US Senator. The son of Samuel Bell, the 14th Governor of New Hampshire, he was born in Francestown, Hillsborough County. He received an excellent education, attending the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the Litchfield Law School in Connecticut before being admitted to the bar in 1825. Returning to his home state, he had a successful practice in Gilmanton and, after 1831, in Exeter. In 1846 he closed his law office and moved to Gilford as chief legal representative for the Winnepesaukee Land and Waterpower Company; that same year he began to run for public office at the urging of friends, even though he was a rather frail and retiring man with little taste for the political arena. He served as a Whig in the State House of Representatives (1846 to 1850), was a delegate to the 1850 State Constitutional Convention, and was the Opposition Party's unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1854 and 1855. Bell was elected as a Republican to the US Senate and took his seat in March 1855, but by then his health was so poor that his service on Capitol Hill was minimal. He died in Laconia, New Hampshire, less than two years into his term. There is a cenotaph for him at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.
US Senator. The son of Samuel Bell, the 14th Governor of New Hampshire, he was born in Francestown, Hillsborough County. He received an excellent education, attending the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the Litchfield Law School in Connecticut before being admitted to the bar in 1825. Returning to his home state, he had a successful practice in Gilmanton and, after 1831, in Exeter. In 1846 he closed his law office and moved to Gilford as chief legal representative for the Winnepesaukee Land and Waterpower Company; that same year he began to run for public office at the urging of friends, even though he was a rather frail and retiring man with little taste for the political arena. He served as a Whig in the State House of Representatives (1846 to 1850), was a delegate to the 1850 State Constitutional Convention, and was the Opposition Party's unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1854 and 1855. Bell was elected as a Republican to the US Senate and took his seat in March 1855, but by then his health was so poor that his service on Capitol Hill was minimal. He died in Laconia, New Hampshire, less than two years into his term. There is a cenotaph for him at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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