[.....]


J. H. BELL DEAD AT CANASTOTA 

Funeral Services for Justice of Peace To-morrow Afternoon 

JURIST   ILL   SINCE   JUNE 

Compelled to  Relinquish Duties of 
  Office last Fall-----Was Taken to 
    Polls on March 10 and 
           Cast Ballot 
  
SPECIAL TO THE POST-STANDARD 
  CANASTOTA, MARCH 25 - The funeral of John H. Bell, 75, Canastota's veteran 
Justice of the Peace, will be held in private at the family home in North 
Peterboro street at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon.   Rev. C. E. Jewel will 
officiate and interment will be in the family plot in Mount Pleasant 
Cemetery.  Friends may call at the house from 11 until 1 o'clock Saturday. 
  Mr. Bell died about 10 o'clock this morning.  Justice Bell had been in 
failing health since June 1914.  Last fall his condition became worse and he 
was obliged to give up his office in the DeLano Block. 
  On a few occasions during the spring-like days of the past month Mr. Bell 
was wheeled downtown in a chair and greeted by many of his friends.  He was 
taken to the polls at the village election on March 14 and voted.  He tarried
downtown until the result was announced after 5 o'clock, and was pleased when
told that the Republican candidates, the party of his choice, was elected. 
  Mr. Bell was justice of the peace in the town of Lenox nearly twenty years.
He was first elected to the office in 1873, when a Democrat, but joined the 
Republican party in 1896 
  In 1899 Mr. Bell was elected justice of the peace as a Republican, and had 
held the office since, transacting most of the justice court business of the 
town.   He was noted for his fairness and independence, and during the past 
fifteen years none of his decisions had been reversed. 
  Mr. Bell was born in Galway, Saratoga County, and as young man worked on 
the farm of his father Joseph Bell, afterward teaching district school for 
four winters.  He located in Canastota in 1864, becoming a partner of his 
uncle Aaron Burr Brush, In a retail clothing store.  Subsequently he had 
other partners, and for a time owned the clothing business individually. 
  For many years Mr. Bell was an insurance agent here, his partners at 
different periods including Loring G. Fowler, Fred C. Fiske, Milton DeLano, 
Henry O. Travis and William Tuttle. 
  Mr. Bell was always active in promoting local enterprises, contributing to 
the establishment of the Canastota Knife Works, the first window glass 
factory here, the old Canastota & Cazenovia Railroad and other projects.  He 
purchased the Bauder farm in the northern part of the village in 1880 and the
family home has since been there. 
  Mr. Bell is survived by his widow, formerly Miss Fannie A. Travis of this 
village; one son J. Burr Bell of Syracuse and a sister, Mrs. Sarah M. Wright 
of Canastota 
 
[Facts: born 15 January 1840; son's name was Joseph Burr Bell;  Mr. Bell was 
uncle to my grandmother Fannie Matilda Wright Jaquay 
submitted by - 
Harold Jaquay  ([email protected])