Person

Joshua Fry Bell (Boyle Co., KY, attorney & politician)

b. 1811-11-26 d. 1870-08-17

Boyle County, Kentucky, attorney and politician. Danville, Kentucky, native. Married to Mary M. Bell. Father of Mary Bell, Francis J. Bell, Thomas Bell, and Martha Bell. Graduated from Centre College in Danville in 1828. Member of the United States House of Representatives from the 4th Congressional District of Kentucky from 1845 to 1847. Member of the Whig Party. Attorney in Boyle County in 1850. Owned four enslaved persons in Boyle County in 1850. Appointed secretary of state of the Commonwealth of Kentucky by John J. Crittenden in 1850. Owned fourteen enslaved persons in Boyle County in 1860. Delegate from Kentucky to the Washington Peace Conference in 1861. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Boyle County from 1862 to 1867.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, District No. 2, p. 362B.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, District 2, p. 596.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, p. 845-46.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, p. 155A.

Report of the Kentucky Commissioners to the Late Peace Conference Held at Washington City, Made to the Legislature of Kentucky (Frankfort: Jno. B. Major, State Printer, 1861).

Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky, vol. 2 (Covington, Ky.: Collins & Co., 1882), 85.

Z. F. Smith, The History of Kentucky (Centennial Edition) (Louisville: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1892), 596.

Citation

Bell, Joshua Fry. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32206198 (January 20, 2026).

The people, organizations, and places listed below appear in the same documents as Joshua Fry Bell (Boyle Co., KY, attorney & politician). They are sorted by the number of documents they share.

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