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Our family history

My work experience started at the young age of 5, when you could find me pedaling my John Deere Tractor with trailer in the display yard of my parents monument business. Sticking out of the trailer were short pieces of air hose and
a pair of old. goggles. I would pretend to cemetery letter on the monuments in the display area. People driving by certainly wondered what was going on! I also learned my first color of granite at the ripe age of five. The color that I could recognize in any cemetery was Rainbow.

During my junior and senior high years, I worked in various departments in our shop, as we were producing 400 VA markers a month. Through this experience, I learned a lot about the ability to' produce stone at a rapid rate.I have worked in all departments of our firm, including sawing, polishing, rock pitching, sandblasting, shape carving, layouts, stencil cutting (both hand and computer), setting and sales.

I started working full time for my father in 1968. There were four family members employed by Bell Memorials. In 1979 my brother and 1 bought the business from our parents.

It is hard for me to write about the achievements of our business. We have gone from the 60's when I worked part time and we had the government contract with many employees to relinquishing our contract in 1970 so we could commit more time to the sale and production of a retail monument. Our work force was cut back to four people (all family). In the 70's we experimented with flat carving verses shape carving, single process verses double process. It became a policy of Bell Memorials to use no "short cuts". This policy is still in effect today.

Achievements at Bell Memorials have been mind boggling. In 1955, my father purchased one of the first wire saws in the world. In 1985 my brother and I purchased one of the first design stations and stencil cutting machines to be used in the monument business. Working directly with the manufacturer of the automated stencil cutter, Bell Memorials became the sole distributor to monument builders in the United States for Gerber Scientific Products.

In 1990, I purchased Bell Memorials from my brother and my wife, Ruth, joined me in managing our business. John kept the computer sales part of the business and Ruth and I became sole owners of Bell Memorials. We have increased in sales and size. We now have 21 full time workers, two sales managers and two branch offices.

The roots of our firm go back five generations, with my great-great grandfather working on building stone in Illinois and Missouri. My great grandfather, James Russell Bell (who I am named after), was a monument builder in Kansas and the Oklahoma Territory (before it became a state). He was definitely considered to be a "shade tree" memorialist, as he would ship stone to location and carve and letter it on location. Clarence Bell, my grandfather, was in Ferdonia, KS, which is located in southern Kansas.

After his death, my Uncle Bill took over the business and my dad, John Bell, Sr., went to work for Roosevelt Granite in Snyder, OK. as their designer. Dad later took a job at Beloit, KS. as their designer and carver. A few years later he married the secretary, Marcella, my mother. They were able to purchase the monument company in 1946.

The traditions of Bell Memorials were started.