Luther was born to Jessie Robert "Bob" Bell and Laura Cordelia Moser Bell, the seventh of nine children. At age 3 years, the family moved from Arkansas to Missouri and settled just outside Summersville. Luther's father had served as a drummer boy in the Civil War serving under the Confederate States of America. Upon reaching manhood, Luther moved west and eventually hired on to the railroad out of Colorado Springs, CO, where he had been lodging with J.C. Richards, a family friend of his fathers. Luther served as an engineer on the Rock Island Railroad and during this time married his first wife who bore his first child, a son, Walter H. Bell, born in Simla, Colorado. (This child died of the Spanish Flu and is buried in the Simla Cemetery) This union ended in divorce in 1921. In 1922, Luther again married a woman he most likely met in Denver as the train passed through there or perhaps in Davenport, Iowa. In February, 1922, Luther wed Anna Henrietta Rissmann in Santa Ana, California. Their daughter, Gertrude "Jean" Louise Bell was born in October, 1922, in Simla. The family migrated to San Dimas, CA, where Luther had friends, again of the Richards family. Luther managed orange groves for wealthy growers in the area and many times spoke of having to get up in the middle of the night to light the "smudge pots" to keep the orange blossoms from freeing. In 1933, Luther brought his family back to the area of his youth, buying land and building a modern home outside Summersville, MO. This home included an indoor tub and toilet which was unheard of in homes in the country at the time when electricity was not yet found in country homes. In approximately 1944, Luther moved again due to a dispute with a neighbor, Mr. Yates, in which Yates threatened to burn Luther out. (It's said that Luther had a fine "still" in the woods of his property.)This modern home was sold to a Mr. Mecklingberg, a peony grower. This time, Luther moved to a smaller place, the old Renfro place . . .a two bedroom cobblestone home without the indoor bath but with electricity. Luther raised Herford cattle along with the various chickens and occasional pig. His huge gardens were a thing to behold. He was such a perfectionist that many times passing cars on the dirt road would just stop and admire the perfectly planted and maintained rows of vegetables. Luther served on the board of the Summersville State Bank and attended bank meetings in town until the bank was unexpectedly robbed and his nephew, Lee Bell (bank president), shot in the shoulder. The culprits were never apprehended but word somehow reached Luther his nephew may have helped plan the "inside" job. Luther was never again to speak to his nephew and sold his home on Spring Valley and moved to the town of Mtn. View, about 17 miles away. There he purchased a two story home around 1950, living there until his son-in-law, Ralph Day, Jr., moved them again to California to be with his daughter. Luther lost his wife, Anna, to congestive heart failure in 1959. He lived alone until the early '60's when he died in a rest home in Artesia, CA. He is greatly missed by me, his grandaughter, of whom he raised until age 11.