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 Cowan of Lincoln and Mercer counties, 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 meagre 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 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 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, Anna 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 a 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, Montgomervs, 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 invariably 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.
