Educator. He is the founder of Illinois State University and supported Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for President of the United States. Born the third of nine children in a Quaker family, he was a fourth generation Pennsylvanian as his great-grandfather arrived from England in 1705. Beside his formal education, his parents wanted him to become a tailor, but he did not want that career path. In 1826, Fell became a teacher, who read constantly, and worked at a store. After moving to Ohio, he studied law. In 1832, he passed the bar exams and became political. He continued to travel west, reaching Illinois in November of 1832. In 1834 Fell was appointed as Commissioner of Schools of McLean County. Shortly after this, he met Abraham Lincoln. After learning about the railroad and banking business, he sold his law practice in 1836 and began a land selling business and developing several towns. Financially successful, he came into partnership with the newspapers "The Bloomington Observer" and "McLean County Advocate" in 1836. He was bankrupted by 1841, thus he returned to law and made an attempt at farming. Fell married Hester Brown on January 26, 1838 and the couple settled on a 190-acre farm. The couple had eight children. By 1843, his farm was used to settle an outstanding loan he owned. He moved to a log cabin outside of Bloomington and began farming again. In 1845 Fell and his family relocated to Payson where he bought and managed a fruit farm, selling enough fruit to make an income. By November 19, 1851 he had returned to Bloomington at the request of several of his friends, to serve as co-editor and owner of "The Bloomington Intelligencer", which became "The Pantagraph". Fell continued an intermittent association with the paper until 1871. He became involved with the railroad business. One of his greatest contributions to McLean County was establishing the Normal School, which was later named Illinois State Normal University and in 1964 Illinois State University. On February 18, 1857 the State of Illinois passed a bill creating the State Board of Education and directing them to locate and establish a normal school for the training of teachers. He hired his friend Abraham Lincoln to be his lawyer during these transactions. From this point on, he supported Lincoln in his political endeavors. He encouraged Lincoln to write an autobiography to share with the voters. A letter from Lincoln to Fell containing Lincoln's autobiography was published as part of Ward Hill Lamon's 1895 "Recollection of Abraham Lincoln." This gives evidence of Fell's involvement with Lincoln's Presidential campaign. After Lincoln was elected to the office of the President of the United States, he became a paymaster for the Union army in 1862 but by the end of 1863 he resigned. Two years later Fell located the Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Normal and the State Reform School in Pontiac. He bitterly opposed slavery and supported integration. After the American Civil War, he was known to support the former enslaved by giving them employment and establishing a school. In December of 1886 he contracted pneumonia and never fully recovered.