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Bell, Andrew Wilson, Carleton Place, Ontario, was born in the town of Perth, county of Lanark, Ontario, on the 14th February, 1835. His grandfather, the Rev. William Bell, who came from Scotland in 1817, and was the first Presbyterian minister in Perth, died in 1857. His father, John Bell, carried on business in the same town as a merchant from 1828 until 1849, when he died. A. W. Bell received his education in the old district grammar school in Perth, and after leaving school began a busy and useful career. In March, 1885, he commenced business at Douglas, Renfrew county, with Charles Coulter, under the name of Bell, Coulter & Co., general merchants, and next year having admitted into the partnership Thomas Coulter, of Clayton, Lanark, they traded in the villages of Douglas and Eganville under the name of Bell & Coulter, and in Clayton as Coulter & Bell. The partnership was dissolved in the spring of 1858, each partner taking the branch he then had in charge. Mr. Bell was then a resident of Eganville, and in the spring of 1859 he sold out his stock to the Coulters, and removed to Carleton Place for a few months. In the fall of the same year he again began business in Douglas, and in 1862 entered into partnership with Donald Cameron. The new firm did a large local mercantile trade, and sent several rafts of square timber to the Quebec market in 1863-4. This partnership was dissolved in 1864. Mr. Bell, in the years 1858, 1865 and 1866, carried on saw-mills at Eganville and Douglas; and in 1864 and 1865, having joined William Halpenny, in Renfrew, under the name of A. W. Bell & Co., they carried on a general mercantile business. In 1867 Mr. Bell removed from Douglas to Newboro’, Leeds county, and where he bought out the business belonging to John Draffin. In this place he remained until April, 1872, and then took up his abode at Carleton Place. Here he prosecuted his mercantile business until 1875, and then, selling it out to a partner he had admitted in 1873, he retired into private life. In addition to his other business enterprises, Mr. Bell has dealt considerably in real estate in the counties of Lanark and Renfrew, and has bought and sold many thousand acres of farm lands, and built several shops and dwellings in Carleton Place, which he still owns. In 1856 he was appointed postmaster in Eganville, Renfrew county, which position he held until 1859, when he resigned; again, in 1862, he was appointed postmaster of Douglas, in the same county, and resigned in 1867. In March, 1862, he was made clerk of the Seventh Division Court for Lanark and Renfrew, but when these counties were separated in October, 1866, he gave up the position. In 1862 he was made a notary public, and also commissioner for taking affidavits and an issuer of marriage licenses. In 1863 the Government conferred upon him the commission of a justice of the peace. In 1873 the Board of Trade of Ottawa appointed him official assignee for the county of Lanark, and in 1875 the Government appointed him to the same office, and this office he held until the repeal of the Insolvency Act. Mr. Bell also acted in the capacity of creditors’ assignee in the counties of Lanark, Renfrew and Pontiac, and was arbitrator for the Canada Central Railway at Renfrew and at Pembroke, and purchased part of the right of way for the railway company. Mr. Bell was the originator of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway and Steamship Company,—his name being first in the charter as passed by parliament,—and he also had a hand in procuring two other North-West charters. Mr. Bell is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined in June, 1859. He held a commission as lieutenant, and afterwards captain, in the militia, dating from July, 1856. Though brought up as a Presbyterian, Mr. Bell now attends the Episcopal church, his wife being a member of that communion. He married, 27th July, 1857, Jane Andersen, daughter of the late James Gibb, merchant, of Glasgow, Scotland. Mrs. Bell died on 2nd June, 1886.