Junella Elizabeth (Wenzel) Bell (1906 - 1994)

Born 8 Nov 1906 in Thomas Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, United States

Ancestors

Daughter of Adolph Eugene Wenzel and Catherine Elizabeth (Callahan) Wenzel

Wife of Alfred George Bell — married 22 Nov 1922 in Saginaw County, Michigan, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Jan 1994 at age 87 in Saginaw, Michigan, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Heather Kushion [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Junella Elizabeth Wenzel was born on November 8th, 1906 in Thomas Township, Saginaw, MIchigan. She was the eldest daughter of Adolph Wenzel and Catherine Callahan, both lifelong residents of Thomas Township.

Early Life

By 1910, she was three years old and living on the 30 acre property of her Irish maternal grandfather, Patrick Callahan, in the southeast corner of Thomas Township with her parents and newborn sister Francis. Her father was working as a coal miner.^[1][2]

They remained there throughout the next decade as her younger siblings Kathren and Chester were born and ownership of the property passed to her father, Adolph.^[3]

Married Life

On November 22, 1922, Junella Wenzel, 16 (recorded as 18) was lawfully wed to farmer Alfred Bell, 36, of Swan Creek Township, son of Thomas Bell who owned 300+ acres in the southwest corner of Thomas Township. Neither had been previously married. The marriage was officiated by R. E. McGinn, assistant pastor of St Peter & Pauls Church, and witnessed by her second cousin Ernest Mielke and his fiancée Ruth Deslrone, both residents of the City of Saginaw.^[4]

Junella and Alfred made their home at their 40 acre farm on Trinklein Rd in Swan Creek Township and had the following children:

1. Alfred Alexander, born March 23, 1923
2. Chester Herman, born May 30, 1924
3. Francis Eugene, born June 23, 1925
4. Catherine Matilda, born February 4, 1927
5. Mary Elizabeth, born February 2, 1929
6. Marvel Louise, born December 13, 1930
7. Gladys Ann, born August 5, 1932
8. a daughter, still living
9. a daughter, still living
10. Thomas William, born March 13, 1938
11. a son, still living
12. a son, still living
13. a daughter, still living
14. a daughter, still living
15. a son, still living

Her maternal grandfather, Patrick Callahan, 84, passed away in 1927 on New Years Day.^[5] Her mother-in-law Matilda Bell, 78, passed the day after St Patrick's Day in the following year.^[6]

By 1930, Junella and her husband had five children: Alfred, Chester, Francis, Catherine, and Mary. Only their eldest, Alfred, was old enough to go to school.^[7] By the next decade their family doubled in size and her husband was building a second house on the property, east of their existing home.^[8]

Eighteen years later on October 27, 1958, her husband finished hooking up the water line to the new house. He came inside to eat a sandwich and had an aneurism. He died later that day at the age of 72, leaving her a widow. He was interred at St Mary's Cemetery in Hemlock, Michigan.^[9][10]

It was this small house sitting on 3 acres of cleared lawn space that would host numerous family gatherings over the years. Junella never remarried and largely lived alone. The old house she in her husband started with was torn down and only a foundation remained.^[11]

Death and Legacy

Junella Bell. 87, passed away on January 6th, 1994 in Saginaw County, Michigan on route to the hospital. She was buried on the 8th in Saint Marys Cemetery of Hemlock, Michigan with her late husband.^[12]

Survivors included six daughters, five sons, 52 grandchildren, 89 great-grandchildren, a sister, and two brothers.

Junella was predeceased by her husband of 42 years, Alfred Bell, her sons Alfred Bell Jr and Chester Bell, daughters Catherine Aspin and Marvel Orr, son-in-laws Robert Kushion and Robert Kaiser, daughter-in-law, Rose Marie Bell, granddaughter Wendy Seaver, grandsons Harold Bell and Alan Kushion, sister Frances Sloboda and her husband George Sloboda, brother-in-law, Ralph Bell, and sister-in-law, Gertrude Wenzel.

Sources

1. ↑ 1910 US Federal Census for Thomas Township, Saginaw County, Michigan; sheet 2B, family 39.
2. ↑ Historic Map Works, "Saginaw County, Michigan 1916" (Chicago, IL: Geo A. Ogle & Co., 1916) p. 57 Thomas Township, section 36.
3. ↑ James Graham, enumerator, 1920 US Federal Census for Thomas Township, Saginaw County, Michigan; sheet 5A, family 102,
4. ↑ Return of Marriages in the County of Saginaw for the year ending 31 December 1922;
5. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial 100589622 for Patrick Callahan
6. ↑ Michigan Death Certificate for Mathilda Bell (Lansing, MI: Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics) accessed 13 Mar 2018.
7. ↑ Frank McConnell, enumerator, 1930 US Census, Swan Creek Township, Saginaw, Michigan, United States, enumeration district 66, sheet 4B, family 85, lines 61-67
8. ↑ Frank Bloniarczyk, enumerator, 1940 US Census, Swan Creek Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, enumeration district 73-79, sheet 2B, family 32,
9. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial 69002649 for Alfred George Bell
10. ↑ According to her daughter Patricia who was 13 years old at the time.
11. ↑ Recollection of the property by her granddaughter, Heather Kushion.
12. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial 106199564 for Junella Elizabeth Wenzel Bell

See Also:

• "Junella Elizabeth Wenzel Bell (1906-1994)" (Online: Find a Grave, 4 Mar 2013) Memorial 106199564; accessed 7 Dec 2018.
• "Junella Elizabeth Wenzel (1906-1994)" (Online: FamilySearch, 8 Feb 2012) Person LH7F-22B; accessed 11 Feb 2019.

DNA

• Paternal and maternal relationship confirmed by an AncestryDNA match between P.B and 1st cousin 1x removed, K.B.. Their MRCAs are their great and 2nd great-grandparents, respectively, Adolph Wenzel and Catherine Callahan. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 1st - 2nd Cousins based on sharing 538 cM across 22 segments. Probability of exact relationship is 0.84.