Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Bell, Benjamin L. P. 1849 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 10:06 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

BENJAMIN L. P. BELL.

    Benjamin L. P. Bell, chief of the Hammond fire department, has had a career
in this important branch of public service lasting over fifteen years, both in
the employ of a private concern and with the municipality. The fireman does more
for the conservation of property than any other individual. and he has a
proportionately high regard in the public favor and esteem. Heroes are
discovered every day in this branch of municipal service, yet their quiet
performance of duty goes on without interruption and their deeds often fail of
casual mention in the press. The Hammond fire department has developed and
maintains as high a state of efficiency as that of the near-by city of Chicago,
and takes rank among the best of the state, so that Mr. Bell occupies both an
honorable and a responsible position in the city of his choice.

    Chief Bell was born in Chicago. Illinois, November 14, 1849, a son of Joshua
and Hannah (Weaver) Bell, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of New
York state. His grandfather, also Joshua Bell, was of Scotch ancestry, but was
born, lived and died in Ireland, having been the father of several children. The
younger Joshua Bell emigrated from Ireland in 1819, and became a shoe merchant
in Montreal, Canada, where he lived until the rebellion in 1836. He then came to
Chicago, in the early period of that city's history, and remained there till his
death in 1875, when he was eighty-four years old. His wife, Hannah Bell, was one
of a good-sized family of children born to Benjamin and Phoebe (Paddock) Weaver,
the former of whom was a native of Onondaga county, New York, was a farmer, and
lived to be over ninety years old. Mrs. Hannah Bell survived her husband until
1883, being sixty-three years old at the time of her death. She had come to
Chicago in 1833, when the Indians still made it their haunt. Both she and her
husband were Protestants. They had four children, three sons and one daughter:
Joshua, of Chicago; Kossuth H., of Chicago; Benjamin, of Hammond; and Grace,
deceased, who was the wife of Henry F. Schiefer, who is also deceased.

    Mr. Benjamin L. P. Bell was reared in Chicago, attending the public schools,
and later took a course in Bryant and Stratton's Business College. He learned
the plumber's trade, and followed that for a number of years in Chicago. He came
to Hammond in 1889 to take the position of fire marshal for the Hammond Packing
Company, and two years ago was appointed to the office of fire chief of the city
fire department.

    Mr. Bell was married August 6, 1890, to Miss Agnes Henrietta Hohman, a
daughter of Ernest W. and Caroline (Sibley) Hohman, who were the first settlers
of the original town of Hammond, and whose six children are still living. Four
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bell, Fred J., Grace Lena, Alice and Gladys
Hohman Bell. Fred J. and Alice both died when about a year old, and the other
two are in school. They reside at 276 South Hohman street, where Mr. Bell built
a good home in 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Bell are members of the Episcopal church, and
he affiliates with Garfield Lodge No. 569, F. & A. M., and with Hammond
Commandery No. 41, K. T. He is a strong Republican in politics.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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