San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County 
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County 
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period 
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, 
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


JAMES A. BELL
 
       While he has not been a resident of the City of Riverside long enough
to class as a pioneer he is a native son of California and possesses all the
characteristics such fortunates are popularly supposed to have. He is the son
of a pioneer and was educated in the Golden State, and when it came time 
for him to enter the business world for himself he chose Riverside for his
business enterprise and as a home. In short space of time, as the years  go,
he has built up a good and ever increasing patronage, gained by square
dealing, courtesy, and strict attention to business ethics. Mr. Bell can surely
congratulate himself upon his business and social standing in the city of his
choice. Well known and popular as Mr. Bell is in other ways, he has also 
made himself well known by his work in the Knights of Columbus organization
here. He has headed it since August, 1920, when he was made grand knight
of the order. Two years ago, when the order here had but forty-three members,
Mr. Bell joined with Grand Knight Richard J. Welsh in making it popular, and 
they succeeded, for when Mr. Bell became grand knight the membership 
numbered two hundred, a larger percentage increase than in any other lodge 
in the state.  Mr. Bell previously served as warden and as deputy grand
knight. The membership is steadily on the increase all the time. James A.
Bell was born in San Francisco, April 9, 1880, a son of Henry and Rose (Boyle)
Bell. Henry Bell was a native of Ireland and came to the United States when a
young man, settling in Brockline, Massachusetts. So quickly did he become a
thorough, loyal American that in 1864, January 26, he joined Company A.,
Massachusetts Volunteers, under Major Henry Splaine, serving under him and 
engaging in many battles, until he was mustered out July 11, 1865. He came out
to California in 1870, and followed his profession, that of landscape gardening,
until his death in June, 1917. Mrs. Bell, who is also a native of Ireland, survives 
him and is a resident of Danville, California. James A. Bell received his ed-
ucation in the public and high schools of Berkeley, California, his first work 
being in a drug store of that city, where he was engaged during his four years
course in the high school. At the end of his school days, his graduation, he 
continued in the drug business successively in Tracy, Newman, and Los 
Angeles until 1909, when he determined to come to Riverside and start in
business for himself, which proved a very wise move. He opened his store at
214 West Eighth Street under the name of the Salt Lake Store, and which he
has conducted ever since and with ever increasing success. In addition to the
Knights of Columbus Mr. Bell is a member of the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks of Riverside. On November 30, 1911, at Santa Ana, California, he 
married Miss Jennie M. Hansen, a native of Chicago and a daughter of Mrs. N. 
Hansen, who was one of the old pioneer families of Fresno, California. They
are the parents of two children: James A. Bell Jr. and Eugene J. Bell.
 
Pages 1071 to 1072.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.