History of the Bellows Falls and The Bellows Crest and Motto

History of the Bellows Falls and The Bellows Crest and Motto

Compiled by Geneva Plumb Wiltbank
Posted by Kathryn Burton Castleton
At an early date, the name of the founder was given to the Falls in the Connecticut River near the foot of the Fall Mountain in the northern part of Whalepole.  These falls, which are grand and romantic in the extreme, have ever since been known by the name of Bellows Falls and from what Dr. Bellows aptly calls " The Liquid Memorial of our Founder".

The same name is given to the picturesque and thriving village of Bellows Falls, which has grown upon the western bank of the river in the town of Rockingham, Vermont.  This has made the founder's name familiar to thousands of tourists and men of business and seems likely to hand it down to the remote future.

While no kinship has been shown between the Bellows family of the United States and the Bellows of Lancashire, England or the Bellows of England and Ireland, yet it is more than likely that some relationship exists.  Although the connecting link was lost when John Bellows, the emigrant embarked for the New World.  At the suggestion of Dr. Bellows, the crest and motto of the Bellows family of Lancashire, England, a copy of which was obtained by Col. A Herbert Bellows , have been informally adopted by the descendants of the founder on account of their peculiar appropriateness.  They are thus described in Burke's Peerage.

"An arm embodied habitated the hand proper grasping a challice, pouring water (in allusion to the name) into a basin also proper.  Motto, Tout d'en haut- All from on high.

Dr. Bellows concluded his Historical Address with these beautiful words: "Type of purity, of truth, of abundance, we adopt the cup of water taken from our Founders Falls as the family crest and with it that beautiful motto, so pious and so expressive, All from on high (Tout d'en haut). Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above.  God gave us our fathers and while the waters pour over the Great Fall of our river, we will not forget them or him."