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Families
412 S. Pecan, Bells, restoration, 2004
Bells History, 1835 In 1835, Daniel Dugan, wife & 8 Children, from Missouri, were the first settlers to come to the Bells area. From Honey Grove & Bonham, in search of water supply, Daniel sighted a herd of mustang ponies and trailed them to a spring of good water north of the present Bells.
In these times, life was uncertain due to repeated
In 1841 Daniel’s second son & a friend were murdered by Indians. Not long afterwards, the daughter of Daniel, Emily Dugan, shot and killed an Indian. The men had taken their dogs to the woods to hunt, leaving the women alone. Emily heard a wild turkey call and knew Indians use calls as signals. She looked out the porthole & saw the Indian & shot him with her father’s rifle. She waited and no other Indians appeared, so she dragged the dead Indian to the woodpile & cut his head off with an broadaxe. She then stuck the head on a stick and placed it on the gatepost as a warning to other Indians. The skull was later used as a part for the wagon wheel. The Dugans acquired 720 acres (including the present site of Bells) in exchange for a horse & saddle from a man who wanted to return to Kentucky. The Republic of Texas granted 640 acres of land to Daniel Dugan upon it’s Declaration of Independence from Mexico.
Daniel Dugan was followed to Texas, in 1836-7, by Samuel Washburn ,
The first roads through Grayson County followed the old Indian and game trails and were little more than paths themselves. With the arrival of the Texas Pacific Railroad in 1872, the population soared to 400 people. They had a post office, cotton gin, mill and nine stores. The first merchants were J.T, Rosenstein, W. T. Glass, newspaper, Hagan and Tong, dry goods. Dr Bailey dispensed drugs. The business streets extended East and West (or present day, McFarland Street) at the North end of Broadway Street.
By 1880, the business establishments included two blacksmiths, a lumber yard, furniture store, undertaker, livery stable, three hotels, a newspaper, three saloons, four doctors, an dentist, and a lawyer. A three-story hospital was built in 1882 by Doctors Puckett & Briggs. The hospital closed three years later , and an addition was made to the building & it was used as the Gospel Ridge School until 1907. Miss Jennie Lanham was the first teacher. Mrs. Annie Gillespie was the town’s first music teacher. BELLS as we know it, was called Bailey Junction & Gospel Ridge, to the North, and Duganville to the South, also other names were Bellplain & Bellvue. The post office department in Washington, decided on the Present day name of BELLS, in recognition of the many church bells. The City of Bells was incorporated in 1883 with J. T. Smith as mayor and Jack Ferguson as marshal. The Methodist Church was established in 1880 on the North side of town & moved to South Bells in 1889 The Baptists organized in 1880 |
