THE ALAMO MISSION BELL

Austin: The Encino Press, 1974., 1974. First edition. First edition. 8vo. One of 250 specially bound copies, numbered and signed by the author. This is copy 180. This copy also inscribed to noted collector Lee Milazzo: "For Lee Milazzo / who too belongs to the / traditions and ideals of / the Alamo." Publisher's quarter rawhide and burnt orange cloth with titles on a printed paper cover label and titles on the spine with embossed lettering, brownish front and rear endpapers, [8], 30 [2] pp., bronze by Melvin C. Warren and drawings by E. M. "Buck" Schiwetz. The Alamo Mission Bell was cast in 1722 for the Mission San Antonio de Valero, known as the Alamo, where it hung for many years. From there, as the story goes, it was being taken to the mission at Refugio when the cart in which it was being hauled broke down, and the bell was left beside the road near the San Antonio River. There in time some passing horseman found it a likely weight for staking his mount, but the bronc stampeded, dragging the bell 'for miles,' cracking it badly and breaking away its thin-lipped rim. In 1900 it was found on a scrap pile and brought to Victoria, to Moses Oppenheimer, a dealer in junk, who recognized its historical interest and sent it to Miss Adina de Zavala, proud descendant of a pioneer family in San Antonio. Miss de Zavala gave it to Mrs. Bessie Lee Fitzhugh, who featured it in her lovely little book, Bells Over Texas, and later sold it to a dealer in antiques, who in turn sold it to a collector in Nashville, Tennessee. The bell was purchased in 1974 by five West Texans for the Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library, Midland, Texas. It is on display in the lobby of the museum. Fine, unread copy in the original fine slipcase with titles stamped on a paper label affixed to the front cover.