A while back Robin Heise, while on the board of the Historical SOciety, discovered the following article of the Xenia Daily Gazette issue of March 21, 1935.
Hibben’s (1875-1969) family came to Yellow Springs from Indiana. Although his death occcured in Dayton, his burial is in a military cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Certain questions arise: what became of the sword? what was Lord Michael’s story? did Bellmer Hibben achieve his goal of moving out west?
Off-hand, what kind of a financial
offer would you make for the rather ordinary looking sword, with the
broken blade, shown above? Not much, probably, but that is because
appearances are so often deceiving.
For example, the owner of the sword,
Bellmer S. Hibben, 236 Corry St., Yellow Springs (right) has refused
offers as high as $500 for it and wouldn’t consider a bid much less
than ten times that amount. He values it at $5,000, which proves this
particular sword must be something out of the ordinary.
Mr. Hibben, an interior decorator
employed in Springfield, who has made collecting Indian relics, old
manuscripts and other rare articles a hobby for more than forty
years—ever since he was a boy—treasures the sword more than his
entire collection of about 300 pieces. That is because it has such a
fascinating background.
The fact the sword once saw service in the Napoleon war, a stray bullet severing the blade about six inches from the point, and originally must have belonged to a high ranking British noble, has been established conclusively by Mr. Hibben.
Inspection of the gold handle shows engravings of the royal line of England. It bears the British coat of arms, the three plumes of nobility, a lion’s head and the British bulldog. Engraved on the blade, near the hilt (which fits rather loosely into the lion’s open mouth) is the Scotch thistle and the English rose.
The sword once belonged to an English lord, whose body lies in Glen Forest Cemetery at Yellow Springs, the grave identified with a plain marble slab on which appears the simple inscription: “Clement Westbrook Michael, native of England.”
For some unexplained reason, the British nobleman came to the United Stated in 1836, established a residence in Cincinnati and later became a habitue of Elisha Mills’ hotel at the “springs,” then a widely known health resort because of the medicinal qualities of the water. Afterward, when Mills sold his hotel and built another which afterward became a “Home of the Aged” the present site of Bryan High School, the titled Englishman also was a frequent guest at the new hostelry.
Lord Michael was credited with furnishing money to equip a store room built by Mills’ first business establishment in Yellow Springs, but which was removed some years ago. He also bought land on the Dayton-Yellow Springs Pike, now owned by the Huston family, built a home and lived there until his death. Michael was a remittance man and enjoyed a regular income from entailed estates in England. He imported a span of horses and entertained in a lavish manner when ‘in funds.” When he died after the Civil War, a relative came over from England to settle up the estate and erect the simple stone marker at his grave.
The lord’s effects were sold at public
auction, and the engraved sword was included among the articles
purchased by the late Charles Helfner, Yellow Springs. Helfner
apparently considered the weapon of no value for one day, in a spirit
of generosity, he made a gift of the sword to Bellmer Hibben, then a
lad of 13, for whom it presented a boyish attraction as a plaything.
Young Hibben soon tired of the toy and sold it for a dollar to Civil War veteran, Tom Jobe. Years passed and Hibben began to find pleasure in collecting miscellaneous relics. It was twenty-five years later—in 1910—that the forgotten sword was recalled to h is memory. After the veteran’s death, Hibben happened to see the sword in his collection.
Expressing to the veteran’s widow a
desire to buy back the sword, Hibben made an offer of a dollar—the
original price Jobe paid him twenty-five years before—and it was
accepted. Hibben still did not realize that the sword might be of
historical value. It was dim and tarnished and coated with grime, but
he polished it up and was surprised to discover the handle was of
gold. The engravings on the hilt intrigued his interest and this
persuaded him to look up the history of the blade.
The Yellow Springs decorator has had no offers from big-time collectors, but he feels reasonably sure that they would display a lively interest in the prize of his collection. Hibben is rather anxious to dispose of his other relics because in the spring he plans to take up his residence in the West. He has relatives in Colorado and in California.
