Letter from Augustus Poole Bell to Arthur W. Bell, Sr., Lowndes, Alabama http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/lowndes/history/letters/apbell.txt ================================================================================ USGENWEB NOTICE: All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed and copyrighted by: Daniel Mahar ================================================================================ September 2002 Transcribed September 6, 2002 by Daniel Mahar A letter received by Arthur W. Bell, Sr. from his father Augustus Poole Bell in March 1929. I received your letter in due time. No doubt you would enjoy a trip in the South not only to see the home of your father and uncles when they were children and where we played there as little boys do today and see the large plantations of the South as they were years ago, and that of your grandfatheršs, which was about two mile through it one way and about 1 3/4 the other. But you need a guide to tell you how they lay 60 years ago. The ground I nearly as it was then but the lines and appearances have been changed some by man and time. I would like to have made a visit to the land of my childhood, and re-travel the roads that I traveled on so much on horseback when I was a happy boy. Where I lived when I was a child, and where I lived when my children were children is dearer to me than any other place on earth. Although to see those spots would cause me to weep like a little child for a lost toy, still it would be a pleasure to see them. We wish to see what is a pleasure to us, and we wish to see what is sadness to us. My cousin Annie Bell told me of Joešs visit last spring. It was my fatheršs tomb that Joe visited. My fatheršs father lived and died in South Carolina. I donšt know any farther back than my grandfather Bellšs own family. I know nothing of his ancestors. My father, five brothers and two sisters were born and raised in South Carolina on a farm, where they stayed and worked on the farm until they were 21. William Bell moved to Georgia, died there, leaving a widow, son, daughter and a little grandson. He was poor. Jim Bell moved to Mississippi. I donšt know his circumstances. Only that he had little or no wealth. Annanias, Osborne, and LeRoy moved to Alabama. Uncle Lee had nothing; he was overseer for my father 1 year. I was 5 or 6 then. Uncle Annanias was younger than my father, but married first, his first child being 7 or 8 years older than I was. He lived 3 miles from us, on the road from Hayneville to Letohatchie and 1 mile from Hayneville, the county seat. I was well acquainted with his family. My uncle Annanias had only 2 or 3 Negroes. Uncle Osborne was still younger, but his oldest child, a boy, was 2 years older than I, destine to be a millionaire. Uncle Osborne lived in Montgomery County 18 miles from us. He was in good circumstances, owned 2 small plantations and some 12 or 15 negroes. My brother Joe and I boarded in his family when going to our first school. I was 10, Joe 8. Uncle Osbornešs oldest child, N.J. Bell, was in the banking business when he died, worth about $1,000,000. Only a boy of commonsense but turned his whole heart to making money. My father, Joseph Bell, moved to Alabama soon after it was admitted into the Union in 1819. I became acquainted with an old man in 1865 that knew my father when he owned only a horse, a bridle, and saddle and was teaching school. He died in July 1861 at the age of only 52. He left 2 plantations well stocked, the home place something more than 1400 acres, the other plantation in an adjoining county, 1240 acres, and 92 Negroes. He was about 40 when he married, owning a small plantation and somewhere about 20 or 30 Negroes, about half of them boys and girls; he was preparing for the future. Little did he thing that hose little boys and girls when in the prime of life would be taken from his children without remuneration, when at the time he bought them the U.S. Government recognized them as property. The home place the plantation on which we lived was between Hayneville and Letohatchie. W lived about 4 miles from Haynesville and about 3 1/3 miles from Letohatchie, which are about 7 miles apart. We lived about 1/2 mile off the public road, the road running through the plantation, cutting off 400 or 500 acres on one side, from the settlements. My fatheršs tomb stands on a little hill sloping on all sides alike, about 200 years from the public road on the side toward the settlements. He selected the spot yards before he died. My brother Willie, my third brother, has been buried there also. My father was strictly honest, he had a profound contempt for a liar or otherwise dishonest person, and my mother was the same. I was born in October 1849 in a double log house. My father hadnšt bought the 1400-acre plantation then. He bought it about 3 years after. He sold the plantation on which I was born to Uncle Annanias Bell. My fatheršs brothers that I knew were blue eyed, dark hair about like mine was when young, and a real white complexion. I have looked in an encyclopedia for an origin for the Bells, and from what I can find, the name Bell had its beginning in Scotland or Ireland. The complexion of my father and brothers point to Scotland as the first home of the Bells. My father used the word ŗfetch˛ for bring. King James 1st of England used the word ŗfetch˛ he was born and raised in Scotland, and was first. James the sixth of Scotland at Queen Elizabethšs death became James the first of England. So I think the Bell of our family came first from Scotland. I will tell you what I know of my motheršs family. My motheršs mother was a Daniel; she had one brother, but no sister to my knowledge. Her brother, Uncle John Daniel, lived 11 miles from Hayneville, the county seat of Lowndes County. My grandma lived a mile from the village, we lived 4. Uncle John Daniel was not wealthy but was well to do, owning a small plantation and 12 or 15 Negroes and sufficient livestock as horses, mules, cows, sheep and hogs. He never tried to make money; he was satisfied with having a plenty to live on and live well, pride cost him nothing. He lived in a log house of 4 rooms. He was a sociable and fond of company. My grandma first married first Augustus Poole from New York State. My mother was the first child, and the second a boy, William. Their father died while they were children. My mother married at the age of 16; she was born in October. I was born in October, my brother Joe was born in October two years later. Mother died in the Fall of 1864. We were then living in Butler County, Adjoining Lowndes. Uncle William Poole married a niece of fatheršs, his sisteršs child. Their children on their fatheršs side are my first cousins, and on their motheršs my second. Uncle William Poole went into the army in 1862, was wounded in the battle of Franklin, Tenn. In the Fall of 1864 and died of blood poison. Cousin Eva, his wife died early in the Fall of 1860. My grandma had a small plantation and a few Negroes. She married the second time, James Meadows, and had a large family. Grandma also lived in a double log house with a room on each side of the log pens, making 6 rooms and a hall separating 3 on each side. None of my people were proud, but were plain with no pretense. Now for your motheršs family people. On her motheršs side I know almost nothing, only they were respectable people, and that one of her kin was very wealthy. Her mother was very industrious, working out in the field hoeing cotton in spring and picking it in the fall. You mother was like her in industry and the only child that was. She had her second husband when I saw them in 1872 in Texas. They moved from Alabama to Texas in 1869. Her second husband, Sneed, was poor though honest and upright. The name of your mother's father's family is Cottingham. I knew two of her uncles in 1868. Washington and Wesley. They were living on the old home place. Their father had died. The old man was well off, owned a medium sized plantation and slaves to cultivate it. He lived in a nice house. He gave your motheršs father, John Cottingham, a good education and made a Methodist preacher out of him. The accomplished young John Cottingham met and married a Miss Caldwell, the first child was a son, Rufus. Four years later, in October 1858, the second child was born, a daughter Mary, destine to be your mother. Your mother and her brother Rufus were, in build, features and complexion purely Cottinghams. Their father, Their Uncle Was, and his son Warner, were the same all alike. Wesley didnšt look to be any kin to them. They were all honorable men. John, your motheršs father, was poor; he barely made a living at preaching, and he wouldnšt work. He had a little property. He died when your mother was three years old. Her grandfather gave her a Negro youth. Her mother married after the war was over, a young man five or six years her junior, after having the offer of a man who was tolerably well to do. But she chose Snead because she thought he would be good to her two children, which he was, and exception in that respect, but he was a poor worker and no manager. It was her management that kept soul and body together, she wore the breeches, she advised him and forced him too. Our Uncle Rufus died January 1875 from relapse of pneumonia in Dallas, Texas.