Frank S. Bell collection, 1890-1926.

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Frank S. Bell collection, 1890-1926.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/702162978

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.

1.25 linear ft. (3 boxes) + 1 broadside folder.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8021504

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Related Entities

There are 9 Entities related to this resource.

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b95zmk (person)

Julia Ward Howe, née Julia Ward, (born May 27, 1819, New York, New York, U.S.—died October 17, 1910, Newport, Rhode Island), American author and lecturer best known for her “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Julia Ward came of a well-to-do family and was educated privately. In 1843 she married educator Samuel Gridley Howe and took up residence in Boston. Always of a literary bent, she published her first volume of poetry, Passion Flowers, in 1854; this and subsequent works—including a poetry collec...

Bell, Sarah A. Wilder.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c84nk0 (person)

Hopkins Academy (Hadley, Mass.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63j8gzn (corporateBody)

Bell, Lora Parkhurst.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dj7tq2 (person)

Bell, Samuel R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6002d0j (person)

Bell, Frank S., b. 1873.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz1qzx (person)

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 h...

Klotz, Charles O.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tm9nhg (person)

Hawkes, Clarence, 1869-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62f9np5 (person)

Hawkes, Bess Bell.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pv8xmx (person)