HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis
Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, 
Vol. III, pp. 1258-59-60.  [Full page photograph of Mr. Bell included with
bio.]
[Fayette County]

MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES FRANKLIN BELL--Of the many notable Kentuckians who have
been conspicuous in the naval and military service of their country, there
is none, whether volunteer or regular, who has achieved higher distinction
as a soldier than Major-General James Franklin Bell, late Chief of Staff
of the Untied States army.  His rise to eminence was not the result of
fortuitous circumstances or of personal or official favoritism, but was the
assured reward of thorough preparation, hard and faithful work, patient
waiting, and proved capacity.  His elevation of the chief command of the
army of the United States caused no envious murmurings and no adverse
comment, open or suppressed, because of the unanimously recognition,
throughout all branches of the service, of his superior merit and of his
absolute fitness. Moreover, his frank, open nature and sunny, warm-hearted,
generous disposition have won and bound to him a host of friends, both in
the army and out of it.  To such friends and to this numerous kindred and
"cousins" throughout Kentucky, his official title and trappings are of far
less moment than his own loyal, lovable, big-hearted manhood, and with
these, his own home people, he is even to this day simply but
affectionately plain "Frank Bell."
     General Bell comes of a race of warriors. His great-great grandfather,
Captain David Bell, of Augusta County, Virginia, served both in the French
and Indian war and in the War of the Revolution.  His son, John Bell, in
all likelihood, also saw service in the Revolutionary army of Virginia,
and many of their kindred in Augusta County and throughout the Valley of
Virginia went forth to swell the patriot forces in the field.
     William Bell, the immigrant ancestor, and father of Captain David
Bell, mentioned above, was a member of the large Scotch-Irish colony
settled in the North of Ireland.  Here he was born about the year 1685.
With many of his name and kindred, he emigrated to America about 1735,
probably entering the Delaware Bay and river and landing first in
Pennsylvania.  He settled in Augusta county, Virginia, about eight miles
northeast of the site of Staunton, in 1738-40, certainly prior to 1746. Was
a staunch Presbyterian and founded the family locally known as "The Stone
Church Bells," by which name they have always been distinguished from other
families of the same name in Augusta county.  The Bell family was closely
allied, by blood and marriage, to the Andersons, Allens, Craigs, Trimbles,
Henderson, Millses and other prominent Augusta county families.
     John Bell, son of Captain David Bell by his wife, Florence Henderson,
and grandson of William, the progenitor of the family, was born in Augusta
county, Virginia, about 1758; married in Botetourt county, Virginia, about
1788, Jane Mills, a daughter of John Mills, Sr., and sister of Captain John
Mills, of the Revolutionary army.  John Bell removed from Virginia to
Fayette county, Kentucky, about 1790.  By the will of his father, Capt.
David Bell, a military survey of 2,000 acres, for services in the French
and Indian war, located on Shannon's Run, a branch of Elkhorn Creek, in
Fayette (originally Fincastle) county, was devised to him and his brother,
James Bell.  They secured this land almost in its entirety, and James Bell
continued to reside on a portion of it until about the year 1840.  John
Bell farmed on an extensive scale and raised a large family of children.
He died in March, 1835, at "Stoneleigh," his handsome estate near Lexington,
and his widow, Jane (Mills) Bell, also died there in 1836.
     James Franklin Bell, son of John was born in Fayette county, Kentucky,
September 13, 1803, and died near White Sulphur, in Scott county, Kentucky,
November 13, 1866.  He farmed successfully in Fayette, Franklin, Scott and
Woodford counties, and, like his father before him, was long a Ruling
Elder in the Presbyterian church.  His wife, Mary Jane Wilson, was a native
of Scott county, Kentucky, a daughter of Captain John Wilson, and
granddaughter of Richard Wilson, of Pennsylvania, a near kinsman of Hon.
James Wilson, the "Signer" and Supreme Court Justice.
     John Wilson Bell, the eldest son of James Franklin Bell, became the
father of General James Franklin Bell, the subject of this sketch.  Born
in Franklin county, Kentucky, on May 8, 1829, he died at Shelbyville,
Kentucky, on January 3, 1904.  He was twice married.  His first wife, Sarah
Margaret Allen, mother of General Bell, was a daughter of Dr. Joseph Fawcett
Allen, by his wife, Sarah Anne Venable, both of Shelby county, Kentucky.
Sarah (Venable) Allen was a granddaughter of Colonel John Cowam of Lincoln
and Mercer county, Kentucky.  Colonel Cowan was of Scotch-Irish descent
and was a prominent leader among Kentucky pioneers.  He came from
Pennsylvania to Kentucky at a very early day, was a captain of militia in
Lincoln county, Virginia, now Kentucky, during the Revolution and later
held the rank of Colonel in the Kentucky militia.  John Wilson Bell
married, secondly, Jane Hardin Logan, a granddaughter of Mark Hardin and
a great-granddaughter of Governor John Adair of Kentucky.  Preserving the
traditions of his family, John Wilson Bell, for many years before his
death, was a Ruling Elder of the Presbyterian church at Shelbyville.  His
long and honorable career was devoted to the engrossing activities of farm
and country life.  Two of his brothers, Captain Joseph Nelson Bell and
Captain David Brainard Bell, served during the Civil war, in the
Confederate army, as also did their brother-in-law, Henry Simpson Halley.
All three were ideal soldiers.
     James Franklin Bell, the Major-General was born near Shelbyville, in
Shelby county, Kentucky, on January 9, 1856.  Only a meager summary of his
arduous and eventful career can be given here.  He received his preparatory
education in the public schools of Shelbyville, and, in 1874, entered as a
cadet the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  From
this historic institution he graduated with honor in 1878.  Was at once
commissioned Second Lieutenant and, later, as First Lieutenant of Cavalry.
He served on the plains in the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, Custer's old command
and a crack regiment, from 1878 to 1894.  Captured a band of half-breed
Cree Indians, near Fort Buford, South Dakota, in 1883.  Served in the Sioux
Campaign, around Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in 1891.  Was Adjutant of
regiment and Secretary of Cavalry and Light Artillery School, 1891-1894,
and Aide to General J. W. Forsyth, in California, Arizona, and the state of
Washington, in 1895-1898.  Served with marked distinction in the
Spanish-American Campaign in the Philippine Islands and in the Philippine
insurrection.  Was promoted to Captain, U.S.A., in March 1899.  On March 7,
1899, was wounded in action at San Juan del Monte, P.I.  On July 5, 1899,
was appointed Colonel of Volunteers, and organized the 36th Infantry, U.S.
Volunteers, in the Philippine Islands during the same month.  He continued
in command of this regiment until December, 1899.  In 1899 he was awarded a
congressional medal of honor for gallantry in action, near Porac, P.I.
December 5, 1899, was appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers.  Commanded
the Fourth Brigade, Second Division, Eighth Army Corps, and 3rd District,
Department of Northern Luzon, to July, 1900. Was Provost Marshal-General of
the City of Manila, P.I., to February, 1901.  Appointed Brigadier-General,
U.S.A., in February, 1901.  Commanded 1st District, Department of Northern
Luzon, to November, 1901, and the Third Brigade, Department of Southern
Luzon, to December, 1902. Returned to the United States in 1903.  Was
Commandant of the Infantry and Cavalry School, Signal School and Staff
College, to April, 1906.  Became Major-General, U.S.A., on January 3, 1907.
Received the degree of LL.D. from the State University of Kentucky,, at
Lexington, on June 6, 1907.  From April, 1906, to April, 1910, was Chief of
Staff and, next to the President, the virtual head of the United States
Army.  In the spring of 1910, by his own request, he was relieved from this
responsible and very exacting position by President Taft, and since
December, 1910, he has been assigned to duty in the Philippines, over the
military establishment of which he has supreme command.
     On January 5, 1881, General Bell was married to Sarah Buford, daughter
of Thomas Jefferson and Grace (Bowers) Buford, of Rock Island, Illinois.
Their married life has been an ideally beautiful and happy one, and Mrs.
Bell, who is a woman of exceptional intellectual and social attractions,
has been to her husband at all times both an aid and an inspiration.  Her
sister, Ann Buford, is the wife of Brigadier-General Ernest A. Garlington
of the regular army.  The Bufords, like the Bells, are a vigorous and
valiant old Kentucky family of the best Virginia stock.
     Besides the large infusion of Scotch-Irish blood which fills his
veins, General Bell may also claim sturdy English lineage.  This comes
through the Venables, the Fawcetts, the Pollocks (or Polks), the Mortons
and the Woodsons.  Through the marriage of Abraham Venable to Martha Davis,
a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of the Indian "Princess" Niketti
("She sweeps the dew from the flowers") it is possible for General Bell to
claim descent from Opechancanough, the celebrated Chief of the Powhatans
and uncle of Pocahontas.  The prominent and powerful Virginia families who
trace their descent in part from Niketti are, most of them, as proud of the
fact as are the numerous descendants of Pocahontas of the high-bred Indian
strain which they owe to her.  To the list of Scotch-Irish families found
in general Bell's pedigree and already mentioned should be added the names
of the Millers, McClellands, Hunters, Montgomerys, Gilchrists and Wilsons.
     Certainly from the happy commingling of such sturdy and heroic
ancestral strains, it is not strange that so perfect a specimen of physical
manhood, so fine a soldier, and such a whole-hearted, genuine Kentucky
gentleman, clothed invariable with the modesty, which one finds so becoming
in an acknowledged master of the art of war, should have been produced.
Kentucky has furnished to the nation no son of whom she has more reason
to be justly proud.

Bell Henderson Mills Wilson Allen Venable Cowan Logan Hardin Adair
Buford Bowers Davis Garlington Halley
=
Scott-KY Franklin-KY Woodford-KY Shelbyville-Shelby-KY Lincoln-KY
Mercer-KY Botetourt-VA Fincastle-VA Agusta-VA Rock_Island-Rock_Island-IL
PA Ireland
http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/bell.jf.txt