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Summary

Dr. William Henry Bell

William Henry Bell's life story is as interesting as any work of fiction. Bell was born in Abyssinia, Ethiopia, Africa around the year 1835. He was captured, enslaved, and sent to Virginia to work on a plantation there. He escaped the plantation and headed North where he fought for the Union Army from 1861 to 1865. He taught briefly at Quinn AME Church in Frederick City during the war.

After the war, Mr. Bell moved to Harpers Ferry, WV where he taught at Storer College. Bell later moved to Berlin, now Brunswick, and lived on the old B&O farm until he built his own house near what is now near Park Avenue. While living in Brunswick, he taught at the Brookville School on Olive School Road.

William Henry Bell died on April 3, 1910 at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, DC. A detailed obituary in the Brunswick Herald proved William's respect within the community. "Mr. Bell was a man with great ability, being a teacher, printer, carpenter and an individual who could do almost anything he wanted to. Scores of young men have received inspiration from the excellent example set them by him are loud in their praise of him." His obituary goes on to say that "He loved right and had no place in his nature for wrong."

Dr. William Bell was designated a Brunswick distinguished citizen in 1989.