Josiah H. Bell
A member of Stephen F. Austins original 300 colonists, Josiah Hughes Bell was
born August 22m 1791, in Chester District, South Carolina. Josiah Bells
father died when he was five years old, so he went to live in Tennessee with
family to learn the trade of hatter. While living in the Missouri District,
Bell became friends with Moses Austin and his son, Stephen F. Austin. Josiah
Bell joined the Missouri Mounted Militia as a second lieutenant during the War
of 1812. Following the war, he traveled to Tennessee to visit his mother and
met his future wife, Mary Eveline McKenzie (1799-1856). She and Bell married
in 1818 in Kentucky. The couple operated a mercantile business in
Natchitoches, Louisiana, for two years before moving to Hemphill, Texas.
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In 1821, Austin wrote bell granting him permission to settle in the new colony
near New Washington. Bell served as Alcalde, constable, and judge in the new
colony, even taking over Austins duties while he was traveling in Mexico.
Bell and his family moved several times along the Brazos River and eventually
settled in the town of Columbia near the present-day cemetery. Bell laid out
two towns, developed a sugar plantation and built the first hotel in the area.
During this time he began work on the Bell family home, completed in 1827. The
home was often used as an office for Stephen F. Austin when he was in town.
Bell and Austin continued their friendship through correspondence, including
letters regarding tax laws, regulations of the Mexican government and education
in the colony. Bell died on May 17, 1838, and was buried in the cemetery that
his wife later gave to the citizens of West Columbia. (2016).