Manuscripts Collection
Bell married Louise Heffelfinger (1878-1961) of Minneapolis in December 1902. The couple's children included James Ford Bell (1903-1981), Charles Heffelfinger Bell (1907-2003), and Samuel Heffelfinger Bell (1910-1987).
James Stroud Bell was born June 30, 1847, in Philadelphia, to Samuel and Elizabeth (Faust) Bell. He attended the Philadelphia public schools until 1868, and then spent twenty years with his father's firm, Samuel Bell & Son. In 1888 he moved to Minneapolis to work for the firm that became Washburn-Crosby Company. He became chief executive officer of Washburn-Crosby in 1890, and served in that capacity until his death.
Bell married Sallie Montgomery Ford in Philadelphia on January 8, 1873. She and Bell were the parents of James Ford Bell. Sallie died in 1905. Bell married Mabel Sargent on September 28, 1912. Bell died April 1, 1915 and was buried at Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Access to and use of reserve materials requires the curator's permission.
Accession numbers: 7345; 9113; 16,152; 16,419; 16,706; 17,269; 17,332; 17,443; 17,837; 17,868
Catalog ID number: 990017174350104294
Business papers document Bell's career as salesman, vice president, and president of the Washburn-Crosby Company (1901-1928) and as president and board chairman of General Mills (1928-1947); transportation (particularly rail) and food processing industries; agriculture and the grain trade in Canada, England, and France; economic conditions in various parts of the world; the Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1930s New Deal legislation and relief programs, especially in agriculture, transportation, and economic and monetary policy; relief activities and reconstruction in Europe during and after World War I; military operations, diplomacy, and the wartime economy during World War II, and postwar reconstruction in Europe and Japan; the Korean War; other aspects of U.S. foreign policy; state and national politics and presidential campaigns; Sister Elizabeth Kenny's treatment of polio (1940s); the Minnesota Resources Commission (1940s-1950s); and conservation of wildlife and natural resources.
1917-1922: Milling operations under the Food Administration during World War I. Comments by correspondents on Europe; especially economic conditions, Red Cross care of refugees in France, the armistice; and European reconstruction. Correspondence with Walter H. Newton concerning congressional hearings relating to the revision of the Tariff Act of 1913, and correspondence regarding economic theories and conditions.
1923-1929: Correspondence pertaining to wildlife conservation; the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill, expressing opposition to the bill; politics and the presidential campaigns and elections of 1924 and 1928; comments on business and economic conditions; and the railroad situation and the anthracite coal strike of 1925.
1930-1935: Letters discuss the depression, unemployment, the National Industrial Recovery Act, economic recovery and devaluation of the currency; the International Monetary, Economic, and Tariff Conference held in London (1933); Europeans' comments on the devaluation of United States currency and its effect on international trade; the Agricultural Adjustment Act; silver's increasing value and its affect on China (1935); and New Deal legislation.
1936-1939: The depression, relief and recovery measures; railroads' economic problems and a possible increase in rail freight rates (1937-1938); the Hugo Black senate committee investigating lobbying practices; the presidential campaign and defeat of Alfred M. Landon (1936); the program and progress of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration; letters from congressmen and senators regarding the Reorganization (tax) Bill, on whether relief programs should be handled by local or the federal government, and the attitude of congress toward business (1938); Stassen's gubernatorial campaign; possible Republican presidential candidates (Thomas E. Dewey and Arthur Vandenburg); the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court; causes of Sino-Japanese War.
1940-1946: Invasions of Normandy and Sicily; the Cairo Conference (December 1943); the Pacific war; the Allied liberation of Paris; reconstruction and economic conditions in Europe and Japan; accidents in defense plants resulting in loss of manpower; the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and Elizabeth Kenny (polio patients' care and treatment); U. S. Commission of Inter-American Development (Nelson Rockefeller, chairman); conservation in the Minnesota Quetico-Superior area; Minnesota Resources Commission; Russia and its foreign policy; and comments on Winston Churchill's "iron curtain" speech.
1947-1960: Minnesota Resources Commission; the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program); postwar economy, taxation and reconstruction; the Korean War; communism in Russia and China; possible Republican presidential nominees in 1948 and 1952; Dwight D. Eisenhower and the 1952 presidential campaign; Minnesota's congressional delegation and the world trade situation; Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture (November-December 1952).
The newspaper clippings cover flour milling; agriculture; the St. Lawrence Seaway; McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill; economic, business and financial subjects; editorials on the depression and the New Deal; politics and elections; the Black Senate Committee investigation of lobbying; Franklin Roosevelt and the Supreme Court; World War II; Sister Elizabeth Kenny and the treatment of infantile paralysis; Will Keith Kellogg (1951); articles by Vannevar Bush regarding national security; and John S. Pillsbury (November 1959).
Topics: agriculture and farm relief; the depression and economic recovery; the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill; tariff policies; biographical data on William C. Edgar; the United States and the silver issue; milling industry; agriculture; Sister Elizabeth Kenny and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; postwar economy and tax programs; diseases of dogs; Minnesota resources; education and science.
Of particular interest: a farewell edition of
Includes correspondence from James Stroud Bell to James Ford Bell regarding James Ford Bell's travels in the Great Lakes Region and Poland Springs, Maine, family matters, fishing, boating, and his father's concerns of Bell's business career ambitions (1895).
Also included are correspondence among James Ford Bell; his wife, Ann Louise Heffelfinger; his son, James Ford Bell, Jr.; and their friends and family. The letters mostly discuss day-to-day activities—highlighting gatherings with family and friends, including Andrew Carnegie, Fred Hubbard, George Wullsen, John Donaldson, and Charles S. Pillsbury—and trips taken by James Ford Bell to Egypt and by Louise Heffelfinger Bell to New York, Georgia, Montana, and Chicago.
Specific topics include their engagement, marriage, first child, deaths in the family, a trip on the Santa Fe Railway, the Great Chicago Fire (1871), the untimely death of President Benjamin Harrison, a musical performance at the White House, and the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. There is also a three-page typescript of a letter from Major Christopher Heffelfinger to his sister, recounting in detail the Civil War's Battle of Bull Run (1861).
Topics discussed between James Ford Bell, and his son James Ford Bell, Jr., discuss family matters; the studies of Bell, Jr. at the Thatcher School in Ojai, California and Columbia University; politics, including Bell Sr.'s support of Herbert Hoover during the 1920 Republican Convention in Chicago, Illinois; waterfowl hunting in Winnipeg, Manitoba; business matters; and Ford Bell, Jr.'s personal relationships (1918-1923, 1943-1944).
Some papers relate to General Mills management matters and to Bell's activities to promote business interests and prohibition during the 1930s.
See the scrapbooks for additional correspondence.
This book is believed to have been begun by Louise Bell.
Transcription of a press clipping from the
Includes correspondence between Howard I. McMillan and James Ford Bell, Jr., of which McMillan discusses the Minnesota Association Against The Prohibition Amendment, and he is soliciting a subscription and financial support from James Ford Bell, Jr. for the organization, which Bell agrees to support (January-February 1932). Also included, is a handwritten letter composed by Special Agent Ray Cassidy of the Department of Justice, Bureau of Prohibition, which describes a seizure of rye whiskey at the residence of James Ford Bell, Jr. in Wayzata, Minnesota (October 6, 1932).
1918-1931: Check signed by Alexander Graham Bell (May 21, 1918); an account of the fortune of John Jacob Astor as being based on his purchase of the treasure originally buried by Captain Kidd on Deer Isle; information on the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill; and programs for unemployment relief.
1932-1941: Material concerning the depression and relief programs; Bernard Baruch's testimony before the Senate Finance Committee (economic recovery and means of preventing war); material on the Agricultural Adjustment Administration; devaluation of U.S. currency; comments on a letter written by Alfred E. Smith to Franklin Roosevelt concerning Roosevelt's fitness for the governorship of New York and Smith's subsequent refusal to criticize the Roosevelt Administration (1935); Senator Hugo Black's committee to investigate lobbying practices; the depression of 1937-1938; railroads' problems (1938); the European political situation; Nazi Germany; and the outbreak of the Second World War.
1942-1956: Papers relating to World War II; wartime economy and plans for the transition to a peacetime economy; commentaries by Sir John Powers, London, regarding military and political aspects of the war; reports of the Minnesota Resources Commission; biographical data on Will Keith Kellogg; speeches by Vannevar Bush on education, science, national security, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Contain correspondence and loose material, playbills and concert programs, telegrams, restaurant menus, hotel receipts, photographs and autographed portraits, wedding invitations, and newspaper clippings. Correspondence from envelopes fixed in the books has been removed and placed in folders next to its volume.
Correspondence contains congratulatory letters and telegrams from family and friends on Louise Heffelfinger's engagement to James Ford Bell.
Contains cruise line guest lists, restaurant menus, and playbills and concert programs.
Also includes a friend's 14-page letter aboard the Navy ship
Contains autographed portraits of actresses Julia Marlowe and Ina Claire (1947), playbills and concert programs, a sports program (Yale, 1897), restaurant menus, hotel brochures, tickets to Egyptian monuments, greeting cards, and an Ogontz School report card.
Includes Yale University brochures and Ogontz School for Young Ladies booklets and report cards (1895-1897), Republican National Convention tickets (1892), and letters and telegrams from friends and family (1895-1897).
Correspondence, cruise line material, and magazines.
Photographs (1892, 1900-1901, 1905, 1909), newspaper clippings, hotel material, playbills and concert programs (1890s-1900s), and miscellaneous material.
Reproduction of newspaper article in the
Includes genealogy chart (approximately 1720s-1910s), which includes Thomas Alsop (see Reserve letter to Abraham Lincoln).
The diaries discuss both business and personal matters. The first volume is handwritten, and the rest are typed; all are contained in 9" x 7" loose leaf binders. Roman numeral designations appear on many of the diaries.
Contains some entries for 1907 and 1911.
Includes two handwritten diaries, loose-leaf notes, and a typed transcription of the diaries and miscellaneous notes.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index.
Includes an index and a list of James Ford Bell articles (1928-1954).
Typed reminiscences written by Bell on a variety of subjects and individuals.
Includes biographical data on Bell's life and a piece on his directorships.
Includes reminiscences covering 1890-1946, arranged roughly in chronological order by occurrence, including the residence at 2215 Park Avenue (Minneapolis), a trip to Hawaii (1905), World War I, and business in the aftermath of World War II (1946).
Includes a 51-page account of the history of General Mills written for its 25th anniversary in 1953, accounts of its formation, an account of the origin of its research program, and two accounts of its activities in South America.
Includes accounts of Bell's visit to Egypt in 1902.
The folder includes a letter from the office of Charles H. Bell to corporate archivist Jean Toll (September 12, 1985) regarding the volume of reminiscences, instructions for copies, and an attached copy of Chapter 8 of the volume. An index and 23 topical reminiscences entries are also included. Some entries were removed, but some copies can be found in other topical files within the Reminiscences series.
Transcript of the audio portion of a videotaped interview of Bell by corporate archivist Jean Toll.
Diaries are typed and filed in 9" x 7" loose-leaf binders. They mainly document business affairs, but also include some more personal entries.
The memorial books were prepared by the board of directors or trustees of various companies and organizations James S. Bell led or held significant professional and personal ties to. They include resolutions and tributes to James S. Bell.
Postcards include an order card from The Booklovers Library, which shows orders placed by James S. Bell (approximately 1902). Another postcard is sent from Wm. C. Edgar to James S. Bell regarding a delivery from the ship South Point to Brussels, Belgium, and distribution of its cargo to the Commission for Relief in Belgium (March 10, 1915).
Includes plant photographs.
The following companies and organizations created a memorial book for James S. Bell: The Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia; Washburn-Crosby Company; Barnum Grain Company; Huhn Elevator Company; St. Anthony Elevator Company; Imperial Elevator Company; Royal Milling Company; Westminster Presbyterian Church; St. Anthony and Dakota Elevator Company; Brown Grain Company; and Chicago Great Western Railroad Company.
Photocopies of original correspondence are in the non-reserve material.
Alsop (Springfield, Illinois) recommends James Stroud Bell for a patronage post in Pennsylvania, with Lincoln's handwritten endorsement (October 28,1861).
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