Mineral County, West Virginia Biography of JOSEPH V. BELL This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. 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. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 597-598 JOSEPH V. BELL. Joseph V. Bell of Keyser was for more than a third of a century clerk of the county and circuit courts of Mineral County, also an early member of the legislature, and has the record of having served Mineral County in a public capacity longer than any other man. He was born near Bunker Hill in Berkeley County, April 10, 1844. His father John Bell was born in Jefferson County, in 1818, spent his life on the farm, and died in the city of Washington in 1893. He was a member of the Masonic Order, was a whig in early life, and a strong opponent of secession. He married Elizabeth Roberts, who was born in Berkeley County in 1822, daughter of Jonathan and Margaret (Ward) Roberts. She died in 1888, the mother of three children: Maggie, who married Edward J. Beverstock and died in Washington City; Joseph Vance; and Rachel R., who married David H. Rhodes and lives at the old Lee residence at Arlington Virginia. Joseph V. Bell acquired a rather meager education owing to the outbreak of the Civil war. Soon after war began he was put to work in a drug store in Washington, learned the profession of pharmacy in several stores, and was at Washington when the Grand Review of the Union troops was held at the close of the war. Soon afterward he established himself in business at Piedmont, but two years later he sold out and became assistant assessor of internal revenue for Mineral and Grant Counties. After about two years in this work he resigned and engaged in general merchandising at Piedmont until his business was destroyed in a fire on January 1, 1876. In 1879 he became a member of the legislature. He served in the regular session of 1879-81 and in the extra session of 1882. He helped elect Senator Camden for the United States Senate. About 1881 he became clerk and paymaster of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway. Upon the death of Colonel Head he was appointed County and Circuit Clerk of Mineral County on January 15, 1884. He filled the duties of both offices until January 1919, when he resigned as County Clerk, but continued as Circuit Clerk until failing eyesight and deafness com- pelled him to give up that office also in October, 1919, when he had nearly completed thirty-six years of continuous administration. Mr. Bell has always been a staunch democrat supporting Mr. Tilden in 1876. His personal popularity and the efficiency of his work brought him reelection on the strength of republican votes, since Mineral County became a republican stronghold long before he left public office. At Martinsburg, February 26, 1867, he married Virginia Wolff, who was born in Berkeley County in 1842, daughter of John M. Wolff. She died in May 1881, mother of the following children: Lillie Virginia, who died unmarried at Keyser in 1908; John Edwin, who completed his education in Vanderbilt University at Nashville, was in the employ of the Davis Coal and Coke Company, was with the party sent to the Philippines to disinter and prepare and bring home our soldier dead, and subsequently was with the firm Rogers, Brown and Company in Chicago until his health failed and he died in 1903 at Keyser unmarried; Katie, wife of Ernest P. Babb of Keyser; and Myra, wife of A. A. Jordan of Keyser. Mr. Bell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and represented his Lodge in Grand Lodge for some years.