Born in Indiana, reared in Ohio and Pennsylvania until he was seventeen years of age, then living on Kansas until 1887, when he became a pioneer of Wyoming. George A. Bell, of near Bonanza, Bighorn County, has seen human life in many places and has been in contact with the institutions peculiar to several states. His parents were Charles and Catherine Bell, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Germany. When he reached the age of seventeen, turning his back on every local tie he determined to make his own way in the world and sought the undeveloped West as the field of the operation. He reached Garnett, Kansas where he remained for a short time. From there he went to Colorado, and in 1887, came to Wyoming and settling in Johnson County, engaged in the lumber business. In 1891 he located his present ranch and has occupied it ever since. It represents the fruition of his hopes in an industrial way, being the product of his toil and taste in the way of improvement and present comfort, fertility and equipment. Virgin soil when he took possession, on which the hand of systematic labor had never been employed, it stands forth now a tribute to his enterprise and skill, his progressiveness and public spirit, being a model to the neighborhood, one of the most attractive and desirable homes in his section of the county. It comprises 320 acres of excellent land, much of it under cultivation, and he has on it 250 fine cattle. In addition to his ranch and cattle interests he owns valuable coal land which is now being developed and shows promise of great results. Everything he touches receives and accelerated forward motion, and this industry will not be an exception to the rule. On the contrary he has his other interests so well in hand and his various fields of labor so systematized, that he is able to give to the development of his mines more earnest and active attention than heretofore, and to thus secure a more active production of their hidden stores of wealth and at the same time build up increased industries in their neighborhood. Mr. Bell was married at Tensleep, in this county, in 1897 to Miss Blanche Lockhart a native of Iowa. They have one child, their daughter, Irene. In every line of commercial industrial educational and social progress, Mr. Bell is present with sympathy, encouragement and where it is possible with substantial aid. He has prospered in this country and has helped to build it into its present state of progress and development. It is now his permanent home and in a measure the product of his influence and efforts. He therefore has an abiding interest in its welfare and is earnest and constant in showing that interest in practical ways of value. To such citizenship as his the great Northwest owes it rapid and enduring progress.
