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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Judge John H. Bell. For many years or since locating in this county, in 1860, Mr. Bell has enjoyed the reputation of being not only a substantial and progressive farmer, but an intelligent and thoroughly posted man in all public affairs. He has always been noted for honorable, upright dealing, and has kept the name he bears, which has descended to him from a long line of illustrious and honored ancestry, pure in the sight of God and man. The name of the first member of the family who came to America is unknown, but he is supposed to have been of Scotch-Irish descent. That he came to this country with Roger Williams and settled in Massachusetts Colony is an assured fact. Later his descendants went to Virginia. The paternal great-grandfather, Roger Bell, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and his son Roger, who was a lineal ancestor of the subject of this sketch, became a wealthy planter of that State, a large slave owner and tobacco raiser, and there passed from the scenes of his earthly labors. Joseph Shepherd Bell, his son, and father of John H. Bell, received excellent educational advantages in his youth, and after completing his education and learning the trade of a blacksmith, he went to Missouri and settled in Cooper County, where he at once engaged in business, working at his trade near Boonville. He became an active spirit in the political affairs of that day; his abilities soon became known and he was elected major of a company of militia which was organized in the county for the purpose of enforcing the civil law, and was afterward promoted to the rank of colonel. He joined a command to assist in removing the Mormons from the State, and was in a battle at Friar's Mill on Grand River, where several Mormons were killed. He was afterward solicited to become a candidate for the Legislature and State Senate but, being unambitious in regard to holding public office, he invariably refused. He was married in this State to Miss Nancy Greene, who was there on a visit. Their married life was short, and she was left a widow with two children, John H. and Mary Catherine, in September, 1843. After this she returned to White County, Tenn., where she had been born on February 18, 1814, and after remaining there from 1846 to September 10, 1859, she went to the Lone Star State, and in 1860 came to Arkansas and settled near the town of Nashville, where she passed to her long home, October 5, 1884. She had long been a member of the Ozan Baptist Church, and was truly one of the pioneer women of the great West. Although she was left a widow while young, with two small children to care for, it only served to develop the latent energy of her nature and her trust in an All-Wise Providence, and before her death she had the satisfaction of knowing that she had reared her son and daughter to honorable manhood and womanhood. She was a daughter of Rev. John and Rachel (Mackey) Greene, of Tennessee, and through her father was a relative of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame, he being her great uncle. Her grandfather, Jarvis Greene, was killed at the battle of Blue Licks, Licking River, Ky., by the Indians, Daniel Boone and his brother being also participants in that struggle, the latter being killed. After the death of the grandfather, his widow reared her two boys, John and William, and one daughter, Frankie, to maturity. Frankie Greene married a man named Armstrong at Tallula, Ill., and raised a large family. Her son, Hill, was a prominent stockman. John, the father of Mrs. Bell, mother of the subject of this sketch, became a prominent minister of the Baptist Church in Middle Tennessee, and died in White County of that State in 1853. William became the founder of the Greene family at Tallula, Ill., but a number of the former’s descendants settled in Missouri, a daughter, Elizabeth, becoming the wife of Henry Avery, by whom she had five sons and two daughters. Her son, William L., was judge of Henry County, where the whole family had settled; Angus C. became a banker and stock dealer, and James M., another son, also became a banker and stock man. Other relatives in the same county bear the name of Hastings, and all are leaders in the affairs of the county and State. Maj. William Greene, of White County, Tenn. (a brother to Mrs. Bell), who died in 1868, was the father of a large family, among whom are John F. Greene, now of Calhoun, Mo., and William M. Greene, who was a captain in the Confederate army and was killed near Sparta, Tenn., in 1863. Hon. William M. Greene, of Centre Point, present prosecuting attorney of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, is a son of William M. Greene, Sr. Judge Thomas Greene, brother of Mrs. Bell, was a prominent citizen of Sparta, Tenn., and a politician of considerable note. Sarah Griggs, sister of Mrs. Bell, married James W. Scoggin, and four children survive them, who are Mrs. S. E. Hall, (of Windsor, Mo.), Mrs. Lean Monholland, W. G. and J. W. Scoggin, of this vicinity. Mary Greene, sister of Mrs. Bell, married Woodson Scoggin, who died in Missouri and left five children. In 1844 Mrs. Scoggin married James Chambers, a cousin to President Andrew Jackson, and with the entire family removed to Oregon in the same year. Mrs. Chambers died at Hillsboro, Ore., in May, 1890, leaving three sons and four daughters, who are among the leading and wealthy citizens of that State, Hon. John L. Scoggin having been a member of the Legislature several terms. Capt. Gustave Scoggin is a large stockman near Hillsboro. Woodson A. Scoggin lives in Portland. One of the daughters by the first marriage married a Wilcox and the other a Comstock, and the two daughters by the last union have also married—Mary to Mr. Hoover, a stock man, and Letitia to Dr. Bailey, of Hillsboro, Ore. Mary Catherine, only sister of John H. Bell, was married to Thomas L. Toland March 11, 1867. Three children were born unto them: W. H. Toland (the eldest, who is now a practicing physician at Mineral Springs, Howard County), Hugh L. and Tompie; the two younger are yet minors. Thomas L. Toland, who died March 27, 1873, was a cousin to Dr. Hugh Toland, a celebrated surgeon of San Francisco, Cal. Mrs. Bell, mother of the subject of this sketch, was an own cousin of Hon. James W. Throckmorton, of McKinney, Tex. During the time it was a Republic he was one of its leading spirits, and afterward became its governor, and represented it in the halls of Congress. He won the title of general while serving in the Confederate army during the Rebellion, and was a man who possessed a vigorous and brilliant intellect. The subject of this sketch has an uncle, William B. Bell, who was a rich planter of Texas, and there has many descendants who are prominent people. His paternal grandmother, Catherine Brock, was a member of the celebrated Brock family, of Orange County, Va. John H. Bell, the immediate subject of this memoir, was born in Cooper County, Mo., November 15, 1841, removed with his mother to Tennessee, after his father's death, and came to Arkansas with her in 1860, where he has since made his home. In 1861 he enlisted in the first company of State troops raised in this vicinity, known as the “Davis Blues,” and went to Southwest Missouri, where he took part in the battle of Wilson's Creek or Oak Hill, August 10, 1861. He remained in Missouri, at the hospital, with some wounded comrades until December, when he, with others, returned to Nashville, and in January, 1862, enlisted in Company I, Nineteenth Arkansas Infantry, and on March 10, left Nashville for Fort Smith, going from there to the Indian Territory, and in July to White Sulphur Springs, Jefferson County, Ark., where they remained during the summer, being drilled by Gen. R. G. Shaver, now of Nashville, Ark. He next went to Arkansas Post, participating in the battle at that place, and with his entire command surrendered on January 11, 1863. While waiting at Memphis, Tenn., on their way to a Northern prison, Mr. Bell and four comrades, James T. Anderson, Cum. Polk, John A. Turner and Sergt. Castle made their escape from a boat, on which the prisoners were confined, and on landing from the skiff, in which they crossed the river, found themselves in Crittenden County, Ark. They were assisted in many ways by Dr. Merriwether, and with his assistance were enabled to reach the residence of a Mr. Southall, where they met William Johnson, of Crittenden County, and Rufus S. Joyner, of Memphis, who carried them in wagons to Hicks' Station on the Memphis & Little Rock Railway, where they proceeded to Little Rock by railway, and later to his home. A curious incident should here be related. While Mr. Bell was sleeping under a wagon, the night after he and his mother had crossed the river at Memphis in October, 1859, on their way to Texas, he dreamed of the exact circumstances connected with his escape from the Union soldiers the night of January 16, 1863, and had plainly seen the boats in the mouth of Wolf River and along the wharf, the crowd of armed men, and had felt a great desire to escape, although he had no reason for such a desire. He remained at home until July, 1863, then went to Little Rock and joined the consolidated Nineteenth and Twenty-fourth Regiments, and after the re-organization of his company was chosen first lieutenant. He soon after resigned and joined a company of cavalry under Capt. Henry Smith, and was at once elected first lieutenant. He was on scouting duty until May, 1864, and the following June went to Northern Arkansas and joined Gen. Price's army, and was with that general on his celebrated raid through Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. In the fall and winter of 1864 he was in Company C, Third Missouri, Col. Smith's regiment and Shelby’s brigade. During a period of thirty days he did not taste bread, and while sleeping on the prairie in Kansas one cold and rainy night he had a dream of the fall of the Confederacy, and saw the ragged soldiers of Gen. Lee's army falling back from Richmond, and the strong and well equipped Federal forces, who outnumbered them, falling in and about their flanks. After this dream he prophesied the fall of the Confederate cause, and predicted that that winter would end the trouble, and such proved to be the case. At the battle of Wilson's Creek or Oak Hill, Mr. Bell protected the body of Gen. Lyon after he had been killed. After his return home he assisted in the secret service, and was soon elected second lieutenant of George W. Walker's company, Jack McCurtin’s battalion, Cooper's command, his last service being done in April. He surrendered at Washington, Hempstead County, in July, 1865, came home and engaged in farming. In 1868 he started a blacksmith's shop on his farm, and in this calling made considerable money. In 1870 he started a saw and grist-mill in partnership with J. G. Crawford, of Texarkana, but sold out in 1871, and later made a visit to his old home in Tennessee, and on his return brought back a number of varieties of flowers that were unknown in Arkansas, among which were the dahlia and several varieties of roses, also fruit trees and ground ivy. He soon after erected a new steam saw and grist mill, and later added a gin and shingle-mill, plainer, etc., his partner being John N. Collins, the firm name being Collins & Bell. It is situated a short distance from Nashville, and is one of the best plants in the country. The firm own about 1,000 acres of land, with 200 under cultivation, besides some town property, all of which they have accumulated since 1873, as at that time they were in debt and paying twenty-five per cent per annum on the dollar. In addition to this, Mr. Bell owns 1,500 acres in this and adjoining counties, has 250 acres under the plow, and the balance covered with excellent timber. He was married November 16, 1882, to Miss Joe Clark, a native of Calhoun County, Ala., and a daughter of William Clark [see sketch of George M. Clark], and to whom have been born two children—George Henry and Gussie. Mr. Bell has been a member of Pleasant Valley Lodge No. 30, F. & A. M. since December, 1863, and is now chancellor commander of K. of P. No. 30, and in his political views is a stanch Democrat and a leader in the political affairs of his county. He has served as constable of Hempstead County, and in 1884 was elected county and probate judge of Howard County, a position he held one term, since which time he has declined to give his name as a candidate for other offices. In 1873 he was captain of a company of militia that assisted in subduing the Howard County negro riot. In May, 1865, while on his way home from the war, he had an encounter with a large bear in the northern part of this county. His first knowledge of the proximity of bruin was seeing him chasing some hogs. He fired at him four times with a six-shooter revolver, then pursued him into the timber, and after a hand-to-hand encounter of about half an hour, succeeded in killing him. Mr. Bell has in his possession a gold-headed cane which was given him by the widow of James H. Alexander, and on which is inscribed, “George S. Scott to John M. Clayton.” It was given to Mr. Alexander by Powell Clayton, as a memento for services he had rendered in securing the ratification of Hempstead County for the constitution of 1868. Mr. Bell was elected president of the Central Fair Association of Nashville, on June 16, 1890. The thirty-five survivors of the “Davis Blues” held a reunion at Nashville, Ark., on June 18, 1890, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the date of their organization. The company was originally composed of ninety-seven men, and twenty-nine years after thirty-five are living.

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This family biography is one of 116 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Howard County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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