DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some lives arrive on this earth fully loaded with history before the man even has a chance to grow a beard. James Carrel Bell was born March 1, 1820, and by the time most young men are still figuring out which direction is north, Bell was already walking into the middle of something enormous.
He was a young soldier in the Texas War for Independence. Young. Let that sit a moment.
And on December 5, 1835, he entered Bexar. Not passed through. Not wandered near.
Entered. Whatever was waitin' inside those walls on that December day, James Carrel Bell walked toward it. Then time moves on, the way it does in Texas, and the next chapter finds Bell mustered under Captain John York, Company D, Eighth Texas Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.
One war had already marked him. Now here came another. He died August 4, 1880.
And the marker doesn't leave him standing alone. It makes a point — a deliberate, careful point — of naming his wife alongside him. Eliza Baker Bell, born May 6, 1831.
Died October 26, 1906. She outlasted him, and the stone remembers her just the same. Two people.
Two wars bracketing one man's life. One woman who saw it all to the end. The State of Texas put this marker up in 1962, and it's still out here on the road, making sure neither of them gets forgotten.
What the marker says
Born March 1, 1820. A young soldier in the Texas War for Independence. He entered Bexar December 5, 1835 [blank] -- John York, Captain. Company D, Eighth Texas Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. Died August 4, 1880. His wife Eliza Baker Bell. Born May 6, 1831. Died October 26, 1906. Erected by the State of Texas 1962