Overview

Many new American settlers were seeking freedom, independence, and a piece of land to call their own. In 1791, just one year after Washington, D.C. was founded, George and Mary McCracken Bell and their children emigrated from the Banbridge area of County Down, in what is now Northern Ireland. Less than a year later, George purchased 200 acres of land on a ridge above Valley Grove in Ohio County, Virginia for £74. The beautiful hills of Ohio County resembled the green hills of home in Ulster. This strong Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneer family cleared the land, built their homestead, and began farming. By 1870, they were producing wheat, corn, oats, barley, potatoes, butter, hay, honey, and wool and had more than 200 sheep and various other livestock. The original property remained in the hands of the Bell family for four generations until 1909. Today it is mostly covered by forest, and the last house built on the property has been demolished. A natural gas pipeline goes through the property now. Descendants of George Bell still live in Ohio County. One of them, Carol J. Bell, has researched her family since 1977 and has written this genealogy, The Bells of Ohio County, West Virginia - Home to Seven Generations: Descendants of James Bell. With photos, maps, charts. Indexed.

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CAROL J. BELL is a graduate of West Virginia University. She retired after a long career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Her career was in science, but her passion has always been genealogy and family history. Carol is a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) and a recipient of the state-level West Virginia History Hero award. She lives in Wheeling, West Virginia.

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