BIOS: Samuel M. BELL, M.D., Lincoln Township, Somerset County, PA

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, pp 330-331.

  Samuel M. Bell, M.D., a well-known and able physician of Lincoln township, was 
born in Rayne, Indiana County, Pa., May 24, 1844, son of James J. and Catherine 
(McHenry) Bell.  Samuel Bell, his paternal grandfather, was a prominent farmer 
of Rayne.  He was also a land surveyor and a magistrate, serving in the latter 
capacity for forty years.  Grandfather Bell lived to be ninety years old.  His 
wife died at the age of sixty.  She was a member of the Presbyterian church.  
The grandparents had a family of eight children; namely, John, William, Miner, 
James J., Nancy, Jane, Elizabeth, and Margaret, none of whom are living.
  James J. Bell, Dr. Bell's father, was born in Rayne in 1806.  The active 
period of his life was devoted to farming in his native town, and he died in 
1893.  In politics he was originally a Whig and later a Democrat.  Catherine, 
his wife, was born in Indiana County in 1812, daughter of Samuel McHenry.  She 
became the mother of seven children, four of whom are living, namely: William 
W., a veteran of the Civil War and now a physician of Chicago; Samuel M., the 
subject of this biography; Mary Jane; and Margaret E.  William W. Bell, M.D., is 
married and has five children.  Mary Jane married John T. Cathcart, and has four 
children-James, John, Kate and Lizzie Cathcart; and Margaret E., who married 
Erasmus Cooper, has three children.  The others were Thompson M., Joseph M., and 
Melinda C.  Thompson M. Bell, the eldest son, served as Orderly Sergeant of 
Company D, Seventy-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was fatally 
wounded at Stone River, Tenn.  The parents were members of the Presbyterian 
church.  Mrs. Catherine Bell died in 1885.
  Samuel M. Bell acquired his elementary education in the schools of Rayne, and 
was graduated from the Indiana Seminary in 1860.  Commencing the study of 
medicine with Dr. Robert Brown, in Greensburg, Pa., he remained there a year, 
and entering the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1863, he was 
graduated with the class of 1865.  In the following year he began the practice 
of his profession in Jefferson County, where he resided for a number of years, 
and since 1882 he has been located in Lincoln township.  As a physician he is 
considered skilful, reliable, and conscientious, and as a result he enjoys a 
large practice.
  On December 20, 1866, Dr. Bell was joined in marriage with Annie M. McKee, 
daughter of John J. McKee, of Indiana County.  In politics the Doctor is a 
Democrat.  Dr. and Mrs. Bell are members of the Lutheran church.  They have two 
children-Lizzie L. and Daisy G.