Grayson County TXGenWeb

Denison Herald
July 25, 1972
AREA SETTLED LONG BEFORE BELLS STARTED
BELLS - The first settler in this historic city arrived a year before Texas gained its independence from Mexico.

Daniel Dugan, descendants of whom still make their home here, arrived in 1835. He was followed by Samuel Washburn a year later and by the Rene Allred and McPhail families in 1837.

Although the Bells area was inhabited early, a long history preceded its incorporation April 23, 1883.

The growth of the community was hampered by the four long years of the Civil War. The Texas & Pacific Railroad came through in 1872. In 1877 the Katy Railroad started from Denison towards Bells, and a Dr. Bailey purchased all the land around the present North Bells area and founded a town he called Bailey Junction.

The physician laid out streets and donated land for the cemetery known as North Cemetery.

An influx of railroad workers sent the population zooming as 400 to 500 people moved into the community. Within a year Bailey Junction had a post office, nine stores, a mill and a cotton gin. Except for two small buildings named by W. P. Dugan, all of the town was located north of the present T&P Railroad tracks.

FIRST MERCHANTS
The first merchants were J. T. Rosenstein, general merchandise; Hagan and Tone, groceries and drugs; W. T. Glass, dry goods, and a drug store run by Dr. Bailey.

The business street extended east and west at the north end of what is now Main Street. The town had a school known as Cornelison and Miss Jennie Lanham was the first teacher. However, the building was so tiny, many of the classes were taught in vacant buildings.

In 1878 a new school was constructed on the northwest part of the town known as Gospel Ridge. Miss Lanham continued as the teacher and added in the next few years, two or three assistants.

An Irish woman by the name of Mrs. O'Toole came to the town and built the first hotel. She was one of the real legendary characters of the early town. W. T. Glass published the first newspaper in Bells.

By 1878, Hagan and Tone decided to move the site of their store and they shifted to a spot about 200 yards south of the T&P tracks. Other merchants followed and in two years, most of the town was located south of the railroad in what was known as Duganville.

TWO BUILDINGS
In 1877 W. P. Dugan erected a home and constructed a cotton gin in the south part of the town and these were the only buildings at that time. Dugan was a grandson of one of the early settlers of Grayson County. He was a public spirited man and his name is intimately connected with the early history of both Bells and Grayson County.

With Bailey Junction and Duganville citizens getting their mail mixed up, it soon became apparent that one or the other or an entirely new name had to be given to the community. The people finally agreed on Bellplain. However, within four months the post office informed citizens that another community had beaten them to the name and, after a lengthly correspondence with postal officials in Washington, the name of Bells was agreed upon. Today, residents still refer to North Bells, which was Bailey Junction, and South Bells which was Duganville.

FIRST CHURCH
The Methodist Church was organized soon after the town was founded. A church building was located in the northwest Bells about 1889 and a Rev. N. J. Miller was one of the first pastors. He was the grandfather of Mrs. Leta McElliott of Bells, who later served as postmaster for many years. The church moved to its present location in South Bells in 1889. Its building was destroyed by fire that ignited when the pastor, Rev. S. Baxton Bryant, was burning the grass on the vacant lot.

However, Rev. Bryant led the Methodist in a million-dollar campaign that helped pay for a handsome new building and gave the church and the town of Bells wide fame.

The First Baptist Church was organized as Bellplain Baptist Church in 1879. Its first sanctuary was in northwest Bells. It later moved to its present location.

The Church of Christ was founded here in the 1890s but services were discontinued in 1910 and the site sold for a cotton gin that ultimately was built in 1926.

Historic Virginia Point Methodist Church, the oldest continually used Methodist Church in Texas, celebrated its 137 birthday in July 1971. The church, located five miles northeast of Bells, was founded in 1834.

The Hebron Baptist Church, four miles northeast of here, observed its 100th birthday Oct. 11, 1971. The church was organized in 1870, one-half mile northwest of the present location.

The third oldest Baptist Church in Texas, Antioch Baptist Church, west of Bells was founded in 1861.

In 1880 Bells had a population of 500. It had two general merchandise stores, a barber shop, a variety store, a newspaper, a leather shop where boots and shoes were made by the talented hands of W. F. Lewis.

SALOONS, CHURCHES
There were two saloons, one grist mill, one school, three churches, two blacksmith shops, three fraternal organizations, a lumber yard, furniture store, undertaker, livery stable and three hotels. The town had four doctors, one dentist and a lawyer.

For a small town, Bells had the distinction of having two of the finest teachers in the Southwest at the turn of the century. They were a Mr. King and a Mr. Gillespie, who came here in 1880. Gillespie was a graduate of Christ College in Dublin, Ireland, coming to America as a young man.

In 1887 more than 400 students attended the school, many coming from other towns and taking boarding and lodging in Bells at a cost ranging from $8 to $10 monthly.

Mrs. Annie Gillespie was the first music teacher in Bells and she taught her first student in 1889. J. N. Ferguson came to Bells in 1889 and established a general merchandise store. He became successful and turned to land, becoming an extensive landowner both here and in West Texas.

HOSPITAL BUILT
In 1882 Dr. Puckett and Dr. Briggs built a three-story hospital on the block now occupied by the public schools. However, the hospital lasted only three years and was ultimately taken over as a public school and enlarged before finally being razed to make way for existing buildings.

The City of Bells was incorporated in 1883 and J. T. Smith was the first mayor. Jack Ferguson was city marshal, J. Gillespie, secretary. Aldermen were J. A. Lindsey, B. F. Odell, S. E. Neal, J. Rosenstein and J. Gillespie.

When Main Street - now Broadway - was open in 1887, a Mr. Quinn had a store located in the middle of the street. He operated it there for a number of months before finally moving.

Ben Sanders was the first postmaster and was succeeded by T. J. Scott. J. N. Ferguson was the owner of the first brick building.

The Alliance store, owned by members of the Farmers Alliance Order, began business in 1891. They operated successfully. Other merchants at this time were D. B. Mitchell, Noel and Will Burton, H. Witcher and Claud Badgett.

The first bank in Bells was the Farmers & Merchants Bank, privately owned by S. D. Simpson. The First National Bank, which still is in operation, received its charter Dec. 24, 1904, two years after the F&M Bank was founded.

HORSE & SADDLE
W. B. Blanton was the first president of the bank.

Today 137 years after the first settlers, Bells still is growing. It has a population nearing 1,000 people. It claims to be the "Crossroads of Friendliness" with an east-west U.S.82intersecting with a north-south U.S.69 highway.

The Dugans, now forth generation deep, still are as integrate part of the life of this town. After all, if the original W. P. Dugan had not had an extra horse and saddle to swap to a man who wanted to go back home to Kentucky, he wouldn't have acquired the land where Bells sits today.

During the past quarter of a century, Bells has shown some growth, which is remarkable in an era where small towns are drying up.

At the close of World War II, Bells elected a dynamic mayor in J. E. (Happy) Dopson. He carried on personal vendettas with the state highway department over the low Katy underpass on U. S. 82. He actually blocked the underpass forcing trucks to detour through Whitewright, the east and north back to Bonham.

Finally the state gave in. And during the construction of the present wide, high underpass, the mayor allowed the truck and highway traffic to detour around Bells - but only after the state had paved the mile of city streets with heavy-duty paving to support the trucks.

Dopson got Bells its first low-rent housing and kept pace with other federal projects as he used the full muscle of his office to give the small Grayson town its share.

A new bank was built in Bells, replacing the ancient red brick building. And, it too, was unique in that tellers operate a desk like bank officers, rather than at stand-up teller cages.

Schools and churches have flourished and today, Bells continues to show a gain in population as it works to become an area "bedroom town"to the industries at Denison, Sherman and Bonham, where it is equadistance from all three.