Transcribed For Online by Geraldine cookie@oakhurst.net
Records Contributed by Vicki Bell-Reynolds rreynolds@pdq.net

was several inches space between, so one night we were all don on our knees and he was praying and on old house cat climbed the walls on out side of the house and was up on top of the wall between the wall and roof of the house. I discovered the cat there and I began to hollow, pole cat, polecat, my father just went on praying until he was through, I was about 3 years old.

The Bell history or Bell Tree as it is called in Washington D. C. has been traced back to 1425 A.D. and the orignal Bell's came over from Scotland and they were all presbyterians and in every generation there has been a preacher in the family up until it got to my father generation and the tie was broke then because there was none of the three boys that was a preacher and then got to my and of it my brother was a preacher but, he broke the tie because he was a methodist and I went Baptist and now what I want to do is for myself to get back to the presbyterian church to tak up the tie or chain of the orginal Bell Tree.

The orginal Bell's name was spelled with only one l, like Bel and as this went on the name was finally added another l to it spell Bell.

Ever farmer in and around Woodville would let all their stock run loose on the range all they would do, was to brand the cows, mules and horses and the hogs would be marked.

My father mark on his hogs would be swallow fork the right ear and over under bit the left ear and everybody in the territory knew that was his brand or mark and his hogs.

They would let their hogs run out until late in the fall of year so the hogs would get fatter and the meat would be sweeter. The horses, mules, and cattle brank would be RB on the left shoulder for the mules and horses and on the left side for the cows and anybody that saw these animals would know that they belonged to Robert Bell.

All the farmers really stay together in those days, if a farmer took down sick all his neighbors for miles around would come into this farmer field and clean all the grass and weeds out of his cotton or corn, maybe both and then plow it all over and not charge him one penny for their services. It was all done on good will. If one farmer needed any help was to let it be known and some one farmer would help him and all the man had to do was to tell him that he would be paid back when he gathered his crop.

There was a man moved into our neighborhood, he didn't have anything at all, some of the farmers ask him what was he going to do. He told them that he was going to farm, if he could get some help, so one farmer sold him a team, wagon and harness and tools, another sold him a cow and some hogs, then all the farmers went to a grocerman and told him that they wanted him to see that this man was furnished food and all the man done was just tell all them that he would pay it all back when he gathered his crop that fall and there was no note or mortgage on anything that he bought or even the grocerman didn't take a mortgage for the groceries that he furnished to this man.

In 1940 there was a law passed in congress to protect all the land in Tennessee from the overflow of the mississippi river, the government under took to buy and did buy land on the rivers that emptied into the mississippi river, and build dams to hold the water back that comes down in great quanities, the government bought all the land in and around Woodville for a dam to be constructed, red river was damed and that saved a great lake of water on red river and washita rivers, this lake of water was named Lake Texahoma, named for Texas and Oklahoma both states and the water edge around this lake is 1255 miles. This

There is a highway over the dam there now that is 5 miles long and the number of the highway is 75-A it branches off of 75 highway in Denison Texas and 75-A goes over the dam and connects again with 75 at Colbert Okla. and now old Woodville is under water. They moved the town about 8 miles to the north up on a hill to keep the town from being flooded when it come a lot of rain.

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