Caledonia

BELL, James 

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 428-430

James AUSTIN, of pure Norman extraction, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, 
invented the tulip-shaped bell, for which he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, 
and took the name of BELL. He was a staunch Presbyterian, and during the 
religious controversy was obliged to flee, and went to the north of Ireland. 
From thence a large family of brothers emigrated to the United States, and 
settled in various parts of the Union. James, the second son, settled in New 
Hampshire, from whom the subject of the following sketch is descended.

James BELL was born in December 1776 in Lyme [Grafton County], New Hampshire. 
His father, James BELL, was accidentally killed by falling on the point of a 
scythe which he was carrying on his shoulder. His son was but two years old. 
Mr. BELL'S mother was a woman of strong sense and Christian character, for 
whom he ever cherished the strongest affection and respect. She married, for 
her second husband, Col. Robert JOHNSTON of Newbury [Orange County], Vermont, 
in which town Mr. BELL was brought up to manhood. Nor far from 1800 he went 
to reside in Hardwick [Caledonia County], Vermont, and in 1801 was married to 
Lucy DEAN of Hardwick [Worcester County], Massachusetts.

Soon after this, Mr. BELL became entangled with a lawyer for whom he had done 
business as deputy sheriff. A legal quarrel arose which lasted for years; 
litigation stripped him of his property, and threatened to ruin him. The 
struggles of that season of his life required more courage than to fight with 
physical giants. The inevitable privations of the early settler, the 
scarcity of provisions, when the clearings were small, and shaded by the 
thick forests which encircled them, so that the grain which had struggled 
through the summer was likely to be nipped by untimely frosts; the fearful 
drain upon pecuniary means, and the excitement attendant upon litigation; the 
wants of a young family of children, whom he tenderly loved; the pain to 
think that he had made the sharer of his trials a woman who had seen better 
days, a woman of the strictest principles, ambitious, and who must have bee 
more than human to be always patient under the allotments of fortune; was 
enough to tempt a less buoyant spirit to do as another individual was advised 
to do when sorely tried.

Still he never yielded, but rather pressed onward. The divinity that shapes 
our ends used this roughhewing as a means of showing to himself and others 
the talents that were in him. He became too poor to employ counsel, and was 
obliged to defend himself and plead his own causes; and soon displayed wit 
and native eloquence, which in those primitive times were more than a match 
for his mere legal antagonist. He eventually drove him from the field, and 
was ever after engaged in legal business, though not admitted to the bar for 
a number of years after.

He settled in Walden [Caledonia County, Vermont] in 1804 or 1805; in 1810 he 
commenced the farm where he ever after lived, and where his son, Hon. James 
D. BELL, now resides. The place was entirely wild, and the first tree fallen 
was the foundation log on which his cabin was erected. In 1815 he was 
elected to the state legislature, after having had conferred on him the 
office of justice of the peace, captain of militia, etc., which honors in 
those days were not without their significance. He was again elected to the 
legislature in 1818, and was a member of that body for ten years in 
succession. He was an eloquent debater, and few men had more influence in 
the house. Few were there whose political sway was felt more throughout the 
state than Mr. BELL.

At the time that Mr. Bell was admitted to the bar of Caledonia County, it was 
composed of a constellation of many of the first order of talents, among whom 
he was received as a peer, and in mother wit surpassed perhaps any one of 
them. Intellectual sport he enjoyed from the foundations of his being, and 
his irrepressible laughter was genial and sparkling, as the bursting forth of 
sunshine. He moreover had an immense persuasive influence with a jury; his 
sympathies being strong, he intuitively hit upon those points which would 
sway them in the direction he wished.

The man was the man in his esteem, whatever the texture of his cost might be; 
his client's wrongs were his own wrongs, and he defended him with a zeal and 
enthusiasm that never flagged till his point was gained. He was a hard man 
to face, for perhaps when his legal antagonist had finished a labored plea, 
and thought his mountain stood strong, a few playful sallies from BELL, or a 
stroke or two of the scapel of satire directed to the weak points of his 
argument, and he would find the whole fabric tumbling about his ears. [Text 
giving an example of this point omitted.]

In 1832 Mr. BELL made a public profession and joined the Congregational 
church in Hardwick; and was ever after a conscientious and constant attendant 
at the sanctuary, when his health permitted. He was a lover of freedom, and 
a hater of oppression. Well, do we remember his relating the following 
anecdote. He was standing in front of the Capitol at Washington, when a gang 
of slaves, manacled together, and driven by their keeper, passed by. When 
they came opposite the Capitol, they struck up "Hail! Columbia!" and the 
refrain was kept up until their voices were lost in the distance. He said: 
"What a satire upon our brags of freedom was that music from those unconscious 
wretches! Oh, how I longed to stand upon the floor of that house and say 
what I wanted to say." He was an earnest temperance advocate. During the 
political and other conflicts of manhood, he was a firm, warm friend, and a 
most whole-souled despiser of those he disliked; but, as age advanced, and 
the tumults of life receded, the affections became predominant, and embraced 
all.

His sportiveness almost went with him to the grave. After he was so infirm 
that his step was almost as uncertain as an infant's, he said to someone, 
alluding to his infirmities, that there was one thing he could do as quick as 
ever. "And what is that?" said the person addressed. "I can fall down as 
quick as I ever could!" was the answer. He was chosen a member of the 
council of censors, in 1848, which was the last public service in which he 
engaged. [Text omitted.] James BELL, encompassed with infirmity, died of 
paralysis on 17 April 1852.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly