Bell, Victor B.

Died: 1867-09-15 New Orleans, Louisiana

Flourished:

Victor B. Bell was a prominent attorney, landowner, newspaper publisher, and Illinois state legislator from Wabash County, Illinois. From 1848 to 1852, Victor and his brother Robert were proprietors and publishers of the Mount Carmel Register. In 1853, Victor began purchasing large tracts of public land, amassing approximately 645 acres in Lawrence, Pope, and Wabash counties. From 1853 to 1854, he represented Wabash County in the Illinois House of Representatives. Bell practiced law in Mount Carmel from 1848 to 1855, when he moved to Chicago and formed a partnership with Thomas E. G. Ransom. Bell moved subsequently to Washington, DC and the Colorado Territory, where he was living in 1861 when President Abraham Lincoln endorsed him to Secretary of War Simon Cameron for a job either as an assistant quartermaster or commissary of subsistence of volunteers. Bell later practiced law in New Orleans. He never married.

Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, Illinois (Philadelphia: J. L. McDonough, 1883), 125, 132, 135, 136, 247; Chicago City Directory Supplement, May 1856 (Chicago: Robert Fergus, 1856), 5; King V. Hostick, "Lincoln Seeks Patronage for Illinois Whigs: A New Letter," Lincoln Herald 71 (Winter 1969), 144; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 218; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Pope County, 105:156; Lawrence County, 291:243, 819:190; Wabash County, 105:155, 112:7, 296:259, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL.