 October
21, 1921
On the back of the snapshot it says,
"where Joe asked Bell to marry him in Harrison, Arkansas 1889. This
picture taken October 1921.
The family there is Harrison remembered
this visit. They spoke of Joe as being a "dapper" little man,
small in stature.
Bell's remaining aged nieces remember her
as being different from her sisters. Others remember her as being harder
than nails. Some say, "she was something! She sure was
something." Bell loved poetry and this was probably the only
recreation she had. She didn't like "churchy women." The result
of this was she had few friends in the little towns where they lived. Many
social events revolved around the church house. She was a strong Christian
and she did attend church regularly in her youth. One story was told over
and over about how she had painted a hat with shoe polish to match her
outfit, only to be caught in the rain and have it run down her face in
little riverlets.
She read her Bible so much that it now,
falls open too easily to places where her favorite verses were. One verse
being, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free." There are pressed flowers on different places in her old
Bible. Jewel Wagner, her niece commented, "probably from
funerals."
Bell probably made this entire outfit, even
to the beads she has strung at her neck. Her feet were very tiny and
narrow. The day she died they were setting at the edge of her bed. The
observation was that even a nine-year-old child could not have been able
to put them on.
Nancy Bellzona Collins Jones on the right with
dark hair. Her sister, Aletha Artemis Collins, Mrs. Nathaniel Hobson on
the left. This would have been taken around the time Bell lived at Ralston
before 1920 when they moved to the ranch out of Foraker, Oklahoma. |
