69816097 http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz1qzx revised SNAC: Social Networks and Archival Context English revised 2015-09-17 machine CPF merge program Merge v2.0 revised 2016-08-18T13:09:59 machine SNAC EAC-CPF Parser Bulk ingest into SNAC Database revised 2016-08-18T13:09:59 human System Service (system@localhost) created 2026-05-27 machine SNAC EAC-CPF Serializer SNAC Identity Constellation serialized to EAC-CPF person Bell, Frank S., b. 1873. presumed 1873 Laundries Tobacco Tobacco farms Dawson (Yukon) Yakima (Wash.) Clinton (Iowa) Omaha (Neb.) Massachusetts Washington (State) Hadley (Mass.) Seattle (Wash.) Alaska Tobacco farmers

Frank S. Bell was the son of Sarah A. Wilder Bell and Samuel R. Bell, a tobacco farmer in Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1890 he went West, first to Clinton, Iowa, then to Omaha, Nebraska, and then to Seattle, Washington by 1892. He returned East for five years, living in Hadley, and in Brooklyn, New York in 1895, but in 1898 he went back to the Northwest. After spending a year in Alaska and the Yukon in 1900-1901, followed by a shorter stint there the summer of 1903, he settled in Seattle. In 1904 he married Lora Parkhurst, and between 1905 and 1913 they had three sons: Charles, Frank, and James. Despite hopes that his parents and sister Bess, who had married Clarence Hawkes in 1900, would join him in Washington, Frank and Lora Bell may have sold their home in Seattle and moved to Hadley, Massachusetts in 1913.

From the description of Frank S. Bell collection, 1890-1926. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702162978 Bell, Lora Parkhurst. Bell, Samuel R. Bell, Sarah A. Wilder. Hawkes, Bess Bell. Hawkes, Clarence, 1869-1954. Hopkins Academy (Hadley, Mass.) Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910. Klotz, Charles O. Bell, Frank S., b. 1873. Frank S. Bell collection, 1890-1926. Bell, Frank S., b. 1873. Frank S. Bell collection, 1890-1926. 1.25 linear ft. (3 boxes) + 1 broadside folder. The collection consists almost entirely of correspondence, primarily from Frank S. Bell, and later his wife Lora, to his parents and sister between 1890 and 1913, but also including letters from each of them to him, 1890-1895, and letters from other relatives, business associates, and friends. Also included are letters to his mother Sarah A. Bell and his sister Bess Bell Hawkes from various correspondents, and two to Bess's husband Clarence Hawkes, one of them a short letter from the poet Julia Ward Howe. Other papers include receipts, clippings and ephemera, a small notebook, and 1926 Time magazine article about John Hays Hammond. One of the newspaper clippings is an extensive history of Hopkins Academy in Hadley. Frank Bell's letters home document his struggle to earn a living in the West over a twenty-three year period beginning when he was seventeen, his courtship and marriage, and the growth of his young family. He worked most often for tobacconists, either in retail or wholesale distribution, but also briefly tried growing tobacco in Washington. Other work included a job with a lime and cement wholesaler in South Omaha, a job on a fruit farm in Washington, and work as a bookkeeper. In Dawson, N.W.T., he owned and operated a laundry, among other jobs there and in Alaska, and later worked nights in a laundry in Seattle. The letters to Frank Bell from his parents and sister concern their daily lives in Hadley and the tobacco farm; their own financial struggles are reflected in Frank's letters to them ca. 1906-1913. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library