Page 40 - May2022

Curves!

Who was Montgomery

Bell anyway ?

(& Q. Why does that 911 look so huge? A.
Because by comparison it is.)
Body text
Right: The scope of Montgomery Bell State Park as seen from the
air, is inspiring. Here are a few facts about its namesake.

- Born in 1769 in Pennsylvania and died at 86, April 1, 1855 in
Dickson County, Tennessee. The son of an Irish immigrant and
one of 10 children, Montgomery Bell emigrated to Tennessee
after living with a widowed sister in Kentucky and educating her
children.
- Frugal, he became a manufacturing entrepreneur crucial to the
economic development of early middle Tennessee and was
known as the Iron Master of the Harpeth.
- He purchased the iron works at Cumberland Furnace in 1804 for
$16,000 and eventually developed a series of iron furnaces and
factories in the state. His Cumberland Furnace made the
cannonballs used by General Andrew Jackson's army in the Battle
of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
- In 1835, he sent 50 of his freed slaves to Liberia, 50 more in
1853, and later emancipated under 150 of his enslaved people.
He also hired a teacher from Philadelphia to teach them to read
and write, an illegal act at the time.
- He suffered financial reverses towards the end of his life but still
left $20,000 as the founding grant for what would become
Montgomery Bell Academy, today one of the larger
non-sectarian, private all -boys high schools in the US.
- Bell never married and was buried in a cemetery near his home,
Belle View, at the narrows of the Harpeth River. 40 Image courtesy of Tennessee State Parks Commission