In 1869 John T. Townsend brought a 640-pound, 36-inch diameter bell and all his family's possessions from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Eastland County in a covered wagon. Cast in 1850 by the L. M. Rumsey Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, the bell was a fixture on the Townsend ranch until 1900, when the family donated it to the First Baptist Church of Eastland. In 1923 the members of First Baptist gave the bell to Eastland’s First Church of God for use in their new building. In 1977 the Eastland and Cisco congregations joined to form the Inspiration Church of God, which moved the bell to Camp Inspiration west of Eastland in 1981. After the Church of God sold the camp to the Eastland Economic Development Corporation in 2004, it donated the bell for display in Old Rip Park.