My Genealogy Hound

John M. Bell was born in the Indian Territory, near Evansville, Ark., on the 9th of July, 1829, and is a son of James C. and Matilda (Woolsey) Bell, and grandson of John Bell, who was born in the “Emerald Isle,” and in 1780 immigrated to the United States, locating in North Carolina. He was a farmer by occupation, and followed that occupation in Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. He died in the latter State in 1850. James C. Bell was born In North Carolina in 1796, and in 1823 came to Arkansas, locating first in Hempstead County, thence to the Lovelace Purchase, where he took a claim, which he afterward lost when the Indian Territory was laid off, and in 1831 came to Washington County. He entered the farm now owned by his son, John M., and at his death, in 1848, left his family in comfortable circumstances. He was an active member of the Whig party. He was married to Miss Woolsey in 1826, by whom he became the father of eight children, six of whom lived to maturity. After the father’s death Mrs. Bell married (in 1853) Judge Jonathan Newman, of Washington County, and died in November, 1862. John M. Bell was born on the farm where he now resides, and was reared in the house where he is now living, which was built by his father in 1834. He attended the common schools in his youth, and in 1857 entered the mercantile business at Bentonville, but in 1861 married Miss Elizabeth C. Hale, of Davidson County, Tenn., and located on his farm in Washington County. In 1862 he enlisted in Company K, Thirty­fourth Arkansas Infantry, in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and was a faithful soldier until the close of the war, when he was mustered out as orderly-sergeant. His farm was in a very bad condition, but he immediately set to work, and by industry and good management soon accomplished wonders in the way of improvements, and now has ninety acres of his 160 acres under cultivation. His wife, who was born December 16, 1840, is a daughter of J. T. B. Hale, who came to Benton County in 1855; she is the mother of four children: William F., Minnie L. (wife of J. N. Woodruff), Samuel E., and Thomas (deceased). Mr. Bell is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and a Democrat politically. In 1880 he took the census for two townships in his county.