Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BELL, John
BELL, John. (Yorkshire, England, 1818-Dubuque, IA, July, 1895). Merchant. Bell settled in Dubuque in 1834 and spent his first winter MINING. He moved to Mansfield, Ohio, but returned to Dubuque in 1837 and operated a ZINC smelter.
Bell became an operator of a general retail mercantile store in the early 1840s. His wholesale and retail dry goods business, known as John Bell and Company, owned the building into which the city's first TOWN CLOCK collapsed on May 25,1872. The firm was later known as Bell, Ryder, Wallis Company.
In 1887 Bell sold his interest in the company and retired. He served as a director of the Second National Bank and president of the GERMAN BANK.