Nicholas County, West Virginia Biography of CHARLES WILLIAM 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 II, pg. 647-648 Nicholas CHARLES WILLIAM BELL of Zela, Nicholas County, is an attorney by profession, but the big work and service of his active lifetime has been education with which he has been identified for fully a quarter of a century. Mr. Bell was born January 7, 1874, on Peters Creek near the present post office of Zela, and represents two lines of early ancestry in Nicholas County. His father was John A. Bell, grandson of Samuel Bell, one of the first set- tlers of the county. His mother was Margaret Virginia Dorsey, whose people were also among the pioneers of this region. Charles William Bell was about three years old when his father died and he grew up under handicaps that made his personal advancement dependent upon his self re- liance. He attended the free schools during their limited terms, and by hard study and close application he obtained a teacher's certificate and began teaching at the age of eighteen. He taught his first term of school in 1892, and in the thirty years since then has missed only five years from the work of the school room. He received a diploma from the Summersville Normal School in 1897, has a life certificate as a teacher, and has been a student all these years. Mr. Bell owns one of the largest private libraries on general information in Nicholas County. He has been a member of the County Board of Examiners and a grader for State Uniform Examinations, was District Supervisor of Free Schools for Jefferson District, Nicholas County for the school years 1919-20, and since June 15, 1915, has been commissioner of school lands. He was democratic can- didate for the office of county superintendent in 1902. Mr. Bell is a recognized authority on local history, and at the present time is engaged in writing a history of Nicholas County. While teaching he took up the study of law, and in 1909 graduated LL. B. from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. During the practice of his profession he was assistant prosecuting attorney in 1919-20. Mr. Bell has prospered in his material affairs, and is interested in farm- ing and stock-raising, owning two farms comprising 200 acres. He is also a stockholder in the Nicholas County Bank. Mr. Bell has been a notary public since 1900, was a justice of the peace in 1903-04, and was candidate for the House of Delegates in 1920. He was one of the selective service men during the World war. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Patrons of Husbandry, but his chief interest outside of education and his profession has been the church. He has been clerk in the Salem Baptist Church since November, 1914, clerk of the Hopewell Baptist Association since 1915, and repre- sented that association as a member of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Association of West Virginia since 1916; was clerk of Hopewell Baptist Sunday School Con- vention 1904-09 inclusive and again in 1911; for seven years has been secretary of the Hopewell Baptist Sunday School Association and for four years president of the Hopewell Baptist. Sunday School Convention for 1917, 1918, 1920 1921. He was a trustee of Broaddus College in 1919.