Bios: JOHN BELL: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    JOHN BELL.
    
    [p. 538] Among the self-made men of Lawrence County, farmers by vocation,
  and men who have succeeded through their own energy and perseverance, and
  to-day are the proprietors of fine and productive farms, men who are passing
  the sunset of life in the enjoyment of a competency obtained through years of
  honest toil and economy is the subject of this brief history. His farm is
  nicely located in Neshannock township, not far from New Castle. He is a son
  of Edward and Barbara (Richardson) Bell, both natives of England. Edward Bell
  was a coal miner by occupation, and followed that occupation throughout a long
  and singularly active career. He was as honest as the day was long, and no one
  could have been more upright and honorable in their dealings; naturally a
  hard-worker, it is not surprising that he was able to provide his family with
  many of the little comforts so little seen among those who labor in the mines.
  He and his wife were blessed with the birth of three children, as follows:
  Catherine, who married Joseph Ward, and lives in the State of Illinois;
  Thomas, deceased; and the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Bell dying in 1829,
  our subject's father contracted a second union with Susie Brown, by which
  marriage the had several more children. His death took place in 1840, when he
  was aged forty-five years. The family were Methodists.
    
    John Bell of this history was born in Durham, Eng., Sept. 18, 1825. Until
  coming to this country in 1849, he was engaged in the same line of work as
  his respected parent, and even after his arrival in the United States, and
  for many years thereafter, he was still engaged in mining as a means of
  securing a livelihood. He settled at first in Greenville, Pa., where he
  worked in the coal mines, going from there to Wheeling, West Virginia, where
  he was employed in the coal mines one year. He then went to Moundsville, W.
  Va., where he leased a coal bank, and worked it for about a year, disposing
  of the product to the transportation companies, and at last selling the lease
  itself to good advantage. In 1852 he moved to New Castle, Pa., and has lived
  in its vicinity ever since. After living in the city a short time, he moved
  to Neshannock township, where he purchased a farm, and has since been engaged
  in its successful cultivation, and in mining coal to some extent. Mr. Bell is
  a man of great industry and excellent habits of life, and always secures the
  respect of the community wherever he chances to locate.
    
    In 1850, he was joined in marriage with Isabella Brothers, who was born
  Aug. 22, 1832, in the State of Ohio. This union has been abundantly blessed
  with twelve children, as follows: Edward, who married Jennie Stinson of
  Croton, Pa., a suburb of New Castle, and had one child, Montgomery L., both
  parents are deceased; Josiah, who married Mary Donaldson of Neshannock
  township, who bore him three children, John, Carrie, and Margaret, and by his
  second wife, Margaret McKee of Neshannock township, he became the father of
  four more children, Sadie, Grover C., James, and Annie; Jennie, who married
  Seymour McWilliams of Illinois, and has four children, Jennie, John, Mark,
  and an infant; Catherine, who married Charles Miller of Neshannock township,
  and has two children, Edith and Eva; Della, who married Edward Sergeant of
  Neshannock township, but now of East Brook, Lawrence County, and has three
  children, Abbie, Edward, and Mildred; Abbie, who married John W. Dinsmore of
  East Brook, and has one son, John Alford; and Richard W., a practicing
  physician, who married Margaret McGoun of New Castle; Sarah; Maria; William;
  Johnnie; and an infant are deceased. The family is to be found among the
  regular attendants of the United Presbyterian Church.