James Carrel Bell

Bell went into Bexar under a captain whose story ended badly. John York, born in Kentucky in 1800, had settled near the future site of Industry in 1822 and led a company at the siege in December 1835. He became sheriff of Austin County in 1837, moved to DeWitt County, and in 1848 sold his half of a league for one dollar to men who agreed to lay out a town in his name, Yorktown. That October he led neighbors on a retaliatory campaign against Indians and was killed on Escondida Creek with his son-in-law, James Madison Bell.

What the plaque says

James Carrel Bell Born March 1, 1820. A young soldier in the Texas War for Independence. He entered Bexar December 5, 1835 [blank] -- John York, Captain. Company D, Eighth Texas Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. Died August 4, 1880. His wife Eliza Baker Bell. Born May 6, 1831. Died October 26, 1906. Erected by the State of Texas 1962

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Mary's Church of the Assumption (Praha) — 11 mi
  The mother parish of the Czech settlements around Flatonia, a stone-fronted church of 1895 whose ceiling Gottfried Flury turned into a turquoise garden, with an August 15 feast since 1855.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 12 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 13 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.
• St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville) — 14 mi
  A wooden Carpenter Gothic church built in 1919 after storm and fire took two before it, its dusty-rose interior painted by an artist whose name was lost for decades.

More markers nearby

• Simon Peter Ford — steps away
• Muldoon Community — 1.1 mi
• William Gorham — 5.6 mi
• Colony Cemetery — 7.0 mi