Joshua Fry Bell
Pineville, Bell County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Joshua Fry Bell. Bell County formed from Harlan and Knox counties, 1867. Named for Joshua Fry Bell, 1811-70, Congressman, Ky. Sec. of State. Comr. to Peace Conference in 1861 and state legislator. He was great-grandson of Dr. Thomas Walker, explorer of Kentucky wilderness, 1750. Dedicated May 20, 1963.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Bell County, formed in 1867 from parts of Harlan and Knox counties, honors Joshua Fry Bell (1811–1870), a congressman, Kentucky secretary of state, and state legislator. In 1861 he served as a commissioner to the Peace Conference that sought, in vain, to head off civil war. He was a great-grandson of Dr. Thomas Walker, who had explored the Kentucky wilderness back in 1750.
Why it matters
Bell's career, and his family line reaching back to the first explorers, ties Kentucky's frontier origins to the anxious politics of the Union's near-collapse.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Tri-State Point11.1 mi away
Food & drink
- The Butcher's Pubnearby · 112 Kentucky Avenue, Pineville
- La Esperanzanearby
- Little Caesarsnearby
- KFC0.1 mi away · 117 Pine Street, Pineville, KY
- Burger Hut0.1 mi away
- Arby's0.9 mi away · Pineville, KY
Places to stay
- Pine Mountain Inn0.1 mi away
- Boone Trail Inn8.9 mi away · 2105 US Highway 25 E, Middlesboro, KY
- The Olde Mill Inn Bed & Breakfast11.2 mi away · 603 Pennlyn Street, Cumberland Gap, TN
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joshua Fry Bell
- · Thomas Walker
Related events
- · Peace Conference of 1861
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Joseph Martin monument
Lee County, VA
In the 1770s, the rugged country of far southwestern Virginia stood at the gateway to the Wilderness Road, the route Daniel Boone blazed through the Cumberland Gap toward Kentucky. General Joseph Martin, a frontiersman, soldier, and Indian agent, established Martin's Station near here, one of the westernmost outposts of colonial settlement and a vital waystation for pioneers pressing into the trans-Appalachian frontier. This monument honors Martin alongside the more than 200,000 settlers who braved that hard country to push the boundaries of the young nation.
Whitley County Named, 1818
Williamsburg, KY
Whitley County was formed in 1818 and named, like its seat of Williamsburg, for Colonel William Whitley—a famed Indian fighter credited with leading more than seventeen battles and helping drive Native peoples from southeastern Kentucky by 1794. He joined the Kentucky militia in the War of 1812 and was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. The county's first court met in 1818 in the home of Samuel Cox, Williamsburg's first citizen.
The Wilderness Road
London, KY
In 1796, the young state of Kentucky opened its first wagon road, transforming Daniel Boone's old buffalo-trace footpath into a route broad enough for settlers' loaded wagons. Running from Crab Orchard through London to the Cumberland Gap, the improved Wilderness Road carried a flood of pioneers into the Bluegrass country and beyond, and for eight decades it was maintained as a toll turnpike. What had once been a rugged trace for horseback and foot travel became the great overland artery that stitched the trans-Appalachian West to the settled East.
Daniel Boone's Trail
Rockcastle County, KY
This marker traces the path Daniel Boone helped open through the mountains from North Carolina into Kentucky. In the 1770s Boone blazed a route through the Cumberland Gap that became the Wilderness Road, the great overland gateway that carried tens of thousands of settlers into the trans-Appalachian frontier. Rockcastle County lay along that hard, rugged corridor into the Kentucky wilderness.