Jettie Bell born May 20, 1888 -died Juuly 5, 1908.
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“Her life was beauty, truth, goodness and love,” the epitaph on a weighty marker testifies, re-emerging recently in remarkable condition from decades of overgrowth in the eastern section of Geer Cemetery.

The arc of Jettie Bell’s life was not long, but from the few available sources we can begin to understand a bit about the rapidly changing world she inhabited, and the loving family that left this stone in her memory.

James Bell and Mary Jane King were wed in 1885 in Wilmington, the port city where they likely sought opportunity after childhoods further inland in Robeson and Scotland Counties. Jettie was their first child, followed by brothers Jasper and James, as well as a sister Laura.

At the age of 10, Jettie likely witnessed the violent 1898 coup that terrorized and disenfranchised the city’s African American population.

By 1907, the Bells had relocated to Durham, living on Macklin Street in the Hayti neighborhood. As the oldest child already of working age, Jettie made her lone appearance in the city directory that year.

In the absence of death certificates - which were not collected until a year after her passing - we do not know what cut her life short in July 1908. We do know that her family went on to sink roots in their adopted home; the Bells bought property on East Piedmont Avenue in 1909, building a compound that eventually comprised two adjacent structures for their own residence, a neighborhood grocery, and rental lodging.

These buildings remained in the family for over 50 years, and still stand looking out over the landscape razed by Urban Renewal just across the street to the north.

James Bell became a trustee of the Gospel Tabernacle Holiness Church a few doors east, serving in that capacity for decades.

The longtime Bishop Henry L. Fisher (for whom the congregation was later renamed Fisher Memorial) recorded leading the September 1936 funeral for “Sister Mary J. Bell” in his daybooks.

Her burial at Geer Cemetery - followed by that of Jettie’s brother, Jasper, in 1944 - suggests the family may have purchased adjacent plots.

More information remains to be gathered as cemetery cleanup work continues.