‘One of the most remarkable stories’: 177-year-old stolen bell returned to Iowa church, LDS Church says

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has returned a 177-year-old bell to the First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City after the bell was stolen and ended up in the hands of the LDS Church through misidentification and a rich history of twists and turns.

Mistaken for the Nauvoo Illinois Temple bell, Hummer Bell was displayed on Temple Square in Salt Lake City for decades. Historians recently discovered its true identity, the Hummer Bell, which was taken from the First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City in 1848 and deceptively sold to the LDS Church.

“This is one of the most remarkable stories you’ll ever hear,” said Elder Kirt L. Hodges, an Area Seventy for the Church of Jesus Christ.

The story of the 33-inch wide, 800-pound bell begins with Michael Hummer, a pastor of the newly founded First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City in Iowa Territory in Dec. 1842. Over the following years, Hummer reportedly raised funds for a building for the congregation and bought a bell for the church from the Meneely Bell Foundry in Troy, New York.

By 1848, several concerns about Hummer, including claims that he mishandled funds, caused the congregation and church trustees to expel him from his position, according to the LDS Church. Hummer reportedly requested back pay, which he claimed he never received. After not receiving the pay, he decided to take the bell from the church.

“It’s a pretty crazy story,” Pastor Nathan Willard of the First Presbyterian Church said.

Pastor Willard said he looks mercifully, even gratefully, on Hummer’s actions. Ironically, the original church was later destroyed by fire, and the bell would have been destroyed with it had it not been taken. Willard added that Hummer may have had every right to take the bell.

“He was underpaid and given permission to take things,” Willard said. “Perhaps it was just a debt owed [and] we shouldn’t be too hard on [him].”

But when Hummer went to take the bell, things took a turn. After Hummer lowered the bell from the belfry, Iowa City residents intervened. They took his ladder, according to the church, whisked away the bell by wagon, and submerged it in Rapid Creek for temporary safekeeping.

While this was happening, Hummer remained perched in the tower.

According to the church, while the bell was hidden, four men who knew of its whereabouts and who “were likely involved in sinking it in the creek,” secretly loaded it on a wagon and took it with them as they traveled west toward California in early 1850.

After arriving in Salt Lake, the men sold the bell to the LDS Church’s tithing office.

“The Saints needed bells,” said Keith Erekson, director of historical research and outreach for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “They used bells. In the 19th century, bells were hung in churches; they were hung on schoolhouses; they were used to wake people up; they were used to call people to meetings.”

Years later, after learning that the bell had been sold to the LDS Church, representatives from the First Presbyterian Church and Michael Hummer both wrote to Brigham Young. Young responded, saying that if they could provide clear proof of ownership of the bell and pay for its return, he would happily return it.

Hummer never responded, church officials said, and the First Presbyterian Church was unable to raise the funds needed for its return. As a result, the bell remained in Salt Lake City.

After some time, the bell was placed in storage “with a really vague note that just said, ‘old bell,'” Erekson said.

It wasn’t until 1939, when a new generation was rummaging through church items, that the bell came back into light.

“They find this old bell, as it’s labeled, and — I think it’s as much wishful thinking as anything — they really wished it was the Nauvoo Bell. And so it was,” Erekson said. “They published the news that it had been discovered, and that got people excited. Eventually, it got installed on Temple Square.”

Thus, the Hummer Bell, misidentified as the Nauvoo Bell, was placed in the Relief Society campanile on Temple Square in 1966.

Around 30 years later, in the late 1990s, LDS Church staff began to investigate the bell, and over the next couple of decades, the truth of the bell’s origins emerged. This culminated in a 2019 “BYU Studies” article on the topic.

In 2023, the bell and campanile were taken down as part of a larger renovation project of the Salt Lake Temple and the surrounding square.

“When the option came up, we said, ‘You know, the best thing to do would be to send this back to the church where it came from,'” Erekson said. “We reached out, and they were excited. We’re thrilled to be able to make that restoration of the bell to its home.”

The bell was restored to its 1840s appearance and now hangs in a campanile at the First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City. A dedication was held in Iowa City on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, to mark the return of the nearly 200-year-old bell to its rightful owners.