My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES C. BELL, a leading general agriculturist and representative citizen of Sodus Township, Berrien County, Mich., has recently entered upon his third year of office as Supervisor, and in the work pertaining to the position has displayed a high order of efficiency and materially aided in the promotion and development of needed improvements and progressive enterprises. Our subject was born May 10, 1848, in Ogle County, Ill. His father, Aaron Bell, a native of Berkshire County, Mass., and born in 1820, was but two years old when with the paternal grandparents he removed to Ohio. He spent the days of boyhood in the Buckeye State and enjoyed the benefit of instruction in the district schools of those early days. Attaining to manhood, Aaron Bell was in 1843 united in marriage with Miss Jane Collins, of Ohio, in which State the husband and wife remained four years, then emigrating to Ogle County, Ill. There the father engaged in farming and prosperously continued in his vocation as a tiller of the soil until 1889, when he emigrated to South Dakota, and settled in Brown County upon a three hundred and twenty acre farm, which, although seventy-six years of age, he still conducts.

Nine children were born unto the parents, and seven sons and daughters are yet living. Last year the venerable father and mother celebrated their golden wedding in their Dakota home. Tuesday, October 20, 1842, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, were joined in wedlock Aaron Bell and Jane Collins, who after fifty years of joy and sorrow, upon October 20, 1892, invited all of their beloved family and many friends to participate with them in the anniversary which was the fiftieth milestone in the journey they had traveled so harmoniously together through all the changing years. Every child was present, and numerous other relatives and distinguished guests from far and near shared in the joy and festivities of the occasion. Rosanna Caldwell, a daughter, was there from Ellsworth, Kan; Charles Bell, the eldest son, arrived from Benton Harbor; James C. Bell, the second son, residing in Groton, Dak., was one of the family group; Trilla Young, the second daughter, had traveled thither from her home in Des Moines, Iowa; Cordelia Moon, of Cleveland, Ohio, with Tellia Reed, of Woodlawn, Cal., and Lulu Bell, of Groton, Dak., were the three younger daughters, and completed the children who again, after years of separation, gathered around the fireside of their parents. The best wishes of all present were showered upon the venerable couple, who had walked tranquilly side by side for a half -century.

The third son of the family, our subject, attended the schools of Ogle County, Ill., until the age of twenty, when he entered the Wheaton College, at Wheaton Ill., and there received the benefit of a comprehensive course of study for one year. The anniversary of the twenty-first birthday of Mr. Bell fell on the memorable day of the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, which, on the 10th of May, 1869, had crossed the continent with its iron rail. After leaving college, our subject came at once to Michigan, where he purchased sixty acres of fertile land, intending to then start in life by cultivating the farm. After partially clearing it of timber, he exchanged the acres for lots in Irving Park, now a suburb of Chicago. In 1872, Mr. Bell located permanently in Sodus Township, Berrien County, and settled upon land near his present homestead. Since then he has prosperously devoted himself to the pursuit of agriculture, and has taken a place with the prominent farmers of the county. Our subject entered the bonds of wedlock March 16, 1870, marrying Miss Martha Hemingway, daughter of Jesse and Lois Hemingway. Jesse Hemingway, from his location in the county in 1854, up to the time of his death in 1831, took an active part in all local affairs and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have been blessed by the birth of three children: Trilla Lois, born July 17, 1876; Mary, born June 18, 1880, just one hundred years after the birth of her great-grandmother, Mary Bell, a lineal descendant of Mary Queen of Scots; and Charles Arthur, born in April, 1885. The daughters in the dawn of womanhood and the manly son make glad the hearts of the parents.

Our subject and his estimable wife are devout members of the United Brethren Church, and are active in the good work of that denomination. Fraternally, Mr. Bell is a valued member of the Patrons of Husbandry and is a Past Master of that order. He also participates in the gatherings of the Modern Woodmen of America, and has long been connected with that society. Politically, our subject is a stalwart Republican, and in 1882 was elected Township Trustee, which office he held to the universal satisfaction of his fellow-townsmen two years. In 1887, he was elected to the office of Supervisor, holding the position until 1891. In 1893, Mr. Bell was again elected Supervisor and is now an incumbent of that office. In his public work, as in his business, our subject is a thoroughly practical man of excellent methods and executive ability.