Tommy Bell (1830 - 1897)

BELL

Posted By: Barry Mateer (email)
Date: 3/1/2024 at 16:44:31

The Weekly Osceola Sentinel
November 11, 1897

There were two deaths at the county farm last week.

Tommy Bell died at 3 p.m., aged sixty-seven years. He followed the blacksmith trade for a while, but the people of Osceola know him mostly as a wood cutter. For a number of years his came, with which he felt his way along the walk and his wood saw and buck on his shoulders as he went from place to place, was a familiar figure in Osceola.

For a while “Tommy” was press turner in the Sentinel office, before engine power was used. Even after going to the poor farm, the old gentleman would occasionally feel his way into the Sentinel office and enquire about the “boys.” His was a congenial soul, with whom earthly fortune went awry. May he be dealt with in the life hereafter with a more kindly hand.

Osceola Weekly Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa
April 15, 1886, Page 3

—Thomas Bell has been pressman of the SENTINEL office for a longtime, and for three years previous to this time has made every turn of the wheel. A note from him this week announces that he has met with an accident on a defective sidewalk, and can not be in the office this week, and may be longer. We hope he will soon be well again.

July 25, 1895
The Weekly Osceola Sentinel

Last March our county authorities bought Tommy Bell an inmate of the county poor house, some new clothes and a railroad ticket to his relatives in Indiana, the old man saying if he could get there his folks would keep him. But lo, and behold, here came Uncle Tommy back last week and he immediately proceeded to hunt up Superintendent Miller and seek refuge among his old acquaintances at the county farm. He has little money and few friends in this world but he has a tender, kindly heart.

March 10th, 1898
The Weekly Osceola Sentinel

Mrs. Bell, wife of the late Tommy Bell, has been a county inmate for twenty-five years. She is quite elderly and does no work.

The Osceola Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa
July 13, 1899, Page 5
—Supt. J. W. Miller placed small head stones on the graves of the twelve paupers buried in the Union Chapel cemetery Friday. Six of the Inmates had been buried before Mr Miller took charge and only one of the graves is known by name. Six have died since he has been superintendent. They are Mrs. Schrader and baby, Mrs. Watson, Thomas Bell, Mrs. Hodges and Nettie Mendenhall.

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