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History · Bell City

Bell City’s post office opened in 1890, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940

1890first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Bell City began

When was Bell City founded?

1890

The Bell City post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 464136 years
Founding year: the first Bell City post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bell City’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Bell City are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bell City’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bell City’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bell City came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bell City.

Read it all →

A post office called Bell City has been in operation since 1890. The community was named after brothers Gesper Albert and Ralford Stephen Bell, proprietors of a local sawmill. Bell City was situated along the St. Louis Southwestern Railway.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bell City, 1890 to 1997

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1890Post officeThe Bell City post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1913Born hereDave Barham is born here
  5. 1997Post officeThe Bell City post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Bell City had its own post office from 1890 to 1997.

Bell City
1890–1997
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Bell City’s history

What year was Bell City founded?

The Bell City post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.