IRA JOHN BELL 1861-1934
BELL, BLACK, COFFMAN, COURTRIGHT, COX, HOUNSLEY, PARKER, PHILLIPS, PYLE, RIORDAN, SEXTON
Posted By: L.K. Newby (email)
Date: 9/13/2006 at 18:53:28
Donnellson Review – March 1, 1934
Deaths—Ira J. Bell
Word has been received here of the death of Ira J. BELL, a former Donnellson, resident, on Saturday, Feb., 24, 1934 at his home in Pecos, Texas at the age of 73 years. Funeral services were held at Pecos on Tuesday Feb., 27.
Mr. Bell spent his boyhood days on a farm near Dover, Iowa; he was born September 16, 1861, the first son of twelve children to William E. and Minerva P. COURTRIGHT Bell and the first grandson to Lee county pioneers, John and Jane BELL. His early education was acquired at Brush College, and later he attended Denmark Academy, a member of the class of 1882.
In November, 1882, when only twenty-one years of age, Mr. Bell was elected Lee county surveyor, serving until the 1st of December, 1884. In 1885 he removed to Marshall, Illinois, where he continued to pursue community service positions while pursuing a law career and became a prominent attorney in Springfield for many years.
In April, 1903, Mr. Bell and three other partners organized the Springfield Crude Oil Company, which quickly prospered to the extent that he was later able to remove his ailing father, paralyzed from border war injuries, and family to Springfield, Illinois.
He is preceded in death by his first wife Hattie J. Black. They married on Christmas day 1883 in Lee county Iowa; and had two sons William Earl and Donald Lester BELL. Following her death, he married second, Effie S. SEXTON, daughter of T. W. Sexton, of Springfield, Illinois on Aug. 12, 1899 who survives him along with their daughter, Mrs. Ethel Riordan of Washington D.C. as well as his two sons Earl and Donald of Los Angeles, California.
He is also survived by two brothers and seven sisters: Arch and Leon BELL of Pecos, Texas; Mrs. Flora PHILLIPS and Mrs. Charles W. (Maggie) BALL of Kansas City; Mrs. William W.H. (Ida) HOUNSLEY, Castle, Wyoming; Mrs. William H. (Merta Ellen) COX, Jacksonville, Florida; Mrs. John S. (Victoria) PARKER of Mt. Sterling, Illinois; and Mrs. Lottie PYLE of Lodi, California, along with many other family and relatives.
Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Mrs. Jennie (Melinda Jane) Bell COFFMAN and one brother Isaac Abner BELL. The William and Minerva BELL family and all their children were well known in this vicinity before removing to Illinois and Texas.
Biography
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