BELL, Charles F.

BELL, COOKE, BLACK, HENLEY

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 13:06:35

Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

CHARLES F. BELL.

The industrial and business interests of Clinton, Iowa. Are well represented by the subject of this sketch, who is a member of the firm of Peterson, Bell & Company, manufacturers of boxes and crates, their place of business being on Franklin avenue on the tracks of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad. He was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, October 8, 1852, a son of Samuel and Betsy (Cooke) Bell both now deceased, the former dying at the age of sixty-four, the latter at the age of forty-five years. His paternal ancestors came from Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1723, and settled in the present town of Oakham, Massachusetts. The Cooke family is of English origin and was founded in America as early as 1640. For a time they were members of the Hartford colony, and then went up the Connecticut river to what is now Northampton, Massachusetts, but was then known as the Norwotock Plantation. Our subject is one of a family of four children, the others being Samuel, a resident of Hadley, Massachusetts; William, of Clinton, Iowa; and Julia, deceased.

Charles F. Bell passed his boyhood and youth in his native town, and was educated at the Hopkins Academy—one of the oldest institutions of the kind in America, founded in 1664—from which he was graduated in 1870. Later he took a commercial course at Eastman’s Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. With his oldest brother he was then engaged in buying and selling tobacco, and in the manufacture of cigars until coming to Clinton, Iowa, in 1877, was in the employ of C. Lamb & Sons at this place for twelve years.

In 1892 Mr. Bell formed a partnership with James Peterson, under the firm name of Peterson, Bell & Company, and embarked in his present business, purchasing the ground on which their plant is now located from market gardeners. Their first building was only sixty by ninety feet, but they now have a floor space of over fifteen thousand feet, and the number of men employed by them has been increased from fifteen to eighty-five, so rapidly has their business grown, it amounting to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the year 1900, when they shipped six hundred carloads of boxes and crates. Their good are all sold by the carload and their patronage comes from a large extent of territory. They sell principally to packing houses, and manufacture soap boxes, crates for sewing machines, melons, etc. Their factory is equipped with all the latest improved machinery needed in their line, and they carry from one to four million feet of lumber in stock. The company was incorporated in 1896, and have their office adjoining the factory on Franklin avenue.

October 16, 1883, Mr. Bell was united in marriage with Miss Louise M. Black, of Clinton, a daughter of William and Jane (Henley) Black, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Iowa, respectively. Mr. Black came from Pennsylvania to Scott county, Iowa, in 1855, and there married Miss Henley, at which place Mrs. Bell was born. They moved to Clinton, in 1864, where Mr. Black has been one of the leading architects and builders of the city up to the present time. Our subject and his wife have two children: C. Leonard and Frederic W., who are now attending school. In his social relations Mr. Bell is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the royal Arcanum and the Wapsipinicon Club. He is a man of good business and executive ability, sound judgment and keen discrimination, and is generally able to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes. He occupies an enviable position in business circles and personally is quite popular.