{{Short description|American politician (1811–1870)}} {{Other people|Joshua Bell}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Joshua F. Bell | honorific_suffix = | image = Joshua-Fry-Bell.jpg | alt = A man with receding black hair, a mustache, and a beard wearing a white shirt and black jacket | state = Kentucky | district = 4th | term_start = March 4, 1845 | term_end = March 3, 1847 | predecessor = George Caldwell | successor = Aylette Buckner | order2 = 31st | office2 = Secretary of State of Kentucky | term_start2 = July 2, 1849 | term_end2 = March 16, 1850 | governor2 = John J. Crittenden | predecessor2 = Orlando Brown | successor2 = John William Finnell | office3 = Member of the<br />Kentucky House of Representatives<br />from Boyle County | term_start3 = February 17, 1862 | term_end3 = August 5, 1867 | predecessor3 = William Clayton Anderson | successor3 = James M. McFerran | birth_date = {{birth date|1811|11|26}} | birth_place = Danville, Kentucky | death_date = {{death date and age|1870|08|17|1811|11|26}} | death_place = Danville, Kentucky | resting_place = Bellevue Cemetery <br>Danville, Kentucky, U.S. | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = | party = Whig | other_party = <!--For additional political affiliations--> | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = Centre College | profession = Lawyer | signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}
'''Joshua Fry Bell''' (November 26, 1811 – August 17, 1870) was an American politician. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Congress for one term.
==Early life and education== Bell was born in Danville, Kentucky, where he attended public schools and then Centre College, where he graduated in 1828. He next studied law in Lexington, Kentucky, and travelled around Europe for several years before returning home and being admitted to the bar.
==Political career and mid-life== Bell was elected as a Whig to the 29th Congress in November 1844. He did not seek reelection and served a single term in the House, March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1847. He was the Kentucky Secretary of State in 1849.
Bell owned four slaves as of the 1850 census, and 14 as of the 1860 census.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Joshua Fry Bell · Civil War Governors of Kentucky|url=http://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00000207|access-date=2022-01-30|website=discovery.civilwargovernors.org}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=2022-01-27|url=https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-congress-slaveowners|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2022-01-30}}</ref>
Bell was the Whig Party nominee in the 1859 Kentucky gubernatorial election. He would lose to Democrat Beriah Magoffin, winning 46.9% of the vote.<ref>{{cite book |last= Harrison |first= Lowell|date= 1992|title= The Kentucky Encyclopedia |publisher= Reed Business Information|page= 603|isbn=9780813117720}}</ref>
In February 1861 he was sent by Kentucky as a commissioner to the Peace Conference held in Washington, D.C., in an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to stave off what became the American Civil War.
Bell served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1862 to 1867. Union Democrats attempted to nominate him for Governor of Kentucky in 1863, but he declined the nomination.<ref name="khs-Bramlette2">{{cite web |title=Thomas E. Bramlette (1863-1867) · Civil War Governors of Kentucky |url=http://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/thomas-e-bramlette-1863-1867 |website=Civil War Governors of Kentucky |publisher=Kentucky Historical Society |access-date=27 March 2024}}</ref>
==Later life and death==
Joshua Fry Bell died in 1870 in Danville at the age of 58 and was interred at Bellevue Cemetery.<ref>{{cite book |title=Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961 |date=1961 |publisher=Government Printing Office |page=539 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeBQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA539 |access-date=17 March 2022}}</ref> Bell County, Kentucky is named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ | title=The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Volume 1 | publisher=Kentucky State Historical Society | year=1903 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ/page/n34 34]}}</ref>
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-new|first}} {{s-ttl|title=Opposition nominee for Governor of Kentucky|years=1859}} {{s-aft|after=None}} |- {{succession box | title = United States Representative (4th district) from Kentucky | before = George Caldwell | after = Aylette Buckner | years = 1845-1847}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Orlando Brown}} {{s-ttl|title=Secretary of State of Kentucky|years=1849–1850}} {{s-aft|after=John W. Finnell}} {{s-end}}
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== {{CongBio|B000343}} *{{cite book |last=Allen |first=William B. |title=A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits |publisher=Bradley & Gilbert |year=1872 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s_wTAAAAYAAJ |accessdate=2008-11-10 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s_wTAAAAYAAJ/page/n281 280]–281}} {{USCongRep-start|congresses= 29th United States Congress |state=Kentucky}} {{USCongRep/KY/29}} {{USCongRep-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Joshua Fry}} Category:1811 births Category:1870 deaths Category:Politicians from Danville, Kentucky Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Burials in Bellevue Cemetery (Danville, Kentucky) Category:Whig Party United States representatives from Kentucky Category:Secretaries of state of Kentucky Category:Unionist members of the Kentucky House of Representatives Category:Kentucky lawyers Category:Centre College alumni Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly Category:Slave owners from Kentucky