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HON. MARTIN BELL, deceased, formerly president judge of the Blair County
Courts, was long one of Hollidaysburg's representative citizens. He was born
in Antis Township, Blair County, Pa., September 30, 1849, and was the only
surviving son of Rev. Adie K. and Mary E. (Allen) Bell.
     The founder of the old pioneer Bell family of central Pennsylvania was
John Bell, the great-grandfather of the late Judge Bell, who settled in
Sinking valley prior to the Revolutionary War, during which he was often
compelled to flee with his family to Lowery's Fort to escape massacre by the
Indians.
     Edward Bell, son of John Bell, was born in Sinking valley, March 17,
1769, and died April 14, 1852, aged eighty-three years. He was a millwright
by trade, and in 1800 he came to the site of Bellwood, Pa., where he built a
grist mill, distillery and saw mill, which improvements gave the place the
name of Bell's Mills, and later, in honor of Mr. Bell, was named Bellwood.
Edward Bell was a remarkably energetic and successful man, and in 1830 had
come into the ownership of 3,674 acres of land. Two years later he built
Elizabeth Furnace and Mary Ann Forge, and in 1836 his son, Martin Bell, at
Elizabeth Furnace, was the first man in the world to use escaping gas from
the tunnel head of a furnace for the production of steam, and also, it may be
said, the first man to rest his furnace over Sunday.
     Rev. Adie K. Bell, father of Judge Bell, was born also in Blair County,
in 1814, and died in 1888. He was an able Baptist minister and for a number
of years was pastor of one of the leading Baptist churches in Allegheny City.
The mother of Judge Bell was a native of Dauphin County, a member of the old
Allen family of that section. Rev. Adie Bell was one of the early financial
secretaries of Lewisburg University, now Bucknell University, at Lewisburg, Pa.
     Martin Bell was educated at Lewisburg, and was graduated from the
university there in the class of 1873, being later admitted to the bar.
Subsequently he was elected district attorney of Blair County and filled that
office for three consecutive terms. Judge Bell was elected in the fall of 1893
to succeed judge Augustus S. Landis, the Democratic appointee of Gov. Robert
E. Pattison, who succeeded the late justice John Dean on the Blair County
Bench. Judge Bell was also elected for his second full term on the Republican
ticket in the fall of 1903.
     Judge Bell was prominent in Masonic circles, being a 32d degree Mason,
past master and a Knight Templar. He also took an active part in the military
affairs of the State and was for many years the captain of Company C, N.G.P.,
stationed in this city. He was one of the most able, eminent and widely
quoted judges of the Courts of Common Pleas of the State. When it became
necessary to pass upon the recent act of Assembly increasing the salaries of
the judiciary of the State, Judge Bell was selected to sit with Judge Robert
Von Moschzisker, of Philadelphia, specially upon the Dauphin County Bench, to
decide that question, and they sustained the constitutionality of that act.
     Judge Bell's decisions were well written and carefully considered, and
it was a rare occasion when he was reversed by an Appellate Court. He left to
survive him a widow, three sons and three daughters.