EDWARD BELL, merchant, Montfort; was born in England in 1816. He was married in 1838 to Mary Walker (born in England, in the fall of 1816); they emigrated to the United States in 1839, and settled in Platteville, wher ehe had charge of a saw-mill for about one year, then removed to Potosi, where he lived two or three years engaged in smelting ore, then returned to Platteville and engaged in farming; afterward to the town of Smelser for five years; returned to Potosi; came to Montfort October, 1851; he took charge of a furnace for Lewis & Palliser about two years, then engaged for about a year in mining, after which he entered the mercantile business. Has had ten children, four of whom are living - Margaret (now Mrs. James Chandler), Mary E. (now Mrs. James M. Gaston), George S. and William M. John enlisted in 1862 in the 20th W. V. I. and went into camp with the regiment at Madison; he was soon after taken sick of typhoid fever, came home and died of that disease. Two other sons, William and Henry, contracted the same disease, and the three brothers died within a few weeks of one another. Charles, another son, died during the same year. Lost two other children - Beatrice and Thomas.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.