Charles Webster Bell (June 11, 1857 – April 19, 1927) was an American politician who served one term as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

from 1913 to 1915.

Biography

Born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

, Bell attended public schools. He moved to California in 1877 and settled in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, where he engaged in fruit growing and the real estate business. Moreover, he also served as a

county clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

from 1899 to 1903. He was also a member of the state Senate from 1907 to 1913. In 1911 he was the Majority Leader in the California State Senate. Bell authored SCA 8 in 1911, which gave women the right to vote in California. Bell was elected as a Progressive Republican to the Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1915). However, he lost his re-election campaign to

Charles Hiram Randall Charles Hiram Randall (July 23, 1865 – February 18, 1951), known as Charles Randall, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the California State Assembly and the Los Angeles City Council. He was the first council member to face a ...

of the

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

. Bell was member of the

Pasadena Republican Club Pasadena Republican Club (PRC) is the oldest, continuously active Republican political club in America, founded on March 29, 1884, . Every two years for the last years the Pasadena Republican Club has operated the Greater Pasadena Area Republica ...

. After the end of his political services, Bell resumed his former business pursuits in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

and became secretary of the Pasadena Mercantile Finance Corporation.

Personal life

On April 19, 1927, Bell died in Pasadena, California. Bell is interred in Mountain View Cemetery.

References

External links

Charles W. Bell at joincalifornia.com
* 1857 births 1927 deaths Politicians from Albany, New York Progressive Party (1912) members of the United States House of Representatives from California Republican Party California state senators County clerks in California People from Pasadena, California {{California-Representative-stub