild Rose Farm Bell

Wild Rose Farm Bell. . This bell was cast at the William Kaye foundry in Louisville, Kentucky, and was then mounted on the "Frank Pargoud," a steamboat built in 1868 for Capt. John Tobin and named for Confederate Civil War General, J.F. Pargoud. The Pargoud operated for approximately ten years out of New Orleans to ports such as Memphis and St. Louis. After the Pargoud was decommissioned, the bell was installed on the "Chalmette," a steamboat also operating along the Mississippi River. The Chalmette made numerous trips from New Orleans to St. Louis as a passenger ship. In 1904, while the Chalmette was carrying passengers to the St. Louis World's Fair, she struck a snag and sank south of Natchez, Mississippi. The bell was recovered from the wreckage and shipped to the Red Leaf Plantation in Arkansas. In 1915, the bell was taken to the New Orleans riverfront and used upon the annual arrival of King Rex at Mardi Gras. , , In 1920, Herbert P. Crane, son of Richard T. Crane, founder of Crane Plumbing Company of Chicago, purchased the bell at auction in New Orleans. Herbert P. Crane installed the bell in the bell tower at Wild Rose Farm in St. Charles, where it was used to signal the beginning and end of each workday and to call the farmhands to dinner. Crane used Wild Rose Farm for hunting and horseback riding with friends, including St. Charles notable, Col. Edward J. Baker. It was Crane who, in 1927, donated the four bronze foxes which were cast in France and installed on the Main Street Bridge in St. Charles. , ,

In 1986, the Thomas E. Rosensteel and Thomas F. Lappin families developed Crane Road Estates on Herbert P. Crane's Wild Rose Farm property. This bell was donated to the City of St. Charles on December 27, 2007, by Thomas E. Rosensteel and Nuala McKiernan Rosensteel in memory of Thomas F. Lappin and Anne Rosensteel Lappin.