Published in Talent News and Review September 2012
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| "Bell House" sign is visible and family in front includes Amanda (second from right) and Thomas Jefferson Bell on the left. Note the water tower in the background that is long gone |
The
Bell
by Jan Wright
The
dwelling that stands in the midst of commercial buildings next to
TARKS' (now Ray's) parking lot in the downtown area was probably built about 1897
by the Hanscom family. It is known as “The Bell House” or simply
“The Bell” after Thomas Jefferson Bell and his wife, Amanda, who
purchased it in 1907. The Bell family operated a boarding house and
restaurant where Amanda did the cooking and cleaning and her husband,
“Jeff” was the baker, making bread and sweets for the boarders.
Single orchard and farm workers who boarded there found the house
welcoming, comfortable, and located close to work. Anyone could stop
by the restaurant and get a hardy meal for dinner or supper. In the Jim
Briner diaries, oyster soup and pies were the only entrees mentioned
by name from the menu at the Bell.
Thomas
Jefferson Bell was from Missouri coming to Oregon by wagon train
after the Civil War. He and his family lived on a homestead north of
Suncrest Orchard across Bear Creek before moving into town. Bell wore
a beard which was frequently stained with tobacco juice. He liked to
show off his surgically-removed appendix which he had on display in a
jar.
Amanda
was Bell’s second wife. She had been tried as an
accomplice to the murder of her former husband, Lewis McDaniel, but
was acquitted. The man found guilty of the deed, Lewis O’Neil, was
the last person to be executed by hanging in Jackson County. Amanda’s
sweet face did not reveal the mystery behind her involvement and her
relationship with O’Neil. In a 1924 interview with historian Fred
Lockley, she said her name had been McDonald instead of McDaniel.
Her obituary did not mention McDaniel or anything about her close
call with the law. It is doubtful that the boarders or restaurant
goers in Talent knew of her past as she served their meals and made
their beds each day. Bell family tradition says that Jeff Bell was
on the jury that acquitted her, though public records do not
substantiate that as a fact.
The
Bell continued to operate as a boarding house and restaurant until
about 1916. The house was sold to Thomas and Cora Lamb in 1927 and
was passed on “with love and affection”to their daughter, Katie
Lamb Estes. Mrs. Estes lived in the house until the 1970s. Since that
time it has been remodeled and partially restored to it's original
integrity by the current owners. Some of the surrounding grounds have
been lost to the commercial building on the right and by Tarks
parking lot on the left but the essential design of the house remains
as do the old grape vines on the side.
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| Bert and Bessie Bell at the Bell house in Talent. Notice the bay window and the side door on the porch. The bay window was taken out at some point and restored by the current owners. The other thing that interests me about this photo is how truly rural and uninhabited the background looks! Another thing is the tiny waist of Bessie Bell. |
