John Bell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1661-1662 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JOHN BELL, postmaster of Spearfish, and one of the old and worthy 
citizens of Lawrence county, South Dakota, is a native of England, born 
in Yorkshire on the 13th day of December, 1849. Deprived of a father's 
guidance and loving care at the early age of three years, the childhood 
and youth of young Bell was beset with many vicissitudes and not a few 
hardships, by reason of which his educational advantages were 
exceedingly limited. While still a mere lad he was apprenticed to the 
blacksmith trade and after serving his time and becoming an efficient 
workman he followed his calling at different places in Lancashire, where 
he was reared until his twentieth year. In 1870 Mr. Bell came to the 
United States and after working at his trade in various towns and 
cities, finally located in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he operated a 
shop until 1876, when, by reason of the excitement caused by gold in the 
Black Hills, he joined the tide of fortune hunters and made his way to 
Dakota, reaching the mining district in the spring of the year noted. 
Immediately after his arrival in the Black Hills he started a blacksmith 
shop, the first one in the place, his only shelter being a large tree on 
the bank of White Wood creek. There was much more work than he ,could do 
and frequently he would be kept busy far into the night attending to the 
needs of his numerous customers. Later in the summer of 1876 he pushed 
on to Central City, where he started a shop and worked at his trade 
continually until 1883, when he closed his establishment and, removing 
to Spearfish, engaged in the livestock business. He moved his family to 
the latter place in 1886 and has since made it his home, the meantin1e 
continuing to raise, buy and sell cattle, until 1902, when he sold out 
his live-stock interests, the better to attend to his duties as 
postmaster, to which office he was appointed by President McKinley in 
1898. He was reappointed in 1902 by President Roosevelt and still holds 
the position, proving a most capable, painstaking and obliging official. 

	Mr. Bell is a Republican in politics and a zealous party worker. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Blue 
Lodge, No. 18, and Lookout Chapter, No. 36, Royal Arch Masons, at 
Spearfish. He was married, January 20, 1872, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
to Miss Mary A. Perrett, a native of England, who has borne him nine 
children, of whom the following are living: Maggie E., Lula M., Rosa, 
Maud S. and Thomas A.; the deceased are Bertha, Kate and two that died 
in infancy. 

	Mr. Bell has been quite successful in the raising and handling of 
live stock, from which and his trade he realized sufficient means to 
retire in comfort, being now the possessor of an ample competence for 
his declining years. Being still in the prime of life, however, with a 
liberal income from the postoffice, he keeps abreast of the times in all 
matters pertaining to the material welfare of the city of his residence, 
being interested in its various enterprises, and co-operating with every 
laudable undertaking for the social and moral good of the community.