Separate Bells

    Mildred Jane Hughes Mahaney and John Richard Bell were married in Lake County, Indiana on 5 Apr 1850¹.  Prior to her marriage to John R. Bell she had married to Edward Mahony in 1844².  
    Both John and Edward owed land in Porter County, near the border with Lake County. 

In 1870 were still living in Indiana (census data).  However, by at least 1873, the Bell family was living in Kansas. (In 1873, John A. Bell wed Amanda Jones.) By 1875 Mildred Bell is living separately from John R. Bell³.

John R. Bell is listed several pages later in there census.









     In the 1880s they both owned land about four miles apart.  



     In the 1885 Kansas Census she states that she is widowed.  Shortly after this they packed up and headed west to Comanche County and then Stevens County.  John R. Bell is buried in Stevens County, Kansas where the gravestone states that he died in 1889.  Mildred Bell remarried and purchased land near her son John A. Bell in Stevens County.  She died in 1898.

1. "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VNTX-P1Y : accessed 28 July 2015), John R Bell and Mildred Mahany, 05 Apr 1850; citing , Lake, Indiana, county clerk offices, Indiana; FHL microfilm 2,413,488.
2.  "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDH3-KTQ : accessed 28 July 2015), Edward Mahony and Mildred Jane Hughes, 09 Dec 1844; citing , Porter, Indiana, county clerk offices, Indiana; FHL microfilm 1,686,155.
3. Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1875 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: ks1875_10; Line: 55  Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

Should it be an "A" or Should it be a "W"?

      John Andrew Bell was the son of John Richard Bell and father of John Fletcher Bell. All three live in Labette County, Kansas in 1775¹.  

      But wait a minute.  That 1775 Kansas Territorial Census shows the name John W. Bell.  How do I know that this is my John A. Bell?  This John Bell was born in Indiana and lived in Indiana prior to coming to Kansas. That is what I expected.  He was married to Amanda who was born in Kentucky.  He had a son named John Fletcher Bell.  The ages are about what I would expect.  If we examine land records, a John W. Bell owns land adjacent to a Benjamin F. Jones and near John R. Bell and Mildred Bell.  Benjamin Fletcher Jones is the father-in-law of John A. Bell. Mildred Bell was his mother.  I am convinced that this John W. Bell is the same person as my John A. Bell.

     For some reason all records that I have found prior to Labette County refer to a John Bell.  In Labette County the records refer to our John A. Bell several times as James W. Bell and then in 1885 as John H. Bell³.  When the family moved west to Comanche County for a few years, land records referred to him as John W. Bell.  

     After the family arrived in Stevens County, John A. Bell was the name used.  It was used in court records, land records, tombstone, and a published county history.  For now I am leaving the name, John Andrew Bell, in my records, but  . . .
     Why did the name change?  Was it intentional or accidental?  I would love to know the reason.


1. Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1875 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: ks1875_10; Line: 75  Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.
2. "HistoryGeo.com" 14 July 2015 <https://www.historygeo.com/>
3. Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1885 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1885_69; Line: 1  Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

Bell Marriage in Jasper County

     John A. Bell and Amanda C. Jones wed on 7 Aug 1873¹ in Jasper County, Missouri.  In the "History of Stevens County & Its People" several of their children state that this marriage took place in Indiana².  This may have been the story that John and Amanda told their children but no record has been found to show that they were married there or that Amanda ever lived in Indiana.  At the time of the marriage they were living in Mount Pleasant Township, Labette County, Kansas^3,4.  In the years prior, Amanda lived in Kentucky and Missouri. John had arrived from Indiana.  Later they homesteaded land in Labette County, near Mound City, where several of their children were born before moving west to Stevens County, Kansas..  

     At the time of the marriage John Andrew Bell was probably eighteen years old and Amanda was most likely sixteen years old.  Was it legal for them to get married at that age?  Did their parents approve? In any case, John and Amanda chose to travel from Labette County, through Cherokee County, crossing the Kansas-Missouri border, and to Jasper County, Missouri.  At that time it appears that Jasper County may have served as the area's 'Gretna Green'.  (Gretna Green is a border town in Scotland, which is famous for weddings of couples who elope.)  Twin Groves is one of the townships in Jasper County that borders Kansas.  There is a William Bishop in that township in 1880 Census.

     So, considering John's and Amanda's ages and location of wedding, is it possible that they eloped?  

    

1. "Missouri, County Marriage Records, 1819-1969." Marriage of John Bell and Amanda Jones. Jasper County, Missouri FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org : accessed 7 Apr 2013.
2. The History of Stevens County & Its People. pages 367-373, Hugoton, Kansas: Stevens County History Association, 1979.
3. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch
4. Year: 1870; Census Place: Mount Pleasant, Labette, Kansas; Roll: M593_436; Page: 48B; Image: 100; Family History Library Film: 545935