Hi. I just joined this list about a week ago and have been enjoying reading the posts. The following is from a paper written by my great-aunt, Grace BELL JONES AUSTIN (1873-1965) in 1951.

"The 'Western Fever' was raging in the eastern states 'in the days of old, the days of gold, the days of '49', and Ohio, scarcely out of its own pioneering days, was no exception. When it struck the neighborhood of the Bells and DeLongs in what was then Morgan County, it aroused the same craving for adventure and land of their own in the younger generation, that induced their forbears to cross an ocean instead of a continent.

On a Sunday late in March 1851. relatives, friends and neighbors from miles around forgathered at the Joseph Bell home to say God-be-with-you to a party about to leave for Oregon. George Cyrus Bell and Mary Ann DeLong were "keeping company" and, of course, Mary Ann was there. By this time everyone -- there were exceptions -- was coming down with the "Oregon fever" and at the last moment George Cyrus decided to join the party; that is, if Mary Ann would go with him. They strolled away from the crowd to talk it over, and Mary Ann did not fail him; then or ever. They talked of the fertile country and mild climate, but could they leave home so far behind? There was little or no time to consider or to prepare for such a journey. Notwithstanding these and many other objections, they decided to be married at once and in two days leave with brother John's party for the vast faraway unknown that was called The West. With hopes so high how could they doubt that someday they would return to home, friends, and their dear Brookfield?

In 1934 Mrs. Angie Thrap Nosset of Cumberland, Ohio gave me the names of eleven members of the party. She was ninety-one years old, and still remembered when she went to school for one day to Mary Ann DeLong. She was only eight years old when the party left for Oregon, but she named the following members. There may have been others:

John W. Bell, his wife Lorena Nickerson Bell, and their small daughters, Rebecca and Caroline.
George Cyrus Bell and wife Mary Ann De Long Bell.
Clarissa Bell, their sister, who in 1856 married Nathaniel DuBois.
John Lambert and wife.
David Lambert.
George Lambert.

Partings are strewn all along life's journey. They were leaving home, parents, numerous relatives and the young friends with whom they had grown to maturity. Some hundred years later we found among Mary Ann's things a beautiful shell case that contains a leather-bound autograph album dated 1850. Besides the usual verses from the signers, a lock of his or her hair, braided and artistically arranged, is fastened to the page. A relic of her youth which she could not leave behind, and over which she must have wept when overwhelmed with longing for home and loved ones.

Grandfather George Cyrus Bell was educated at Granville College, Ohio. As they plodded along faint trails or wagon tracks over the primitive plains and rugged mountains that lay between Ohio and the promised land, he kept his diary - kept it as long as he lived. After his death in 1893 and Grandmother's in 1902, the new house he built shortly before I was born was burned and the priceless record with it. In the Fall of 1851 they reached Portland, Oregon."

Joseph BELL and wife Anna m. in Scotland - settled in Belmont Co., OH in 1784
->
Joseph BELL b. 1788 in Belmont Co.
->
George Cyrus BELL b. 1825 in Morgan Co., OH (my gg- grandfather)

Dot Neff in Portland, OR
DJNHarris@aol.com

My other OHIO ancestors:
John O. LUTHY (1803-1881) ->
John LUTHY b. 1824 -> in Monroe Co.
David Kirkham LUTHY b.1856 in Monroe Co. (my g-grandfather) Francis HARRIS ->
Hugh Carrell HARRIS b. 1818 in Athens Co. (my g-grandfather)
Robert William MCCOY from Ohio -> (my g-grandfather)
Walter Arthur McCoy b 1879 in Iowa (very little info on this line)