Chapel bell, Norridgewock, ca. 1700
Description
Tradition has it that this bell came from the chapel that Father Sebastien Rasles had built in the village of Norridgewock in the early 1700s. After a raid on the village in 1721 it is said one of the Indians helping to bury the dead hid this bell. It was found in 1808 under a decayed hemlock, taken to Norridgewock and later given to the Maine Historical Society. Rasles (1657-1724) was a Jesuit priest living and working with the Native Americans in the late 1600s and early 1700s.