Oral History
Interviewee:   Donald Bell (b. 09/29/1894 – d. 10/22/1976) & Ralph Bell  (b.12/011893 – d. 04/17/1968)                  
Interviewer:  Bell Family Members
Audio Number:  211 A & B (Side 1 & 2)
Duration: 00:30:43 & 00:30:59
Date:  1962 & 1963

Acc.# 98.025
Bio: Donald Francis Bell (b. 1894 – d. 1976) was born on September 29, 1894 in Brecksville, Ohio.  He came to the Verde Valley with his family at the age of 2.  His mother taught school in Clear Creek District and his father had a dairy form and kept bees. Donald attended school in Camp Verde and Prescott.  He served overseas in World War I and was superintendent of the Yavapai County Hospital from 1939 until he retired in 1968.  In retirement, he devoted much of his time to his life-long interests of regional history and archaeology.

Bio: Ralph Lewis Bell (b. 1893 – d.1968) was born in Brecksville, Ohio in 1893 to Lewis B. and Jennie E. Bell.  He resided in the Verde Valley until 1920, graduated from Prescott High School in 1912 and from the University of Arizona. During WW I he served with the Armed Forces in France and with the Army of Occupation in Germany.  He married Jean Wilson in Prescott in 1921. A carpenter by trade, he moved to Orange, CA in 1920. His brother was Donald F. Bell of Prescott.

Topics Discussed: Annie Grimes; Jordan Scott; Camp Verde, Arizona; World Wars I & II; General Patton and Occupation of Berlin, Germany. See letter in Fannie (Wingfield) Stephens’s Oral History Folder.  

 Time       Topic /Subject Discussed
  Side 1    
00:00:36    Clipper ship
00:00:58    Textiles
00:01:05    Cuba
00:01:10    Rum/molasses
00:01:50    Contraband
00:05:43    Bonny Bell
00:05:46    Bouncing Betty
00:05:53    Albion
00:06:22    Capt. Scott Jordan
00:07:41    Maine
00:07:48    Freighting
00:08:29    Annie Grimes
00:09:43    Ohio
00:10:49    “nigger woman”
00:12:11     Aunt Dora, Ethel
00:12:22     Mabel
00:12:58     Jerome
00:13:12     Buggy
00:13:16     Livery stable
00:13:27     Camp Verde
00:13:34     Lynx Creek
00:13:42     Dewey
00:14:33     San Francisco Peaks
00:15:15     Copper Canyon
00:16:25     Lou & Jenny
00:16:31     Squaw Peak
00:17:17     Frank Jordan
00:18:45     Roy
00:18:49     Cussedness
00:20:56     Family Anecdote
00:22:15     Mother Bell
00:25:53     Aunt Mary
00:26:39     Hundred? up
00:27:12     Mary Wines
00:29:00     Frog Pond
00:29:12     Honey cans
00:29:15     Clod
00:29:18     Squires
  Side 2     
00:00:13    Sarah
00:00:53    Germany - WWII
00:01:23    One was an interpreter
00:03:54    Rumpus
00:04:07    German Occupation
00:04:13    Everything south of the Rhine, Berlin
00:04:46    Ft. Erin Reichstein
00:04:54    Romerochiem (sp?)
00:05:00    Wintered at Wachstweiler
00:05:14    Patton
00:05:46    Matazals
00:06:28    Winchester
00:06:32    South Hampton
00:06:43    Le Havre
00:06:55    Stuck in the mud
00:07:12    Didn’t care for Europe
00:07:40    French girls were better looking
00:07:53    Pyranees, Spain
00:08:10    Paris
00:08:32    Pass to south of France
00:09:06    Lemans, France
00:09:32    Paris Express Train
00:09:43    First class coach
00:11:03    Credentials
00:11:27    Stopped in Paris
00:11:40    $1.20 for a 4 hour ride
00:12:26    Red Cross camp
00:12:40    “See the town”
00:13:24    Hung around until last subway went out
00:13:53    Hopped the train
00:14:04    Train headed in the wrong direction
00:15:00    Wine house
00:15:07    Taxi driver
00:15:39    15 Francs
00:15:51    Drove for 2 hours to Red Cross center
00:16:48    MP Headquarters
00:17:22    Workhouse
00:18:44    Saw enough of Paris to make it worthwhile
00:19:09    Armistice Day WW I
00:19:28    Field Kitchen
00:19:43    Burned beans and bread for Thanksgiving dinner
00:20:10    Emergency rations gone
00:20:27    Turnips
00:21:16    WW I ended in the Argonne Forest
00:21:39    Bombs dropped on troops from airplanes
00:22:09    Marking time
00:22:21    Patrol
00:22:33    Mauser pistol
00:22:44    Log house
00:23:11    Heard planes overhead
00:23:25    Dozens of shells
00:23:27    Scouting trails
00:24:08    Killed 2 of best friends
00:24:22    10 killed and 20 injured
00:24:47    Boedner and Holman were his friends
00:25:07    November 1, 1918
00:25:36    Stolen buildings
00:25:54    Everything stopped at 11 AM 11/11/1918
00:26:39    2 PM Armistice Day
00:26:51    Walk down the road
00:27:55    Machine gun
00:27:49    German officer waving map like a white flag
00:28:04    Wine and feast
00:28:15    Piano player
00:28:33    Germans left by 4 PM
00:28:52    Ralph – battalion of French soldiers
00:29:07    Coldest night ever
00:29:09    Sleeting and snowing
00:29:35    Wet packs, no food
00:29:45    Dark
00:30:06    Stalls – flattened like logs
00:30:27    Hot cakes and sorghum molasses and coffee
00:30:45    Schoenville 5 km west