The subject of this sketch, father to the present Lucien B. (Hooley) Bell, was born January 1, 1805, in South Carolina. He was the son of John Bell, whose father was Scotch-Irish and emigrated to this country during the persecution. John A. Bell, the subject of this sketch, was one of the leaders of the treaty party, and one of the first signers of the document that afterwards doomed to death Elias Boudinot and the two Ridges. In 1837 he emigrated to the new country, and settled near Evansville, Arkansas, in the Flint district, but during the troubles immediately preceding 1846 he sojourned in the State of Arkansas, finally making his home on Beattie’s Prairie, Cherokee Nation. In 1847 he opened a plantation in Rusk County, Texas, and later moved his Negroes on the place. Here resided his father, John Bell, who died in the year 1853. John A. Bell was representative of the treaty party from 1835 to 1846, and was more than once delegated to Washington, D. C. He married Jane Martin, daughter of John Martin, who, at different periods, was national treasurer, national delegate, and judge at the time of his death. John A. Bell died on his property in Texas in 1860, after a useful life of fifty-five years. He was a patriot at heart, and sincerely regretted by his people.
