“Doris was born at Michael’s [Guelff, younger brother of Elizabeth Bell] homestead at Pleasant View near Glendive. Elizabeth moved to her mother’s [Grandma Grote formerly Anna Grein Guelff] house at 217 E. Hughes in Glendive that spring. She spent 8 months at Galen T.B. [tuberculosis] Hospital near Butte that year while Grandmother Grote took care of the children. She lived there 16 years with a widow’s pension & taking in washing and cleaning for others. All the children graduated from High School & Gerald from U. of Montana.”
“Lived at 204 E. Hughes St. till 1936 then to 210 Douglas. All children went to Lincoln School thru 6th grade -- Washington school thru 7 & 8 – then to Dawson Co. High School – All graduated in the top fourth of their class and all made the National Honor Society. Childhood memories were playing cowboy in the big barn behind the [Hughes St.] house. Almost the whole yard was a vegetable garden & lots of food was “canned” for winter use. The house was heated with a coal heater in the living room & range in the kitchen. Upstairs bedrooms had a floor grate where we’d stand to dress in the cold mornings. Mother traded for milk by doing laundry & we kids had to walk 3 blocks to get it each morning. We were encouraged to be in music – all learned to ‘play’ the violin – the boys went on to the baritone & other instruments later. Kenneth played banjo & fiddle for country dances & Gerald the sax for town dances & later at the U.M. [University of Montana] where he worked as well as going to school. Doris & Gerald sang at a Kiwanis lunch when in the lower grades & all were in most operettas thru school. “
Here the ink on the page changes to black, probably indicating that some time had passed before she made this next entry.
“Kenneth worked summers on a farm till he was thru school. Gerald had paper routes & Doris helped him – Both girls did baby sitting – 10 cents and hour and Doris did housekeeping on Sat for 50 cents – 5 hrs. Kenneth got on WPA [Work Projects Administration] as family breadwinner for a few years. Lucille got a secretary job there also – Gerald was a baker for Carey’s Sweet Shop fro ’35 to ’38 – then went to U.M. at Missoula. Mother went with him the 1st year. Doris first job at Purple Tea Room – 3.50 a week – 7 days – split shift – 3 mo. – then to a newspaper at $30 a mo – 6 mo – then to Carey's as a waitress $30 mo, meals & tips – still 7 day week.”
Typically modest, Doris omits the remarkable fact that she skipped two grades and graduated from high school the same year as her older brother Gerald. Her account of her childhood, both written and oral, reflects both matter-of-factness and cheerfulness, though much of it was lived hand to mouth and most of it during the Great Depression. “We always had something to eat,” she would say, “and Mom always found a way for us to do some special things, like music and dances. We never felt that we were especially poor, and when the Depression came, everyone else was in the same fix that we had been in all along.”
Old family albums and bits and pieces of notes that Grandma Bell had made, reveal other interesting facts. In the same brown 3” x 6” F-211 Harold Square Memorandum Book (Standard Quality) that she used for the other children, Grandma Bell carefully noted:
Doris Harriet Bell
Born Jan. 30 1919.
Thurs. 11 P.M.
Weight 6 1/2 lbs.
“ Feb 6. 1920 – 19 lbs.
“ “ 1. 1921 32.
No additional weight notations appear for the first three children who weighed 8, 8 and “almost 9” pounds respectively. No mention was made of her “lazy eye,” a hereditary trait now easily corrected by surgery.
Elizabeth did start a baby book for Doris, just as she had for the first three children.
Many of the places for entries were left blank, possibly because the relevant events happened while she was away at Galen. She did record the name of the attending physician, Dr. Danskin, and also entered after "nurse" Mrs. Mike Guelff, her sister in law, and Mrs. A.D. Hammond. Florence, Mike's wife, was the adopted daughter of the Russ family. They had made the move from Eden Valley, Minnesota along with the Guelffs.
Above those entries, the name of the father "Dudley Howard Bell" appears before the name of the mother, initially written as just "Elizabeth" with "A. Bell" apparently written in afterward. The same apparent after-entry appears to have been made on the Christening page. On the family record page, she enters her name as "Elizabeth Guelff Bell". This baby book entry may be the only record in which Elizabeth wrote her name with a middle initial, probably signifying "A." for "Anna" after her mother.
Under Pet Names, we see "Yottie, Sister and Polly." None of these stuck. Doris' First Outing Date is recorded as "Feb. 14 From Glendive to Brockway." According to the Baby Book, W. Judson Oldfield (Minister) baptized Doris in 1919, but the day of baptism does not appear. The book lists her sponsors as Mr. and Mrs. Hal Corkery, Mrs. Corkery being her Aunt Marie Guelff Corkery who would pass away in 1923. A few of the "First Dates" are filled in: "First Short Clothes, May 1st, 1919; Stands Alone, Jan, 30. 1920; First Step, Feb 20. 1920; First Word, Mamma." As we will see, eighteen years later, Doris took another stand on her birthday.
During at least two summers, cousins from Iowa came to visit. These four children of Nicolas Guelff and their widow mother moved to Iowa after he had died of a botched operation in 1921. Some of the children were farmed out to relatives. Doris remembered fondly her summertime cousins Irene, Eva, Evelyn and Lawrence, especially the second visit when they were older. Irene, as a young teenager, hitchhiked from Iowa Glendive all by herself.
When contacted in the spring of 2007, a few months before she passed away, Evelyn (Lynn) who was closest in age to Doris, also remembered the summers in Glendive and her Montana cousins.
Doris kept a much used Holy Bible, King James Version "with ideal helps", bearing the cursive inscription Glendive, Mont., Oct. 6th 1929 and below the elaborate gilded words "Presented To", the cursive Doris H. Bell, all in a practiced hand, from the Congregational Sunday School. Without exception, the Bell children went to church every Sunday, but each child had the choice of church so long as it was neither Catholic nor Lutheran, the agreement reached between their parents before marriage. Lucille and Doris went to the Congregational Church. Sometime after 1929, Doris joined the Methodist Church where some of her closest friends were members. Both Doris and Lucille looked forward to Sundays. Though not nearly so accomplished as their brothers with musical instruments, they developed good singing voices in the church choirs. Church was a natural and joyful part of their lives.
Last but not least, mention must be made of the family cat Calico.
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