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JESSE WILLIAM BELL
Vol. 5, p. 1805

Since he was seventeen years of age Jesse William Bell has found a
sphere of usefulness and honorable activity as a citizen in Oklahoma.
He prospered as a farmer, and has also been in mercantile activities
and is publisher of one of the leading papers of the county, and at
the present time is serving as postmaster of LaKemp.

He was born in a log house on a farm in Franklin County, Missouri,
April 8, 1881, a son of William Lafayette and Amy Lee (FARRAR) Bell,
both of whom were natives of the same county. His grandparents were
Russell and Elizabeth (CALDWELL) Bell. Russell Bell was a confederate
soldier during the Civil war, and was captain of a company in the
army commanded by General Sterling PRICE. William Lafayette Bell was
born August 20, 1854, and died in Cleveland County, Oklahoma,
September 29, 1902. His life was spent as a farmer, and in 1898 he
came to Oklahoma and his closing years were spent in this state. On
June 12, 1873, he married Amy Lee FARRAR, who was born in Franklin
County, Missouri, July 31, 1854, and is now living at LaKemp. Her
parents were Jesse P. and Mary (BULLOCK) Farrar. He was born in
Missouri and she in Ohio. William L. Bell and wife were the parents
of eleven children, five sons and six daughters, nine of whom are
still living: Edward Russell, who was born April 23, 1874, and is now
a farmer in Beaver County, was married in 1896 to Susie E. HETHCOCK;
Birtie E., born February 6, 1876, married in 1908 Samuel MCGRATH and
they now live at Seattle, Washington; Mollie Virginia, born July 12,
1878, in Texas, was married in 1895 to Marion F. HETHCOCK and they
live on a farm in Beaver County; the fourth in age is Jesse William;
Thomas Franklin was born September 21, 1884, and lives at May,
Washington; Minnie Pearl, born May 18, 1886, and was married in 1912
to Bruce ESLICK, and they live in Montana; Drusie was born in 1891
and died in 1891; Arthur Lafayette, born March 5, 1891, died January
9, 1916; Ollie Clinton, born November 3, 1893, is now a farmer in
Baca County, Colorado; Sylvia Mabel, born September 24, 1897, was
married in 1915 to Howard GORDON, who is a farmer in Baca County,
Colorado; Girtie Lee was born February 3, 1901, and is now with her
mother.

Jesse W. Bell is the type of citizen who makes the best of his
opportunities wherever he finds them. His early life was spent on his
father's farm in Franklin County, Missouri, and he had a public
school education. In 1898 he came to Oklahoma with his parents, and
in 1907 he located a tract of government land in Beaver County two
miles east of the present town of LaKemp. He still owns that land and
has increased it by considerable other valuable holdings in the
country district of the county. In 1912 leaving the farm Mr. Bell
engaged in the drug business at the new Town of LaKemp, and in the
same year he bought the LaKemp Mirror, of which he was editor and
publisher until February, 1915, when he removed the plant to Beaver,
the county seat, and changed the name of the paper to the Democrat.
It is now published under the incorporated title of the Enterprise
Publishing Company, of which Mr. Bell is secretary and treasurer.

Mr. Bell was appointed postmaster of LaKemp August 23, 1914, and is
giving a very efficient administration of that office. Fraternally he
is affiliated with the Masons and with the Modern Woodmen of America,
and politically his actions have always been in line with the
Democratic Party.

On February 14, 1904, at Tecumseh, Oklahoma, he married Miss Dora
May LITTLE, who was born on a farm in Hickory County, North Carolina,
August 23, 1887, a daughter of F. P. and Elizabeth (Little) Little,
both of whom were natives of North Carolina. The Little family came
to Oklahoma in 1901, when Mrs. Bell was about fourteen years of age
and located in Pottawatomie County. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have four
children: Jesse Charles, born September 13, 1908; Edith Lee, born
June 30, 1911; Irl. Clinton, born August 3, 1913; and Thelma
Elizabeth, born October 27, 1915.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Donald E. Conley, 26 July 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916)