William F. Bell was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, February 14, 1832, but for the past twenty years has been an honored resident of Fairmount township, where he has been successfully engaged in farming and stock raising. He is the eldest of five children born to Joseph and Eleanor (Bell) Bell, three of whom are living. They are William F.; Murphy A. M., an ex-soldier of the Civil war and a citizen of Summitville; and Henry, who lives at Knightstown and is engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Bell may well be called a self-made man, having worked hard to reach the eminence on which he now stands and receiving many hard knocks on the way. He received a common-school education and at the age of twenty-one was without cash, his manly spirit and insistent will comprising his only capital.

        On February 28, 1856, he was married to Miss Nancy M. Ferguson, and became the father of five children. Four are living, viz.: James M., who is married and lives on the homestead with his father; Mary M., who is married to Alvin Free, a farmer of Bethel, Indiana; Sarah E., wife of Hiram Harvey, who resides on his farm in Liberty township; and Julia, wife of Elwood Townsend, a paperhanger and painter of Marion. This family were each given good practical educations and have been well fitted for the lives of usefulness they fill. Mrs. Bell was born April 30, 1830, in North Carolina, in the same neighborhood as her husband, and is a daughter of Hiram and Mary (Boone) Ferguson. She traces her ancestry to the Scotch and her mother was a near relative of the famous scout and Indian fighter, Daniel Boone. She is a lady of happy disposition and keeps the home cheerful with her never failing fund of good humor.

        In 1865 Mr. Bell came with his family to Henry county, this state, where he remained for a number of years engaged in farming on rented ground and later purchased fifty-eight acres of land. This was sold in 1881, when he moved to Grant county, purchasing eighty acres of fine farm land in Fairmount township, where he has since resided. They have met with a goodly measure of success and have a nice, comfortable home, with pleasant surroundings, the result of their own efforts. They are people of high Christian character who have been active in good works, and not only has the Friends' society, to which they belong, been benefited by their generous spirit, but many charitable deeds have been performed, in which the left hand knew not what the right hand gave. They are modest and unpretentious, preferring quiet giving to ostentatious display. The beautiful brick structure in which the Friends hold their meetings, as well as the academy, in which the entire township takes a pardonable pride, have been the recipients of their bounty, and no citizen enjoys a higher degree of esteem than this worthy couple.

        Mr. Bell is a strong Prohibitionist, believing that the greater part of the ills and sufferings of life are to be traced to the drink habit as the primary cause, and he has the temerity not only to advocate temperance but to vote for it. It is men of Mr. Bell's stamp that give vigor to the important issues of the day and are the real safeguards of our country.