Located on Snowden Road near Snowden.  Present owner is Mrs. Marie Stephens Ballance.  Mrs. Ballance says four generations of the family have lived there--Caleb Bell, his son, Haywood Bell, Haywood Bell's daughter, Betty Bell, who married Stephens, and Marie Stephens Ballance, who married Clarence Ballance.  The beaded English siding is intact and is in excellent condition.  Also note the door by the side of the chimney.  The windows are the three-row upper sash type.  The original wide flooring, mantel, and panels are all as they were, beautifully preserved.

[Photo taken by the late J. Howard Stevens who wrote Albemarle, People and Places]

Part of a letter written in 1957 to Alma O. Roberts by Margaret Bell Stover reads:
"Father’s Brothers record - Papa did not get in to The War. As a negro was killed why I do not know on Grand Pa Bell’s plantation which Clarence Ballance and Marie on now. The Yankeys accused Grand Pa Caleb Bell of having the Man killed so the came took him as a prisoner & put him in Prison at Ft. Monroe, Va. So Papa did not go he was ready to go as all 4 of his Bros. were in Service he took care of the farm & family - until they let Grand Pa out after Small Pox broke out in prison. Vaccinated him with Poison Virous & turned the men out. He was broken out with Small pox When he got home & all 4 at home - step mother 1^st Cousin who lived with them & papa - all 4 sick at one time Dr. Cowell looked after them all the time. Well Mr. Will Shaw and Mr. Joe Grandy, his father signed my papers they were in the same Cavalry with Uncle Branson Bell. He had pneumonia and died at the Ladys Hospital in Petersburg Va. & is buried in Branton Cemetery there. I’ve been to his grave. So two Confederate Veterans signed my papers. I’ve been a Member of W.D.C. 52 years."

Margaret Baxter Bell (b. 22 Apr. 1878 at Indian Ridge, Currituck County) was the daughter of Joseph Etheridge Cartwright Bell (b. 16 May 1843 - d. 27 July 1906) and Joseph’s third wife, Mary Adelia (Mamie) Baxter (b. 31 Oct. 1864 - d. 10 Dec. 1907).

There is a story that I have heard told about the Caleb Bell Home during the Civil War. Supposedly, Union soldiers were marching down the road toward the Caleb Bell house. As they approached the lane leading up to the house they were met by a boy scarred by smallpox who warned them not to approach the house because all inside were sick with smallpox. Because the boy was marked by the scars of the disease, the soldiers believed his story and did not approach the house. It is supposed that this may have been the only reason that the house was not burned by Union soldiers during the war.  I have yet to find written information to support this story, but it probably exists. In light of the contents of Mrs. Stover’s letter, I think the story is very plausible. It is a story that may have been repeated on other plantations during the period of the Civil War.

For more information about this Bell family of Currituck, see the Branson Bell Home.