Bell City, Missouri

Bell City is a 4th-class city in northeastern Stoddard County, Missouri, about 25 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau. The population was 448 during the 2010 Census.

History[edit]

Bell City was founded in 1889 by Giles Nations, a Civil War veteran from Tennessee, as a sawmill town along the newly-opened St. Louis Southwestern Railway. According to the State Historical Society of Missouri, it was named for G. A. and R. S. Bell, who ran a local sawmill, but locals maintain its name actually derived from the clanging of bells on the many cows which grazed in the nearby swamps.^[1] It was also known in its early days as "Steal-Easy" due to the theft and other criminal activity common to many railroad towns.

Like many towns in Southeast Missouri, Bell City benefited from the extensive swampland south and east of the Ozark Plateau and Crowley's Ridge that marked the northern edge of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. After 1900, this land was drained as part of the Little River Drainage District and cleared for farming, especially in cotton. Rapid settlement by farmers and sharecroppers made the town a local economic hub; by 1945, Bell City boasted several stores and other businesses, and even a small movie theater.

The rise of mechanized farming in the 1950s and '60s, and the subsequent decreasing demand for a large labor force, led to a decline in both local population and economic activity, a fate common to most towns of its size in Southeast Missouri. Bell City has remained relatively stable, though, thanks to its small but active school district.

Geography[edit]

Bell City lies at the foot of Crowley's Ridge in northeastern Stoddard County, near the northern limit of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The main road is Missouri Route 91, which connects with the town of Morley, 11 miles to the east in Scott County, and with U.S. Route 61. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total land area of 0.55 square miles.^[2] The United States Geological Survey gives its average elevation as 328 feet.^[3]

Demographics[edit]

The 2010 United States Census reported that Bell City had a total population of 448, down slightly from 2000, when the population was 461. The city's racial composition was 94.64% White, 1.79% Black, 1.34% Native American, and 2.23% mixed-race. Hispanics of any race were 0.22% of the population.^[4]

The sex ratio in Bell City was 50.7% male to 49.3% female. The median age was 36.6 years, with 25% of the population under the age of 18, 11.7% between 18 and 24, 25.3% between 25 and 44, 26.1% between 45 and 64, and 12.1% 65 years old or older.

Community Life[edit]

The most important institution in Bell City is the Bell City R-II School District, which serves the city and the surrounding area. Established in the 1920s, it is a K-12 public school, and in recent years claimed some notable athletic achievements; its high school basketball team won the MSHSAA Class 1 State Championship in 2002 and 2004, while its high school volleyball team won its respective state championship in 2003. Its mascot is the Cubs, and the school colors are red, black, and white.

The number of operational churches in Bell City has fluctuated over time. The three most permanent are the Bell City United Methodist Church, the Bell City General Baptist Church, and the A-Frame Church, an independent body that generally follows the principles of the Southern Baptist Church. The Methodist Church runs a small discount store in Bell City, "Born Again."

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