Oliver was called "Ollie" and sometimes "O. P." Bell. He signed his name "O. P. Bell." He was a farmer in Mira Valley, 8 miles south of Ord, NE, for many years, then, later on, got on the maintenance staff of Hastings College, Hastings, NE. He and his family moved to Hastings in 1927. He died of cancer. His daughter, Jane, a nurse, cared for Ollie. In his widowerhood, he shared an apartment with those two women.

Ollie and his wife Alice were engaged for four years before marrying.

Ollie was named for a family friend whose name was Oliver Perry Rugh. That's how he came to have three given names. He mostly ignored the "Rugh" in his name - pronounced "rue," rhyming with dew. (The family friend, Oliver Perry Rugh, is noted in the section on Monmouth [Warren County, Illinois] Township in the book "Past and Present of Warren County" [Published in 1877]: "Farmer; Sec. 27; Post Office Monmouth; born in Perry County, Ohio, Aug. 18, 1818; Republican; Methodist; lived in Ohio nineteen years and in Indiana eighteen years; came to Warren County in 1855; married Hannah Dull, Feb. 8, 1848; she was born in Washington Co., Penn; has one child, named John D.; lost four children.")

Ollie Bell attended the World's Fair in St. Louis, MO, in November 1904. He was very impressed with it. He and his family were active in the Wilson Presbyterian Church in Mira Valley, south of Ord, Nebraska. When that church closed in 1926, Ollie purchased the church building, with the help of his just-graduated-from-high-school son Moore, tore the church down, purchased a truck, and moved the lumber to Hastings where Ollie and his son (with the help of a Mr. Shelton who came from North Loup) used that lumber to build a house and garage for the family at 1103 East 9th Street, Hastings, Nebraska. The house was built in 1926. They were able to move in 1927. In 2021 that house and garage are still standing and occupied and appear to be in good shape. The Bells lived there for several years. Ollie worked for Hastings College at the time as a carpenter and general maintenance man until his retirement. He lived in Hastings for the rest of his life, cared for until his unmarried daughter, Jane, and Jane's adult-life companion Sarita Wilson. Jane and Sarita, both un-married, were nurses in Hastings.

Ollie had a lively spirit. He was jovial and cordial. He seemed perpetually positive and happy. He loved to garden in his senior years. Ollie's mind seemed alert and lively until his death. Interestingly enough, however, each of his three children died of Alzheimer's Disease and the complications thereof.

Ollie wrote the following in about 1965. He called this first part "Frontier Story." "As one of the oldest residents of Myra Valley, I've been asked to write of some older times. Part of them I was. The Bell family lived in Illinois, in Warren County. Father was a miner and not a good farmer. He had what was called a drift mine. The coal was reached by drifting in from creek level, which ran through the farm. He worked and mined coal to keep a large family. Father had been west a year before and bought some railroad land.

"In the spring of '81 or '82 (that would be 1881 or 1882), he left Illinois in a covered wagon with (my brother) John, Jr. and my sister Mary. They had an outfit of three horses, a plow, and many things to live on on the way. The roads were so wet that they quit at North Bend, Nebraska, and took a car to North Loup. It must have been late by this time, but they had a big job ahead waiting. A fire guard two rods (33 feet) wide had to be plowed on four sides of a ¼ section.

"From some of the tougher sod a house was built, about sixteen by twenty, a wood partition made two rooms. A stable was dug in the side of a draw for six head of horses. Ends and top of native hay that grew five feet tall over all the valley. A well was dug near the house, a bucket on each end of a rope that ran over a pulley. One bucket was emptied as the other was filling. When anything got in, I went down to clean it out, being smallest. That first year must have tried the perseverance of them all. It was a Herculean effort well done."

Ollie also wrote: "Early Transportation." "Just before Christmas (in 1964), I flew from Omaha to New York in just over two hours. In 1883 a man, Andy Forbes, drove a 3-yoke of oxen from our old home in Illinois past our place in the valley. It must have taken two or three months. Life wasn't so hurried in those days. A heavy yoke of wood on each team connected to a heavy wagon that was loaded with tools and camp equipment. A luxury rig in those days was a two-wheeled cart. The seat hung on large coil springs—very easy riding.

"After a few years, a glib salesman sold a number of light wagons holding 4 or 6, costing one hundred dollars. That was better than the farm wagon that we rode in to church or town. The two-wheeled cart was used by my wife's father (William Moore Gray) as he campaigned for state senator, to which he was elected. James Ammiel Ollis was elected to the same office later. The farm wagon did all of the hauling. Holding fifty-five bushel or more, it was a load for two or three horses. Later on, came the top buggy and matched team of drivers, the special pride of their owners. I was proud of a team of draft horses weighing 1,705 & 1,695 pounds.

"The Bremer boys rode past our place; we boys laughed to see them gallop past. A trip to Ord (8 miles) could be made in an hour by driving fast. Usually took one and a half. There was a man I know of but never met. On my way to North Loup, I met him. He was so fat he filled the front seat of a spring wagon, and his wife filled the back one. I said to myself, 'That is Mike Sevikenos,' and so it was. Our cars today are costing too much, but nothing is being done to bring them down." (Note – Ollie was an avid fan of Ford cars.)

He went on, writing, "Some Men of an Early Day" "Of all the men I think of, one is C. Abraham Gibson. A huge man, well over 200 lbs. He either knew or made up more stories than anyone I ever knew. He could tell one after another, each one more impossible than the one before. He lived on what is now the Lenz farm in a sod house. He had been a Gauger in Britain and well-to-do. He had a wife and daughter, Mary. She married Frank Travis and had one son and two daughters. After his wife's death, he moved to Springdale, where he died in a fire destroyed his home. He was a great storyteller.

"Next to him for stories was Al Miller. He could almost equal Gibson. They would try to out-do the other one. They were often at our place. An old Confederate soldier, self-named "Rebel" Tom Doty, was unusual but well-liked, also could tell tall tales.

"Of all the men who did things for the community, the best one was a Mr. Wagner. He started a singing school. All my older brothers and sisters learned to sing by the do-re method. I was too young. All I know of music was learned from my brother Wilson Bell, who was very patient in answering my questions. Mr. Wagner was also the sorghum maker, for that was the best source for our sweetening. We would plant a patch of sugar cane. When it was mature, we stripped the leaves and seed and hauled the canes to the mill, where the juice was obtained by running it between rollers. The juice was boiled till it thickened so that it would keep. We usually put 30 gal. in the cellar for Taffy pulls and Gingerbread, as well as cornbread. Good table sorghum is hard to get today. It would all be gone by spring. We had a large family to feed. Our meat was bacon, cured ham, supplemented by big white-tailed Jack Rabbits that were very plentiful in those days.

"The first teacher was a Mrs. Powell. She had two children in school. As I look back, she seems a good teacher. Maybe not by modern methods. At our school at Midvale, the seats were sawed from one-inch lumber. The first seat furnished the seat behind with a top for writing on. Crude, you say, but we learned to read and write and history and math. McGuffy readers and Barnes History. In the east end of the valley were the Presbyterians: the Pettys, the Browns, the Grays, the Alters, and the two Ollis families on the north side of the valley. The Clement family in the center of the valley. They were Seventh Day Baptists, but were friendly with the Presbyterians, the young folks especially. I think of James Ammiel Ollis as one of the progressive farmers of the community. Mr. George Petty was a singer and helped all who came under his help. He was a force for good for all things musical. The Boettger family was different than the others. Mr. seemed gruff, and the family inherited the trait."

Here is what Ollie wrote about Mira Valley: "Beginning about 6 or 7 miles west of North Loup is a valley about 40 miles long and from 3 to 4 miles wide. It is called Mira Valley. Settled first about the time or soon after the North Loup settlement. In the spring of 1884, the John Bell family moved in from Illinois. John Sr. and John Jr. and a sister Mary came in the spring and the rest of the family in the fall. Sod houses were the order of the day for most folk, but there were some frame ones. That same year the Presbyterian Church was built in the east end of the valley. Most of the members were from Pennsylvania, from the vicinity of Pittsburgh. It was sometimes called 'The Colony' and sometimes 'City Farmers.' Some of the members were the Grays, Pettys, Browns, Alters and Ollises, and Johnsons. James G. Hastings and his brother Will helped build the church. Families also included the Thomas J. Netherys and the I. N. Swans and the Will Armstrongs."


Ollie also wrote -- in 1965 -- about Myra Creek in Mira Valley:
"In our first years in Valley County, a creek ran the full length of the (Mira) Valley. Large ponds stood with running water two or three feet wide between the ponds, which were from one hundred to one hundred fifty yards long. Fishing was good as far west as Midvale school. Many things of interest happened on its banks. One I will always remember was a baptism by immersion. Some people believed that was necessary. A dam was built on the creek to raise the depth to accommodate the immersion. About twenty or thirty people stood on the banks and watched the United Brethren minister (a Mr. Bebee) immerse three of four. After the baptism, they were rushed to the shore, covered with heavy wraps, and driven to a home to get dry clothes.

"Another incident was when a rather large dam was built on the old Cook place. It was six feet deep in the center. A young fellow and I were swimming there one day. The other boy started to swim across the pond, getting tired when halfway across. He quit swimming and found it was over his head. He was frightened and forgot about swimming and would have drowned, but I being taller, went in and kept him up till he remembered to swim to shore. I got no medal for saving a life.

"About a year ago, I met Charles M. King and asked if he remembered it. 'I sure do," he said. He was that other boy. (Charles' Findagrave ID # is 175688931.)
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"The land in the Valley has been in crops and grasslands but overcropped til there was nothing to hold the rainfall, so it runs off too fast. Today no water stands in the creek at all. There is just a dry trench 6 or 8 feet wide and about the same in depth. The same thing has happened to Davis Creek. Soil erosion by overgrazing and soil loss by cropping and nothing being done to remedy it. I wonder if it can be restored by conservation."


Ollie wrote a lot of poetry. The "Pennsylvania Colony" residents in Mira Valley were all very active in Wilson Presbyterian Church in Mira Valley until it closed in 1926. At that time, the members transferred to the Presbyterian Church in Ord.

Jim Hastings and Ollie Bell were great friends. They had married sisters, but both were widowed relatively early. Ollie married Alice Gray, and Jim married Maud Gray.

In 1888 there was a sudden and terrible blizzard that swept over Nebraska. The storm got worldwide attention, especially the story of Minnie Freeman, the teacher in a Mira Valley one-room rural sod school. The dramatic story of Miss Freeman saving her students during this catastrophic blizzard became world-famous. Books were written about the episode and many news articles. Ollie was one of those children. The storm, bad as it was, was made much worse than others by the extreme suddenness of it. The school was being blown apart by the winds, so the teacher felt she led the students out. It was perilous, but she succeeded. There is a historical marker about it a few miles southwest of Ord, on the east side of Highway 58. Ollie was the last living survivor of the school students and was present when the marker was dedicated in 1967.