William S. Baker was the first postmaster of the town.  The 1900 census gave Bellemont a population of 114. Dr. Noah Preston Keene came here from medical school early in 1901, and soon had the nearest thing to a hospital.  His big Sanitarium, splendidly equipped with the latest electrical appliance machines, hot air mediators, and even electric baths.  Dr. Robert C. Ridle came here and practiced medicine in 1903 and opened the first drug store in town.  At one time before Statehood, Bellemont was the largest town in the northern part of the county; even larger than Keokuk Falls, which was located about nine miles southeast. At the peak of its predominance there were five general stores, two cotton gins, one drug store, one church, one hotel, two blacksmith shops, one wagon yard, four doctors at one time, and even a bank. 

On May 28, 1888, about four years before the town of Bellemont started, James Francis Thorpe was born on his family’s allotment which was the southern part of the Sac and Fox Indian reservation.  Thorpe was the grandson of the great War Chief Black Hawk.  Thorpe’s father was Hiram Thorpe, who is buried at the Garden Grove Cemetery.  His mother was Charlotte (Vieux) Thorpe.  She was of French and Potawatomi descent and her relatives took their allotments near Dale, Oklahoma.