My Genealogy Hound

Joseph G. Bell, one of Polk County’s prominent citizens, was born in Burlington, Boone County, Ky., on July 30, 1830, and is the son of Samuel and Lydia (Glenn) Bell, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively. The parents were married in Cincinnati, Ohio, resided there for some time and then moved to Burlington, Ky. The father was born in 1808, and died in Evansville, Ind., in 1852. The mother was born in 1810, and is now residing in Evansville, Ind., with some of her children. The father was a carriage and wagon maker by trade and worked at this business in Burlington, Ky. He moved to Ohio County, Ind., remained there a short time and then moved to Cape Girardeau County, Mo. A short time afterward he started back to Ohio County, Ind., and died on the way, at Evansville. He was a Whig in politics and was an elder in the New School Presbyterian Church. The Bell family is of Scotch-Irish descent. The mother has been a member of the Presbyterian Church since 1836. Nine children were born to their union of whom our subject is the second child. He spent his school-boy days in Gary’s Academy and Rising Sun, Ind., and received a thorough education. When sixteen years of age he left home, worked on a farm two years, and when eighteen years of age commenced to work on a steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This he followed for five years and then went to California, where he was engaged in mining for two years. His trip west was a success, and in 1854 he returned to Evansville, Ind. He clerked for the Sherwood House for nearly a year, and then traveled as salesman in Southern Indiana and Illinois. He then went to Cincinnati, and was in a manufacturing house and made mule collars for the Government. He was also engaged in the nursery business. Later he went back to Evansville and made collars there, later yet he was with Charles Babcock & Co., in the hardware and carriage trade, in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and other southern States. He then came to Western Arkansas, first locating near Cincinnati, Washington County, Ark., where he remained over one year. He then came to Polk County, located on 160 acres of land, and here he has since resided. He commenced to bid heavily on mail contracts in 1878, and since then he has had mail routes in eleven States, seventeen routes in Arkansas. Mr. Bell is building commissioner of Polk County, and through his good judgment this county has recently built one of the cheapest and best jails in the State. Mr. Bell has always taken a deep interest in politics, voting and working for the success of the Democratic party and was chairman of Polk County, Third Congressional District in 1886-87. He was married in February, 1873, to Miss Louisa Smith, daughter of Thomas Smith of this county. To this union five sons and two daughters have been born: R. E. Lee, Sarah Addie, John G., Ruff. L., Marquis Lafayette, Thomas C. and Lydia M. Mr. Bell joined the Methodist Protestant Church in 1887, and is now steward of the same. He is located four miles southwest of Cove, in White Township. He learned his trade of saddler and harness-maker in Cincinnati and Rising Sun.