Bell County, Texas Genealogical Records Information

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Bell County History and Information

Bell County Facts

Bell County was created in 1850 and formed from Milam County. Bell County was named for Peter Hansborough Bell, the third governor of Texas. The County Seat is Belton. The Official County website is located at http://www.bellcountytx.com/. Ben Lee built this 1885 Bell County courthouse of native limestone in Renaissance Revival style at a cost of about $65,000. The architect was J.N. Preston & Sons.

Historical Marker Text: Three Bell County courthouses have stood on this site--part of the 120 acres given by Matilda F. Connell Allen for the location of the county seat. Prior to erection of a courthouse, early official business of the county (created and organized, 1850) was handled in blacksmith shop of John Danley, the first chief justice. His anvil (in one of the three original buildings in Belton) was the council table. First courthouse was a one-story (16' x 18') frame building erected by contractor Thomas T. Havens in 1851, at cost of $199, financed by sale of city lots. On April 1, 1858, the commissioners contracted for a two-story (50' x 60') native limestone building with intersecting main halls, fireplaces on each floor, double doors and other fine details. Cost ($13,625) was so resented that none of the commissioners were re-elected. Simeon Bramlet was the contractor. This building was in service from Dec. 1, 1859, until 1884. Cornerstone for third courthouse was laid on June 24, 1884; structure was completed by May 30, 1885. Ben D. Lee contracted to build it for $64.965. It has been improved at later dates. The county clerk's office was fireproofed in 1898. In 1950, there was extensive remodeling and modernizing. (1970)

Areas adjacent to Bell County are McLennan County (north), Falls County (northeast), Milam County (southeast), Williamson County (south), Burnet County (southwest), Lampasas County (west), Coryell County (northwest)

See also Extended History for more historical details.

Bell County, Texas History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

Bell County Court Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Bell County Clerk has Court Records from 1852 , Land Records from1850, Probate Records from 1850, Marriage Records from 1850 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at P.O. Box 480, Belton, TX 76513-0480; (254) 933-5174 .
The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include: Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997, Texas Deaths, 1964-98, Texas Marriage Collection, 1814-1909 & 1966-2002, and Texas Divorce Index, 1968-2002. You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which does cover Texas. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.

Click Here to Search Texas Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Bell County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Bell County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Bell County, Texas Court Books at Amazon.com
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Bell County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.

Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.

Below is a list of online resources for Bell County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Bell County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Bell County, Texas Tax Books at Amazon.com

Bell County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Texas Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Bell County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Bell County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

East Bell County Genealogical Society, 3219 Meadow Oaks Drive, c/o PO Box 75, Temple, TX 76503-0075
West Bell Genealogical Society, Killeen Public Library, 205 East Church Street, Killeen, Texas
Local Texas Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927
Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Genealogical Society, 2505 Beluche Drive, Galveston 77551
Texas Historical Commision
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Texas Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Bell County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Bell County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Bell County Tombstone Transcription Project.

During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.

Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.

Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).

Below is a list of online resources for Bell County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Bell County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Bell County, Texas Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Bell County, Texas Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Bell County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Bell County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

Search 60 Years Of Everton Data: For the first time ever you can get access to more than 150,000 pedigree files and family group sheets from Evertons. Learn More
Search the Family Tree DNA Project- Use DNA testing to break through your genealogical barriers!
Sites on USGenweb: [ Bell County ] [ Texas ] [ Main Page ]
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Texas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Family Genealogy Search
Bell County, Texas Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Bell County, in east central Texas, is located along the Balcones Escarpment approximately forty-five miles north of the Capitol in Austin and is bordered by Coryell, McLennan, and Falls counties on the north, on the east by Falls and Milam counties, on the south by Milam and Williamson counties, and on the west by Lampasas and Burnet counties. Belton, the third largest town in the county, serves as the county seat and is sixty-five miles north of Austin.

The area currently comprising Bell County has been the site of human habitation since at least 6000 b.c. Evidence of Archaic Period (ca. 7000 b.c.-a.d. 500) and possibly Paleo-Indian Period (pre-7000 b.c.) inhabitants has been recovered from archeological sites at the Stillhouse Hollow Site, Lake Belton, and Youngsport. Numerous campsites, kitchen middens and burial mounds from the late prehistoric era have been found along the watercourses of the county, and rockshelters for burials have been discovered in the western part of the county. The earliest known historical occupants of the county, the Tonkawas, were a flint-working, hunting people who followed the buffalo on foot. During the eighteenth century they made the transition to a horse culture and began to use firearms. Lipan Apaches, Wacos, Anadarkos, Kiowas, and Comanches also frequented the land that become Bell County. The Lipans camped by the rivers and streams, and early white settlers had friendly relations with them. Early settlers also recorded that the Indians fired the prairie each spring to burn off the matted winter grass and facilitate new growth. But by the late 1840s the Lipans, Tonkawas and other groups who had customarily camped and hunted in the Bell County area had been decimated by European diseases and driven away by white settlement. Comanche raiding parties continued to strike into the county until 1870.

While the Spanish had explored the Little River to the east in what would become Milam County and had established missions along the San Gabriel to the southeast in the eighteenth century, there is no evidence that they traversed the future Bell County area. Anglo settlement began in the 1830s, when the area was part of Robertson's colony and, somewhat later, part of old Milam County. The area was first settled in 1834 and 1835 by the families of Goldsby Childers, Robert Davidson, John Fulcher, Moses Griffin, John Needham, Michael Reed, William Taylor, and Orville T. Tyler, who settled as colonists along the Little River. The settlements were deserted during the Runaway Scrape, reoccupied, and then deserted again after the Indian attack on Fort Parker in June 1836. In their retreat from the fort several of the settlers were overtaken by Indians and killed. The area was reoccupied in the winter of 1836-37. In November 1836 George B. Erath established a fort on the Little River about a mile below the Three Forks, which has been variously known as Smith's Fort, the Block House, Fort Griffin, and Little River Fort. The settlements along the river were considerably troubled by marauding Indians. The more important engagements of 1837 were the Elm Creek Raid on January 7 and the Post Oak Massacre in June. Little River Fort was abandoned, and by 1838 all settlers had left the Bell County area. On May 26, 1839, the Bird's Creek Indian Fight, a bloody but indecisive skirmish between Texas Rangers and Comanches, took place about 1½ miles northwest of the site of present Temple.

Settlers began to return to the Bell County area after the peace treaties of 1843-44, and Indian raids into the county became less frequent. By the census of 1850, the population of what would shortly become Bell County was approximately 600 whites and sixty black slaves. Bell County was formed on January 22, 1850, and named for Peter H. Bell. The election held to organize the county took place in April at the "Charter Oak," near the center of the county at the military crossing on the Leon River. Nolan Springs was chosen as the county seat and named Nolanville. On December 16, 1851, the name was changed to Belton. In 1854 Coryell County was marked off from Bell County, and in 1856 the legislature attached a six-mile-wide strip of Falls County to Bell County. In 1860, when a resurvey of the line between Bell and Milam counties was made and recognized by the legislature, Bell County assumed its present boundaries.

The last serious Indian raid occurred in March 1859. The Independent Blues, a company of volunteer rangers led by John Henry Brown, was organized in the immediate aftermath of the raid to protect the frontier. This group functioned for about two months. It was succeeded by several other volunteer units that operated into the summer of 1860. Bell County had a population of 3,794 whites and 1.005 blacks in 1860. Most of the settlers had come to the county either from the older settled counties of lower and eastern Texas, or from the southern United States. The county was not really part of the plantation economy like the eastern part of antebellum Texas; two-thirds of the 179 slaveholders in 1860 owned seven or fewer slaves, and only four county residents owned twenty slaves or more. Belton, Aiken, and Salado, the only towns, were on a stage route running north from Austin. Salado College was established in 1859 and flourished in the second half of the nineteenth century. Early settlement in the county was along the creeks and rivers, but by 1860 most of the county land, some 462,884 acres, was divided into farms. A series of drought years in the mid-1850s hindered the development of farming in the area, and Bell County farmers still operated in a frontier economy on the eve of the Civil War. Due to the uncertain supply of water, much of the land in the county was considered worthless for anything but undeveloped pasture, and county residents raised large herds of cattle and sheep. The 42,037 cattle enumerated by the 1860 census was not equalled again until the 1950s. There were only 21,196 cleared acres in the county in 1860, and the large number of oxen in the county, 2,132, when compared to the relatively small number of mules, 646, indicates that many farmers were still doing the heavy work of breaking the land to the plough. Corn and wheat were the main crops, though cotton was introduced into the county along the Little River in the mid-1850s and 514 bales of cotton were harvested in 1860.

A significant minority of Bell County residents were Unionists during the secession crisis. A Whig newspaper, the Independent, was published in Belton, and, in the election of 1859, Bell County strongly supported Sam Houston. In 1861, however, the county voted 495 to 198 in favor of secession, and many of the former Unionists loyally supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. Out of a white population of some 4,000 at the beginning of the war, one source claims that more than 1,000 Bell County men served in Confederate or state military units. Companies organized in the county served in the First, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighteenth Texas Cavalry regiments, and the Sixth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Texas Infantry regiments. Bell County civilians established a variety of rural industries to provide shoes, saddles, and other goods for themselves and the forces. Unionist sentiment never entirely disappeared, however, and from 1862 to 1865 some Union sympathizers and Confederate deserters congregated in northern Bell County at what locals called "Camp Safety."

Reconstruction in Bell County was a troubled and violent period. Federal troops were quartered in Belton in 1865-66 to support Hiram Christian, newly appointed chief justice of the commissioners' court, but they were powerless to prevent a series of feuds between political factions that resulted in murders and lynchings. Horse and cattle thieves thrived in the unsettled conditions of the time and contributed to the anarchy that prevailed in the county. During the brief return to self-government under Governor James W. Throckmorton in 1866-67, Bell County sent X. B. Saunders to the Constitutional Convention of 1866, and a Belton mob helped to discredit Throckmorton's administration by lynching several pro-Union men who were being held prisoner for feud-related murders. Bell County whites chafed under the imposition of congressional Reconstruction in 1868, and a Ku Klux Klan-like organization was established in the county. Due to the small number of black voters in the county, Radical Republicans were dependent on military assistance for local control, and the election of December 1869 returned Bell County to Democratic party rule. The pattern of lawlessness continued into the mid-1870s; and the worst example of vigilante violence occurred on the evening of May 25, 1874, when a mob of men from Bell and other counties broke into the Belton jail and killed nine men, eight members of a gang of accused horse thieves and an accused murderer. One of the most interesting cultural movements of the period in Texas was the Belton Woman's Commonwealth, a celibate commune of "sanctificationists" that flourished in Belton from the 1870s through the 1890s.

Before the Civil War, African Americans had formed some 21 percent of the county population. The difficulties they faced in finding a niche in Bell County society in the postwar period can be glimpsed in an 1868 description of the county's blacks by a former Confederate officer: "The negroes behave as well as any one expected, though a large majority of them...are inclined to shift from place to place without having any settled employment." Most of the immigration to the county after the Civil War was white; the black population fell to 11 percent of the total in 1870 and fluctuated between 8 and 12 percent until the 1970s, when it increased to about 16 percent. As in other areas of Texas, blacks were relegated to segregated and inferior housing and educational facilities until the 1960s. Though racial violence was not as common in Bell County as it was in some areas of the state, there were at least two lynchings, in 1911 and 1915, and the Klan was revived in the county in the 1920s.

The Civil War and Reconstruction had a dramatic, if temporary, impact on the county economy. In 1870 the value of Bell County farms was only half of what it had been in 1860. Recovery was fairly rapid, aided by the growth of the cattle and sheep industries and, in the 1870s, by a dramatic expansion of cotton farming. From 1866 to the mid-1870s, stock raising was the chief county industry. One of the main feeder routes to the Chisholm Trail entered the county near Prairie Dell, extended through the center of Salado and the eastern edge of Belton, and left the county in the direction of Waco. Many cattle drives passed through or originated in the county from the 1860s to the early 1880s. Cattle raising, after declining somewhat in importance in the early twentieth century, was again a major part of the county agricultural economy by 1950, and in 1969 ranchers owned a record 56,101 cattle. Sheep and goat raising also followed a similar pattern in the county. The number of sheep grew from 9,718 in 1870 to 21,224 in 1880, and nearly doubled again to 42,063 sheep producing 198,665 pounds of wool in 1890. The sheep industry declined dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to some 7,859 sheep producing 31,245 pounds of wool in 1920, but revived in the 1930s and reached a new high of 50,141 sheep and 270,311 pounds of wool in 1940. Mohair became a significant agricultural product by 1930, and reached a peak in 1959, when some 32,269 goats were raised in the county

Courthouse History

On November 14, 1883, the Commissioners Court of Bell County authorized the issuance of bonds and levy a tax therefore for the building of a County Courthouse. Said issue being in the amount of $65,000.00. The order sets forth the fact that....."several successive Grand Juries of Bell County have condemned in unmeasured terms, the present County Courthouse as an unsafe repository of the County's records.....". Further, it was ordered that the County Judge, W.M. Minyard advertise in the Galveston News until the 31st day of December 1883 for plans and specifications for the erection of a new Courthouse in Belton. He was ordered that the cost not exceed $65,000.00 and to be of dimensions sufficient to supply necessary Courtrooms, jury rooms, offices for all County Officers and one Justice of the Peace and ample room for all the records of the County; to be practically fire proof, and the walls of said Courthouse to be built of the best and hardest limestone found in and about Belton.

On January 11, 1884, the firm of J.N. Preston and Son of Austin, Texas was employed as Architects for the building.

On March 3, 1884, bids were opened by the Court and Ben D. Lee, a local builder was awarded the contract in the amount of $64,965.00.

On May 29, 1885, the Architect recommended that the Courthouse be accepted and thereafter the Court issued its "Certificate of Acceptance" of such building.

The present building is the third Courthouse in Bell County built on the same site. The first such building being a two room log cabin built in 1851 soon after the creation of the County in 1850. The second such structure was built in 1858 and torn down to make way for the third Courthouse.

The Bell County Courthouse designed in the Renaissance Revival style was truly a magnificent structure in 1884. This structure, which was built before the current state capital, is one of Texas' finest courthouses in a collection of outstanding public buildings. However, like many of the prominent Texas courthouses, federally funded renovation projects of the 1930's and 1950's had a detrimental impact on the building. The clock tower and much of the rich roof details were removed, the historic interior was modernized and radically altered.

The present Commissioners Court began the process of a complete restoration of the Bell County Courthouse. The restoration began in August 1998 and the interior renovation was completed in November 1999. The statue, dome, and clock tower were replaced with replicas in December 1999, returning the Courthouse to near its original beauty. The Courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and on the State Archeological Site Register.

A statue of Peter Hansborough Bell, the Governor who created Bell County and its namesake, stands on the Southwest corner of the Courthouse square. Governor Bell was a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War veteran, Texas Ranger, Governor, Congressional Representative, and later a Colonel in the Confederacy. The county seat, previously named Nolandsville, was changed to Belton due to a postal problem and is most likely a contraction of Bell and town.