Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1902-02-21
VERMONT PHOENIX, BRATTLEBORO FRIDAY, FEBRJ

streets, on Prospect Hill, was inter
viewed. Mr.. Mann went to live with
Bell at the age of 16 years. This
was in the fall of 1869. To Phoenix
representative Mr.. Mann said in sub
stance BELL hitched up a bull and
heifer one day and went into the
woods. He loaded the sled so heavily
that the animals were unable to draw
it, which angered him and he began
to beat them. He knocked the heifer
down, pounding her so that she was
unable to get up. Then he went to
the barn, hitched up his horse and
drew the heifer to the barn, where she
died He pounded the bull so that
patches of hair and skin came off.
LAS it was coming off cold that
night Bell sent me back over the road
to fill up the holes made by the horses
hoofs so that the road would not freeze
rough | filled them up as well as
could but the worst place | over
looked. The next morning we went
into the woods again and when we
came to the bad place in the road
Bell took up his shovel and struck
me with 1t. The shovel was cracked
near the handle and the blow broke
it off. Bell was mad because he had
broken his shovel. He left me with
the team while he returned to the
house, and when he came back | saw
that he had a chain in his hand and
was trying to conceal it from me.
Suddenly he struck me with the chain
and when | recovered consciousness
| was on the floor at the house.
After bathing my wounds he took
me upstairs and hid me in a grain
box, covering me over with robe and
emptying cobs on top of the robe so no
one would be apt to find me. The
neighbors took the matter up and
papers were issued for Bells arrest.
Bell got wind of it and hustled me out
OF the way. He was arrested and
fined, and after that he tried to get me
to go to live with him again, but
never went.
While | lived with him l saw him
knock his wife down and break d
broom handle over her. That was his
first wife, not the one he is living
with now. His first wife is living in
Vernon. At another time | saw him
take his two-year-old daughter by the
legs and throw her out of the window
into the snow. He would not let his
wife go after her, but left her there
until he was ready to take her in.
! That daughter is married and lives in
Brattleboro. You can see the scars
now on my head, where he struck me
with the chain"
Policeman Ellis Worden of Brattle-
boro formerly lived next neighbor to
the Bells, in the house where his
brother now lives. Mr.. Worden said
that when he lived there Bell made
his children watch the stock day after
day because the fences were not in re-
pair. Bell was continually licking his
wife and children" said Mr. Worden
"One night when they came home af
ter having watched the stock all day
they stopped at our house and we gave
them something to eat. They told me
afterwards that their father whipped
them awfully because they accepted
anything to eat"
Mr.. Worden continued: Il saw him
knock his wife down with a pitchfork
one day and | went home and told my
father. Father went over there at
once and gave him the biggest pound.
ing he ever got, One time Bell struck
his wife with hammer, as was COM
monty believed, leaving the print Of
the face Of the hammer in her
head. The doctor said it was a won.
der she was not killed. That made so
much of stir that Bell was arrested,
but his wife was afraid to testify
against him, and said one of the cows
hooked her when she was in the barn.
My brother and | were going past the
house one time, when we heard Bell
rawhiding one of his children. We
went in and gave him thrashing with
the same rawhide.
BELLS children told me the particu-
lars about his getting mad and killing
a colt because it would not go through
a small door. The colt was cut up and
the pieces thrown into the hog pen
Bell claimed that the colt fell through
scuttle and the hogs gnawed it's
legs so that 1t had to be killed. l know
better than that because there was no
scuttle over the hog pen. Bell Is
about IS years old and | understand
he draws a pension. He owns from
$50 to 200 acres Of land as good as
can be found anywhere. 1t was left
him by his mother. He has, or did
have, clear title to it, so that there
is no excuse for his not being able to
live comfortably and provide for his
family"