Mary Eveline McKenzie Bell

Mary Eveline McKenzie Bell. (October 16, 1799 - May 30, 1856). , Born in North Carolina to Andrew and Elizabeth (Stevenson) McKenzie, Mary Eveline McKenzie met her future husband, Josiah Hughes Bell, while visiting her aunt and uncle in Christian County, Kentucky, where her family helped found Little River Presbyterian Church. Mary was educated morally and academically by a Presbyterian minister. When she met Josiah, he had sold his Missouri mercantile business and was traveling to Tennessee to visit his mother. Josiah returned to Kentucky to wed Mary in 1818 and they immediately left for a new business venture in Natchitoches, Louisiana. When Mary and Josiah crossed the Sabine River into Texas on April 22, 1821, it was said that Presbyterianism came to Texas., The Bells were among Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" families and by Christmas 1824 moved into a home near Bell's Landing, an important port on the Brazos River. Besides raising their children, Mary opened her home to many people. Her generosity and strength were remarked upon by such notable Texans as Thomas J. Pilgrim ("Mrs. Bell was one of the noblest women I ever knew in any country ... her house was a welcome home to every stranger, where the hungry were fed, the naked clad, the sick nursed"), Andrew Phelps McCormick "Her brilliant gifts and graces, her high executive force and sweet motherly care") and Guy M. Bryan ("A purer, nobler-minded woman never breather the air"). When Columbia was capital of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston was a guest in the Bell home. In 1840, Mary hired Rev. W. Y. Allen to pastor the Columbia church (later Bethel Presbyterian Church in West Columbia). Mary and Josiah had eight children, five of whom preceded her in death. Her son, James Hall Bell, was educated at Harvard and was elected to the Texas Supreme Court. Mary was thrown from her carriage and died at the age of fifty-six. She is buried on land that the Bell family deeded to the cemetery.