This is my great-grand father Reverend Marshall Bell. His father was a white man named Angus Bell from Scotland, he was very fond of Marsh Bell's mother Sarah. Angus Bell was very prosperous during and after the Civil War and he and Marshall buried gold under the trees on the land. Then he willed the land to his son Marshall Bell.
He married Laura (Smith) Bell January 6, 1869, they had sixteen children twelve girls and four boys. They also had sixty grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, fifteen great-great grandcildren.
He was root a doctor and a very prosperous and generous farmer who had share croppers living on his land. He donated the land and timber for the First Bethel Baptist Church ever built in Watkinsville Georgia. The first person to be baptized in the church was his wife Laura Bell.
Later in his life after having that church all those years a white preacher came in and took over his church and when the white folks who liked and respected him found out the new minister came in and took over his church, they went to see the new minister and told him to not let the sun go down in Oconee County or they would run him out of the great State of Georgia.
He was my grandmother (Maggie Bell Smith)father. The picture's here are of his grand-children from Maggie Bell Smith and John B. Smith. He out lived my grandmother by 5 years.
My mother always talked about Big Pa so fondly she adored her grandfather, she said he was a wonderful giving man and he was a very loving kind person and said he had a wonderful sense of humor.
FYI:
It is uncertain where the BELL surname came from.
I think the likelihood is that it came from a number of different places, quite independently. Black's "Surnames of Scotland" suggests three different possible etymologies, and I have heard others. They may all have given rise to the name, which seems to occur widely throughout much of Scotland.
He married Laura (Smith) Bell January 6, 1869, they had sixteen children twelve girls and four boys. They also had sixty grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, fifteen great-great grandcildren.
He was root a doctor and a very prosperous and generous farmer who had share croppers living on his land. He donated the land and timber for the First Bethel Baptist Church ever built in Watkinsville Georgia. The first person to be baptized in the church was his wife Laura Bell.
Later in his life after having that church all those years a white preacher came in and took over his church and when the white folks who liked and respected him found out the new minister came in and took over his church, they went to see the new minister and told him to not let the sun go down in Oconee County or they would run him out of the great State of Georgia.
He was my grandmother (Maggie Bell Smith)father. The picture's here are of his grand-children from Maggie Bell Smith and John B. Smith. He out lived my grandmother by 5 years.
My mother always talked about Big Pa so fondly she adored her grandfather, she said he was a wonderful giving man and he was a very loving kind person and said he had a wonderful sense of humor.
FYI:
It is uncertain where the BELL surname came from.
I think the likelihood is that it came from a number of different places, quite independently. Black's "Surnames of Scotland" suggests three different possible etymologies, and I have heard others. They may all have given rise to the name, which seems to occur widely throughout much of Scotland.
This is my great-grand father Reverend Marshall Bell. His father was a white man named Angus Bell from Scotland, he was very fond of Marsh Bell's mother Sarah. Angus Bell was very prosperous during and after the Civil War and he and Marshall buried gold under the trees on the land. Then he willed the land to his son Marshall Bell.
He married Laura (Smith) Bell January 6, 1869, they had sixteen children twelve girls and four boys. They also had sixty grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, fifteen great-great grandcildren.
He was root a doctor and a very prosperous and generous farmer who had share croppers living on his land. He donated the land and timber for the First Bethel Baptist Church ever built in Watkinsville Georgia. The first person to be baptized in the church was his wife Laura Bell.
Later in his life after having that church all those years a white preacher came in and took over his church and when the white folks who liked and respected him found out the new minister came in and took over his church, they went to see the new minister and told him to not let the sun go down in Oconee County or they would run him out of the great State of Georgia.
He was my grandmother (Maggie Bell Smith)father. The picture's here are of his grand-children from Maggie Bell Smith and John B. Smith. He out lived my grandmother by 5 years.
My mother always talked about Big Pa so fondly she adored her grandfather, she said he was a wonderful giving man and he was a very loving kind person and said he had a wonderful sense of humor.
FYI:
It is uncertain where the BELL surname came from.
I think the likelihood is that it came from a number of different places, quite independently. Black's "Surnames of Scotland" suggests three different possible etymologies, and I have heard others. They may all have given rise to the name, which seems to occur widely throughout much of Scotland.
He married Laura (Smith) Bell January 6, 1869, they had sixteen children twelve girls and four boys. They also had sixty grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, fifteen great-great grandcildren.
He was root a doctor and a very prosperous and generous farmer who had share croppers living on his land. He donated the land and timber for the First Bethel Baptist Church ever built in Watkinsville Georgia. The first person to be baptized in the church was his wife Laura Bell.
Later in his life after having that church all those years a white preacher came in and took over his church and when the white folks who liked and respected him found out the new minister came in and took over his church, they went to see the new minister and told him to not let the sun go down in Oconee County or they would run him out of the great State of Georgia.
He was my grandmother (Maggie Bell Smith)father. The picture's here are of his grand-children from Maggie Bell Smith and John B. Smith. He out lived my grandmother by 5 years.
My mother always talked about Big Pa so fondly she adored her grandfather, she said he was a wonderful giving man and he was a very loving kind person and said he had a wonderful sense of humor.
FYI:
It is uncertain where the BELL surname came from.
I think the likelihood is that it came from a number of different places, quite independently. Black's "Surnames of Scotland" suggests three different possible etymologies, and I have heard others. They may all have given rise to the name, which seems to occur widely throughout much of Scotland.
