John Wallace Bell was born October 25, 1825, Blount County, Tennessee, the second child of Silas Bell and his second wife, Elendor Wallace. His full brothers and sisters were Silas, Jr., Elizabeth, Levina and Mary Ann Bell. Elizabeth and Levina Bell both married in Murray County, Georgia and evidently stayed there, as we could find no record of them in Missouri. Elendor (Wallace) Bell accompanied three of her children to Missouri in 1856. She died in 1865 and is buried at Sinking Creek Cemetery near Everton, Missouri.
Silas Bell., Jr. was born November 19, 1823 in Blount County, Tennessee. He came to Missouri in 1856, along with brother John and sister, Mary Ann (Bell) Wilson. He died in the Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, Missouri. He was a Captain in the Confederate Army.
Mary Ann Bell was born May 28, 1840 in Monroe County, Tennessee. She married Solomon Hayes Wilson in Monroe County, Tennessee, who was a first cousin of Malinda Wilson, second wife of John W. Bell. They lived for awhile in Dade County, Missouri but later moved to Lawrence County.
John Wallace Bell was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. However, if invited, he would preach in any church, regardless of the denomination. He settled first in Dade County, Missouri, later moving to Lawrence County. In his later years, he became quite frail and would preach while sitting in a rocking chair. After the death of his wife, Malinda, in 1899, he returned to Dade County, Missouri and lived the remainder of his life with his eldest son, Silas Bell. John died April 24, 1914 in Dade County. Both he and his wife are buried at the Halltown Cemetery in Lawrence County, Missouri.
John W. Bell married first Eliza Jane Allen in Monroe County, Tennessee. There were four children born of this union. Mary Ellen Bell married Mark Gilmore. Silas Bell married Sarah Elizabeth Grisham. Thomas J. Bell married Mary Hankins and Anna Eliza Bell married James A. Morris. All of these children of the first marriage remained in Dade County, Missouri.
After Eliza's death, John married second, Malinda Wilson, daughter of Charles Wilson and Elizabeth Broyles of Monroe County, Tennessee. Six children were born of this union.
John Bell was born June 4, 1855, Monroe County, Tennessee; died December 11, 1936 in Pawnee County, Oklahoma. He married Melissa Holland.
Joseph W. Bell was born June 2, 1861 in Dade County, Missouri. He died in Lawrence County, Missouri and married Eliza White.
Elizabeth Bell was also born in Dade County and married Lum Ledbetter.
Mary Ann Tennessee "Tennie" Bell (my grandmother) was born February 13, 1866 in Dade County, Missouri. She died April 16, 1939, Lawrence County, Missouri married Phillip Pendleton Carter.
America Wallace Bell was born 1869 and married Purvis Carter, brother of the above Phillip.
Charles P. Bell was born March 10, 1874 in Lawrence County, Missouri. He went to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) along with his older brother John and died in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, May 7 1962. He married Alice Nancy Beason .
Contributed by Geraldine Buland
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