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 War II; General Patton and Occupation of Berlin, Germany. See letter in Fannie (Wingfield) Stephens’s Oral History Folder.
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