The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 51
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Peter Hansborough Bell.
Indian War; Captain William, killed in the Revolution; Captain
David, who did good service in the War of 18122; and a lieutenant
in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Four of this family, C. H.,
James, John, and Samuel, were United States senators. Ten were
in the United States Congress, and one served fourteen years.
Two were rear-admirals in the United States navy, and four were
State supreme judges.
Governor Bell was reared in Culpeper county, Virginia. When
he heard of Texans fighting for their liberty in 1836, at the age
of twenty-six he left his native State, and in March of that year
reached Velasco, from which place he proceeded on foot to the
Brazos. There he enlisted as a private soldier under Gen. Sam
Houston. He fought bravely at San Jacinto, and won not only
admiration from his comrades, but praise from General Hous-
ton as well.
Having been inspector-general of the Texas army and a true and
tried ranger, when the Mexican War broke out, Mr. Bell was made
lieutenant-colonel of the Second Texas regiment, of which Jack
Hays was colonel. The captains of this regiment were M. T. John-
son, S. P. Ross (father of the late Governor Ross), Samuel High-
smith, J. S. Gillett, H. W. Baylor, Jacob Roberts, G. M. Arm-
strong, Isaac Ferguson, E. M. Daggett, and A. E. Handley.
In 1849 Mr. Bell was elected Governor of Texas, and in 1851 he
was re-elected. In 1853 he became United States congressman
from the Western District of Texas, and in 1855 he entered upon
his second term in that office.
In 1857 Governor Bell married Miss Ella Eaton of North Caro-
lina, and moved to Littleton in that State. Here he lived until the
Civil War broke out, when he raised a regiment and equipped it
out of his own funds, he being what was then considered wealthy.
He was made colonel of his regiment, which did valiant service for
the Confederacy. Before the war he was the owner of over five
hundred slaves and lived in lordly style. All was taken from him
and destroyed except the bare land; and the Twenty-second Legis-
lature of Texas, having learned the fact, in 1891 voted him a dona-
2One of his sons, "Uncle Jim," married the writer's Aunt Sallie, who
gave six brave boys to Company C of the Fifth Virginia, one of Stonewall
Jackson's crack regiments.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/59/: accessed June 25, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.