A wealthy industrialist and investor, James Bell, moved to Cecil County sometime around 1857 and established his winter residence here. He wanted to escape the severe winters of the north, and, according to the Midland Journal newspaper, “Conowingo struck his fancy.”
There he purchased property immediately above the village, which is now known as Bell Manor. Wm. E. Porter had owned the land and he “was very glad to get rid of it as it was something of a wilderness and required a mint of money to make it look like civilized country,” the paper added. Bell turned it into one of the nicest spots in the county, his family spending the winter months here.
Bell was wealthy, newspapers remarked, “being credited with several million.” He was an exporter, particularly of cotton, and during the Civil War, made a great deal of money.
Locally, he was a major stockholder in the Conowingo Bridge Company and was involved in other enterprises in the village. James Bell died suddenly in May 1897 at his summer residence, Livingston Manor, near Hudson, Columbia County, New York, at 83.
