Archives West Finding Aid

Harry Oscar Bell was born to William Jefferson Bell and Susan Marie (Mullet) Bell on December 4, 1884, in Coshocton, near Columbus, Ohio. He had an older brother, James, a younger brother, William Jr., and a younger sister, Mary Arl. When Harry was seven, the family moved to a 40 acre farm outside of Athens, Ohio. His father died when he was twelve and Harry was forced to leave school after the sixth grade. At thirteen, he moved to Indiana to live on his uncle Daniel Mullet's farm. In his later teens, Harry worked as a mechanic for Carl Fisher, who later founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He traveled with Fisher and Earl Kaiser as a mechanic in 1904 and 1905. He also designed a safety plug for the acetylene tanks used to illuminate early headlights. The plugs stopped dangerous explosions, a problem with early cars.

In 1906 he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he opened a car dealership and drove race cars at the Spokane Fairgrounds track. He married Grace Tyler on Nov. 20, 1909, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Their first daughter, Dorothy Leora, was born on Oct. 3, 1910. The couple's other child, Betty, was born in January 1931.

H.O. Bell moved with his family to Missoula, Montana, in 1915 and borrowed money from a friend to buy Floyd J. Logan's Ford auto dealership. The company was small in the beginning, with Bell and two employees servicing and selling the popular Fords. Within ten years, he employed 36 workers at his agency in the 600 block of South Higgins Avenue. When he opened his modern building across the street in 1929, the celebration attracted 10,000 motorists. A guest during the opening was noted pilot Nick Mamer and his Ford Tri-Motor airplane; Bell had a life-long interest in aviation as well as automobiles. In the mid-1920s, Bell was named chairman of the Missoula County Airport Board, a position he held until retiring in 1957. Missoula's modern airport is named Johnson-Bell Field in his and pilot Bob Johnson's honor.

In 1968, Bell was re-elected to his 3rd term as president of the Montana Auto Association. He also served in the Montana and national auto dealers' associations. In the Missoula community, Bell was president of the Chamber of Commerce, active in the Rotary Club, and a member of the board of directors of the Western Montana National Bank for 34 years. He was also on the Florence Hotel board of directors and involved himself in a host of other activities, including hospital fund-raising and the Boy Scouts. In 1969, after he had been selling and servicing Fords for 54 years, he received the coveted Benjamin Franklin Quality Dealer Award at the annual convention of the National Automobile Dealers Association, in Houston, Texas.

Bell served as a member of the Governor's Interim Highway Committee and on the National Highway Safety Committee under President Dwight Eisenhower. In later years, he spent considerable time at his cherished Bar Lazy B Ranch near Ronan, Montana, breeding Arabian horses and polled Hereford cattle. After the death of his first wife, Grace (Tyler) Bell, in 1950, he married businesswoman Mary Mista in Missoula in 1952.

H.O. Bell passed away in October 1971 in Missoula; Mary died in August 2000.