Born in
Albany, New York, Bell attended public schools. He moved to California in 1877 and settled in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, where he engaged in fruit growing and the real estate business. Bell was member of the
Pasadena Republican Club. Moreover, he also served as a
county clerk of
Los Angeles County from 1899 to 1903.
State Senate He was also a member of the state Senate from 1907 to 1913. It was said that he was an independent man, not subject to partisanship, which led to the formation of the Lincoln Roosevelt republican league, and a big defeat for the partisans. and authored a bill that abolished racetrack gambling and caused the banishment of horse racing.
Congress Bell was elected as a Progressive Republican to the
Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1915). The three way contest showed him getting 22,951 votes, while opponent Thomas H. Kirk (Democrat) received 11,703, and Ralph L. Criswell (Socialist) received 9,192. He pledged to work for the protective tariff for citrus fruits and sugar beets. However, he lost his re-election campaign to
Charles Hiram Randall of the
Prohibition Party. Bell ran unsuccessfully a second time against Randall as an independent in 1916.
Later career After the end of his political services, Bell resumed his former business pursuits in
Pasadena, California and became secretary of the Pasadena Mercantile Finance Corporation. == Personal life ==