BELL, John W., Beeville Bee, Friday, 23 Jun 1905:

JOHN W. BELL, GENTLEMAN, EDUCATOR AND POSTMASTER

It was an indescribable shock to a majority of the residents of Beeville on last Monday morning 
to learn that during the night Postmaster John W. BELL, without warning had been summoned 
by the Grim Reaper. In apparent good health, he had been seen at his post only the evening before 
and on his way home after the post office had been closed for the day he had exchanged 
customary greetings and salutations with friends. At home after dispatching the usual home duties 
and the perusal of the news of the day, he and his wife retired about 10 o'clock.  A few minutes 
afterward Mrs. Bell heard her husband groan, as if in distress and found him unconscious. Her alarm 
attracted the attention of Mr. J. F. BURKE, who happened to be passing and he hastily summoned 
a physician. Dr. Seymour arrived a few minutes but before he reached the bedside Mr. Bell had 
passed beyond medical aid. Heart failure had come upon him without warning and he had passed 
away unconscious of his impending fare.

John W. Bell, who served the people of Beeville as postmaster since the 12th of May, 1897 and many 
years before that as teacher and principal of the High School. He was a native of Kentucky, a 
descendant of one of the early pioneers of that state, and a product of the Scotch Irish settlement of 
North Carolina in colonial days, an element that has left its imprint in the history of the nation. 

He was born September 5, 1858 on a farm near Freedom, in Barren County, Kentucky, where he grew 
to manhood.  Early in life he manifested that independence and self-reliance that characterized him 
and at eighteen he was teaching country schools that he might earn the means to secure himself a 
higher education.  Graduating from the state Normal School at Glasgow, he actively took up profession 
of teacher and in 1884 came to at the solicitation of his brother, Prof. L. W. Bell who had come two years 
before.

For the succeeding three years the brothers taught the public schools at Tilden and Oakville and in 
1888 were invited by the trustees of the Beeville School to take charge of the school here. From that 
year up to his appointment as postmaster by President McKinley in 1897, Mr. Bell was associated with 
the Beeville school and laid the foundation of the present high school in which the citizens take so 
much pride. As a teacher he was a good disciplinarian and impressed upon his pupils the gospel of 
work, so much exploited now as the motto of the times. As a public official he fulfilled his duties strictly 
to the letter of the law and believing public office to be a public trust, gave the people the best service 
possible. His friendships were outside his duties to the public, as postmaster all were on equality and 
the closest friends could claim no precedence over those who by political differences may have been 
antagonistic.

As in the discharge of his public duty so was his private life - a high equal his standard. Married in 1893 
to Miss Bettie Louise SMITH, a member of one of the prominent families of the city. In 1903 John lost his 
first-born child, a bright little daughter, whose death he never seem to overcome.

The funeral took place on Monday and was conducted by Rev. J. M. Sallee. He leaves a bereaved wife 
and two little children and a brother. The interment took place in the old cemetery beside the mound that 
marks the resting place of the little one that preceded him in death. The body was attended at the gravesite 
by the local camp of Woodmen, a fraternal order of which he was a charter member.