Rev. William F. Bell was a Methodist Episcopal minister born in Old Franklin, Howard County, Missouri, on February 16, 1831. The first nine years of his life were spent in Old Franklin, where his father's family then lived. In 1840, the family moved to Macon County, Missouri, and there he was reared and educated. In 1851, having qualified himself for the ministry, he returned to Howard County, the home of his childhood, and during the same year was admitted to the Missouri conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, south.