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White Deer Land Museum

116 S. Cuyler

Pampa, TX 79065

Bell Family Among Early County Settlers
 

Real Audio by Eloise Lane

On November 13, 1891, George Tyng wrote, "Another family ... from Kentucky ... has just located on Survey 208 Block B2. Look like people who will get along. Name, Bell."
 

John Montgomery Bell, Sr., a successful planter near Reynoldsville, Kentucky, lost a great deal of his wealth when a business partner failed to pay off some debts. He took his family to Hillsboro, Texas, where a relative had purchased land for as little as three dollars an acre. After finding that the best land around Hillsboro was already taken, Bell came on a prospecting trip to the Panhandle.
 

At Clarendon, Bell met a trail rider who spoke in glowing terms of the Staked Plains and especially of Block B2. Bell returned to Hillsboro to bring his family to Gray County. Besides Mrs. Bell there were six children: John, Jr. Myrtle, Minnie, Suda, Ashby and Billy. (Feland was born later.)
 

The trip from Hillsboro was made in a carriage. At one stop an old man tried to persuade Bell not to take his family to that "wild country" --- the Panhandle. As the Bells drove away to continue their journey, the children saw the old man wave and heard him say, "Fare thee well, little children, fare thee well."
 

The Bell family arrived at Pampa in the fall of 1891 when the boarding house of White Deer Lands was under constructi6n. The first person Minnie Bell saw was Hallie Case, a little red-cheeked girl standing in front of the house.
 

The Bells felt fortunate to get even one room in which to live temporarily. Mrs. Bell and Minnie helped Emily Case with the cooking when extra help was needed. One of the boarders was George Tyng who was very particular about his coffee. The women rode the train to Canadian to get an earthenware pot to use for him. When they told Tyng that they wanted to make his coffee just right, he said, "I'll tell you --- just be generous with the coffee."
 

The Bells spent the winter of 1891-92 in a small one-roomed house on Frazier Hill. The house was owned by the cattle company for which Billy worked. Mr. Bell worked for the railroad. He would cut across the prairie and the train crew would pick him up. This was before the post office was established at Pampa, and Mr. and Mrs. Bell took turns in delivering the mail which was put off at White Deer. They always saw that the mail went through unless the snow got too bad.
 

The Bells eventually settled in Block B2, south of present Kingsmill. Bell filed on a section of land and built a dugout in which the family lived until a small frame house was built. Through the years Bell bought more land until he owned 1600 acres.

Bell and A.J. Dauer were trustees for the first school in the Bell community. Built in 1895, the school was thought to be in Carson County. Nine years later, in 1906, it was learned that the school was actually in Gray County.
 

John Montgomery Bell, Sr. died in 1924. Mrs. Bell died in 1940.  Minnie, who remembered the social life of a planter's family, often thought of the jewels she had possessed and the beautiful gown she had worn to a governor's ball in Kentucky. While working at the boarding house, she shed many tears when she thought of the servants her family had in previous years.
 

However, Minnie had some social life as well as hard work. Billy Carter would lead a horse with a side saddle and take her to dances at the N Bar N headquarters. When the Bell school opened in 1895, Minnie was the first teacher She was very glad to get the job and the money. Later Minnie married Russell.
 

John Bell, Jr. married Ava McConnell. Their children were Lela Mae (Mrs. D.W. Swain) and Julia Marie (Mrs. Glenn Dawkins).

Myrtle married Wylie Bowen Holland of White Deer.

 Suda married Marvin Edgar Hodges of White Deer on August 7, 1911. They had one daughter, Hazel Cordelia. Many items from the estate of Suda Bell Hodges are in the White Deer Land Museum at Pampa
 

William Robert (Billy or Willie) Bell was ten years old when his family came to the Panhandle. On the way from Hillsboro in 1891, they stopped at Claude. When Billy expressed a desire to see a cowboy, he was told to go to Booger Bill's camp on McClellan draw 15 miles northeast.
 

Booger Bill was not at home, but Billy went on in as he had been told to do. He saw a fireplace and a pile of prairie wood (buffalo chips). He opened a can of tomatoes and ate them with some sourdough bread. Then he went to sleep unaware that he was lying over $1700 buried in a can in the ground.
 

Later he learned that Booger Bill quit his job with the Matadors to go logging in the northwest and hired a man to go with him. In No-Man's-Land (Oklahoma Panhandle), the man killed Booger Bill and took his money.
 

The morning after Billy slept over Booger Bill's money, he decided to go to the main headquarters 15 miles away (probably N Bar N near White Deer). After going seven miles, he saw a bunch of antelopes that began to circle around him. Thinking that they were wolves, he began to run when he saw an opening.
 

Billy rushed into headquarters and told the cook that he had outrun a pack of wolves. The cook grinned and asked what color they were. Then he gave Billy something to eat and told him to rest awhile.
 

After Billy had rested, he began to look around. He saw boots, spurs, harps and a fiddle hanging on the wall. When the cowboys came in that afternoon, the cook said, "Kid, tell the boys what happened when you were coming here."
 

The laughing cowboys told Billy that he had seen antelopes instead of wolves and that they would make a horse wrangler out of him because he could run so fast. That night they had a stag dance, showed him all the steps and dressed him up like a cowboy.
 

In the spring of 1892, Billy Carter, who worked for the N Bar N, brought an extra horse for Billy. At the age of 11, Billy began his first job as a horse wrangler. In the fall, when the N Bar N moved to Montana, Billy got a job with the Matadors.
 

When Billy left the N Bar N, he and Billy Carter rode near the location of the Combs-Worley ranch as they were trying to find the roundup near the Thut place at Lefors. Billy wondered how they would ever find the roundup in that vast expanse of plains. Carter told Billy that if they came within a mile of one of the chuck wagons, the horses would lead them to it. Soon the horses began to neigh, and it was not long until they found the outfit.
 

Billy learned that coyotes often cut the horses' ropes, so he made a practice of carrying biscuits and sourdough to entice the horses to come to him. Also he would whistle a certain song to one of his horses, and the horse would instantly respond to the signal.
 

"Horses are smart," Billy said. "If only people had as much sense as horses!"
 

Billy, who became the first rural mail carrier for Pampa, said, "I carried the mail for eight years from Pampa to Lefors. Sometimes there would not be a single letter in the mail pouch. The road was not much more than a rabbit trail. Sometimes I got sleepy as I drove along. Some of the boys would come along and tie up my team till I woke up, but they never bothered the mail bags.'
 

At the Panhandle Centennial Celebration (1936) in the Harvester Gym, Billy entertained the early settlers during an intermission. He played his French harp and danced a jig at the same time, clinking his spurs together at proper intervals to give a tambourine effect. For an encore, he laid aside his mouth organ and literally shook the rafters with his talented hoofing as they hoof out yonder on the ranges.