The following text is from a brochure written by Helen M. Sims on the life of Simeon Bishop Bell, published by The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, in 1979.

The author is indebted to Mrs. Margaret W. Landis, Kansas City, Missouri and Dr. Robert H. Chesky, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mrs. Landis has spent most of her life in Rosedale and has devoted years in research, writing and speaking on local history. Dr. Chesky wrote a term paper on Simeon Bishop Bell in 1959 while he was a medical student at The University of Kansas.

March 1979

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This the story of one man ... a physician, a teacher, a farmer, a store keeper and a land developer. His name was Simeon Bishop Bell. He moved his family to the eastern part of Kansas five years prior to its admission to the Union. In spite of the adversities of drought, war and the perils of pioneering, he lived to the age of 93. He was a man of many abilities and interests. He aided materially in the development of Wyandotte and Johnson Counties, Kansas ... the area where he made his home and his fortune. His greatest legacy, however, must be the University of Kansas Medical Center. His foresight, generosity and persistence made possible the establishment of the state's first four-year school of medicine.

Simeon Bishop Bell was the tenth of 15 children born to Jabesh and Gertrude Nichols Bell in Sussex County, New Jersey on May 13, 1820. The family moved to Richland County, Ohio in 1832 where they engaged in farming and mill construction. He began his formal education at the age of 21. He worked his way through school, graduating from Norwalk Seminary and began a brief teaching career in Lexington, Ohio. While teaching, Dr. Bell began to "read medicine" with a physician as was the custom at that time. He also met a young, slender woman described as "quite the belle" in social gatherings. He married Eleanor Taylor on January 1, 1846. Shortly after their marriage the Bells moved to Columbus, Ohio, so he could pursue the formal study of medicine. There they rented a large house and Mrs. Bell opened their home to twelve other medical students whose room and board charges provided their living expenses. Dr. Bell graduated in 1853 with a class of 39 from the Starling Medical College. (Now the College of Medicine of Ohio State University.)

He began his medical practice in Mansfield, Ohio. That proved to he a bad decision. In 1850, Mansfield had 31 physicians for a population of 1,733 (or one doctor for each 55 potential patients). By 1858 that number had dropped to 15. One of those that sought another location was Simeon Bell, and he decided to look farther west. The long trip by covered wagon was made in 1857. He found every quarter section of Johnson County, Kansas occupied by a family of "actual settlers" and it was so thickly settled, he concluded it would be an excellent locality for the practice of his profession. He chose a location in the Stilwell-Aubry area. The Bells spent difficult but productive years in making their new abode habitable and in establishing a medical practice. They cut timber to build a log farmhouse from the banks of the Big Blue River, on the Shawnee Indian reservation. The family moved into it in February of 1858. Their nearest neighbors were only five miles away, but there was no other physician within 25 miles. Dr. Bell's practice kept him busy. Money was scarce, but since the farm had to be stocked, he took live stock in payment of bills. In a few short years and despite a 16 month drought in 1859 and 1860, these young people, who had come to Kansas "without a dollar" were well equipped farmers and store keepers.

But rural peace and quiet came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the Civil War. Lying as it did on the border of Missouri, the township where the Bells lived was most unfortunately situated. With the first outbreak of hostilities a great number of citizens left, some going into the union army, some to the confederacy, and others to less exposed localities. The community was divided in sentiment, a few in sympathy with the union cause, and the rest, principally former Missouri residents, were for the south. It was equally unsafe, however, to express an opinion on either side. Only two or three hours time was required for a squad of bushwackers to drop in on a household for investigating purposes. If, on the other hand, an individual said a word in favor of the south, even less time was necessary for a few jayhawkers to express their dissent by stripping the southern sympathizer of every portable article about the premises.

There were two or three union men, however, who did not attempt to conceal the fact that their sympathies were strongly with the union cause. One of the most out-spoken of these men was Dr. Simeon Bell. His opinions brought about personal peril to him and to his family on more than one encounter with the bushwackers in the guerilla warfare that ensued on the border between Kansas and Missouri. Several raids were made on the Bell home and the homes of neighbors. The Sack of Aubry in 1861, the first of Quantrill's major exploits, resulted in severe injuries including a skull fracture to Dr. Bell. He was ordered by Quantrill to care for the wounded, which he did in spite of his own injuries. After the fight was over the bushwackers helped themselves to the goods in the Bell store, took a number of horses, and departed. It is believed that Dr. Bell's life was spared because Quantrill, an Ohioan by birth, at one time lived near Spring Hill, about eight miles west of the Aubry-StilwelI area, and showed mercy because of past associations.

Quantrill's men again cleaned out Dr. Bell's store as they passed through Aubry on their return to Missouri after the Olathe raid in November of 1862. He sustained another skull fracture in an attack in 1863. The final raid came near the end of the war in 1865. Dr. Bell believed that Jesse and Frank James were involved in the affair.

After the last raid which burned their home, furniture, books and medical diploma, the Bells moved to DeSoto. They were taken in by a brother-in-law who had settled there. They made a trip back to Ohio by covered wagon to visit Mrs. Bell's relatives. Dr. Bell went on to New Jersey to visit his relatives and to receive medical treatment, including a steel plate for his skull injuries.

The Bells had been wiped out as far as home and business were concerned. However, they had invested all of their spare money in land during the war years, buying out those who were leaving in haste. In this manner some 1,100 acres of land were accumulated.

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After the family returned to Kansas they located in Rosedale. The year was 1866. Dr. Bell purchased a quarter section of land in the Turkey Creek valley, in Rosedale, near the Missouri State line and moved his family there. It was to remain his home for the rest of his life. The war was over and the local fighting at an end, therefore, there is no reason to believe that they could not have started anew in their first Kansas place of residence. Possibly Dr. Bell could see that Kansas City's location would soon make it the prominent city of the region, and that population growth would assure rising property values to the settler who was able to buy land and willing to wait for the prices to rise. Suffice it to say, Dr. Bell became Rosedale's wealthiest man.

Eleanor Taylor Bell, weakened by the struggles and hardships of the war years, died January 13, 1866 seven weeks following the birth of the couple's tenth child. Dr. Bell remarried in 1866, this time to Mrs. Margaret Bellis. To this union were born two more children. Dr. Bell's second wife obtained a divorce after a few years of marriage, but lived not far from him in Rosedale and he visited her home frequently to see his children.

Dr. Bell operated a general store at the intersection of Shawnee Road and State Line for a time after the family's arrival in the Kansas City area. However, operations soon began in earnest on the farm he had purchased in Rosedale and his merchant career gave way to farming. Family members recalled that the sycamore logs for the new home were hauled to a mill near the original Kansas City Union Depot, which later became the stockyards district. There was plenty of work for the children. Apparently Dr. Bell had the pioneer sentiment that work was good for children. There were fields to be plowed; timber to be cleared from the Rosedale hillside; and all members of the family worked long hours. The Bells built the first lodge building in Rosedale. Called Bell's Hall it was located near the home on Southwest Boulevard. The kiln that made the bricks was on the site and huge slabs for footings were quarried from rock formations on the Bell property.

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Farming occupied the family until 1880, when the first sub-division of Bell land was platted. This land contains the route of the present Southwest Boulevard. Its acceptance by the city marked the culmination of a battle for the creation of the boulevard that Dr. Bell had waged for many vears. Dr. Bell later acknowledged that the outcome of this project was the key to his success in later real estate endeavors. He knew the land he purchased in 1866 would never be worth much until it could be reached by good roads. So he began his campaign to build a boulevard from Kansas City south along the Turkey Creek valley, through Wyandotte County on into Johnson County. He wanted the road to run diagonally to follow the natural course of the creek.

The city fathers would not approve the plan because it did not follow established sectional lines of government surveyors. A lengthy controversy followed. Following two court petitions, signed by all the landowners concerned, the city officials finally approved the boulevard. Dr. Bell paid the expenses of the 100-foot wide roadway which ran through his property. After the improvements were made, he turned the property over to the city. But the completion of the boulevard made the remaining Bell land worth $3,000 to $10,000 an acre. Additional sub-divisions were platted in 1886 and 1887 and Dr. Bell was launched in the real estate business full-scale.

The greatest financial reward apparently came from the sale of some 40 acres of land at $3,000 per acre to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. Dr. Bell also helped in projects in which he had no direct financial interest. He promoted roads along the Kaw River to the west, and from the old Johnson Mission to Argentine. He earned the reputation as the pioneer good roads advocate in Wyandotte County and helped locate parks and boulevards when such improvements were given little thought by anyone else.

Dr. Bell's most widely recognized achievement, however, was in the endowing of the Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial Hospital and the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Just when he conceived the idea of endowing an educational institution is not known. However, historical accounts and the Wyandotte Gazette of December 31, 1886 contains the following story-editorial:

"Bell's Third Sub-Division, consisting of 50 acres of fine residential property situated on the Southwest Boulevard, just west of the state line, will be platted on the market in March, by Dr. S. B. Bell, the owner....

"A central feature in this magnificient piece of property is a tract of about five acres lying midway from north to south on a prominent eminence which Dr. Bell proposes to donate to some powerful church or other organization on which to erect an institution of higher learning of a broad and liberal nature, and which he proposes to endow with a large sum of money as it is established....

"Dr. Bell desires that the college be inter-state in its nature, and shall be managed by a board of trustees composed of equal numbers of men from Kansas and Missouri....

"Dr. Bell when 21 years of age was unable to either read or write, and was obliged to work his way through school and college, depending wholly on his own efforts. He desires now to assist in establishing such an institution that every young man and woman in the country may have college opportunities at the least possible expense."

The plat of Bell's Third Sub-Division, filed May 17, 1887 contains a map of College Park, located south of Southwest Boulevard, where the Eleanor Taylor Hospital, apparently not then in Bell's mind, was to be built two decades later.

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The reason Dr. Bell later changed his mind and offered land and money to the University of Kansas for a medical school and hospital also is not known. However, it is felt that a desire to help make things easier for young people to obtain an education and a long interest in medicine probably were the major motivating factors in his choice of a memorial to his first wife. It is also possible that between 1887 and 1894 he perceived that a medical school and hospital for clinical teaching were needed more than a liberal arts institution in the area. In any case, on August 24, 1894, he wrote the following letter to Professor L. E. Sayre, then head of the pharmacy and medical training programs at Lawrence:

Dear Sir: Enclosed with this letter I send you a map of Bell's sub-division of lands. I wish to make some propositions for you and others - looking toward the establishment and building - first a hospital - and second a medical college in Kansas City, Kansas. No, not quite Kansas City, Kansas - but when in Rosedale where Kansas City, Kansas - Rosedale - Kansas City, Missouri and Westport, Missouri come with each other. Block 32 College Park of the plat - as you may see - is a high promontory - fronting toward the Southwest Boulevard street. Said tract is almost as high as Mount Oread - elevated - rounded and nicely sloping in front - isolated by elevation and streets all around - good water and building stones - complete drainage - a dandy site for an extensive hospital. I will donate College Park for a hospital site anJ supplement it with thirty to fifty thousand dollars as "nucleus" of origin for the hospital scheme. I will donate a suitable site for medical college buildings - all of which is respectfully submitted to the management of the Kansas State University. Please write or see me at my office 3200 Southwest Boulevard, Wyandotte Co., Kansas - Respectfully, S.B. Bell.

The governing board of the University of Kansas accepted the Bell gift, valued at $100,000, on September 13, 1894. Dr. Bell then deeded 101 residence lots to be sold for the raising of funds to build the hospital, and a seven acre site for the building itself. The Regents and the Chancellor were enthusiastic about the gift and the proposed site, however, the Kansas Legislature was not so quick to act upon the matter. It was not until 1903 that further action was taken, again by Dr. Bell. This time, he went to Lawrence and deeded to the University more than 500 acres of farm land valued at $25,000 in Cass and Jackson Counties, Missouri.

The legislature finally approved the Bell plan in 1905 but only after three Kansas City area proprietary medical schools agreed to consolidate with the University. Finally, at age 86, Dr. Bell was seeing his dream come true! Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial Hospital was built that same year. Medical students from the merging schools enrolled for clinical training. A training school for nurses was started and opened in 1907. The address was 311 College Avenue, a location near the present intersection of Southwest Boulevard and 7th Street. The original plans for the hospital included five separate buildings. The "Medical Pavilion" was the first to be erected. The two-storv building and basement was 112 feet by 45 feet - constructed with oak stairways. There were beds for 24 patients. The cost was $75,000. The annual budget was $25,000. The first floor plan of the Medical Pavilion included two large ward rooms; four small ward rooms, a physician's room; two baths; reception area and dining room. The basement followed a similiar plan except it included the boiler. Nurses quarters and ward rooms were on the second floor. Large porches were on both floors.

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In 1909 the new school graduated 16 physicians and 4 nurses. That same year the state legislature appropriated $50,000 for a second building. It was completed two years later and was used as an infirmary. It provided rooms for 75 more patients and included a ward for treatment of crippled children. This 3-story brick building cost $60,000 and was formally opened in October of 1911. Present at the dedication were Chancellor Frank Strong, William Allen White and Rodney E. Ellward, Regents and Dr. S. J. Crumbine, Dean of the School of Medicine and Secretary of the Kansas State Board of Health.

The December 20, 1912 issue of the Rosedale Inter-State News reported "the hospital is in very splendid condition. The staff treated 1,511 cases last year. They also gave a number of persons the Pasteur treatment for the prevention of hydrophobia."

The new hospital was flourishing; but all was not good news for Dr. Bell and Rosedale citizens. Several Kansas towns were desirous of having the school of medicine moved. Topeka citizens through the Commercial Club asked the legislature to remove the school from Rosedale to the capitol city. The steep paths leading to the hospital site, hampered by uneven terrain, inaccessibility, smoke and noise from the passing railroad cars, brought criticism from the legislative committees and thus opposition to sufficient appropriations to help the institution grow.

On January 10, 1913 Dr. Bell wrote the following letter:

"It is with the deepest regret I learn that the Commercial Club of Topeka will ask this legislature to remove the medical school from Rosedale to Topeka. Several years ago I gave a large portion of my property to the State with the assurance that the school and the hospital would be located on it, there to remain for all time. I did this through a desire to do something to help advance my profession and also that I might erect a living monument to the memory of my wife, Eleanor Taylor Bell.

My home was made on Kansas soil several years before Kansas was given a place among the States of our Union, and so great was my faith in her people that I gave deeds in fee simple to my lands and thousands of dollars of my money so that the State might do the thing I so much desired.

The chancellor and the board of regents of the university assured me that my gifts would be held sacred for the purpose given.

The legislature accepted my property and have sold it and given deeds to it and have taken my money and spent it, and even though I now be reimbursed, to take it away will be a great disappointment to me - a complete shattering of my early and lifelong ambition - and, coming as it does in the ninety-third year of my life, with my body feeble and my mind having lost largely of its former power of concentration, I feel it as a great blow.

Knowing that I am nearing the other side, I earnestly ask that the legislature of 1913 finally and for all time to come to settle the question of the location of the medical school that I may, with an unshaken faith in the people of my state, die in peace. And as my last request I ask that the appropriation for the medical school this year be granted.

Because of my feebleness I have asked my son-in-law, L. H. Rose, to represent me. Please write him and, through him, let me know what you will do for me."

Mr. Rose added the post script: "Doctor Bell died January 16. I hope that you can carry out his wishes."

Dr. Bell was buried at DeSoto, Kansas. He was survived by six children who lived to maturity. The body of Eleanor Taylor Bell, buried 47 years previously in Union Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri was exhumed and buried by her husband in Silent City Cemetery.

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Dr. Bell's plea was heard. The 1913 Kansas Legislature adopted a bill insuring the school would remain in Rosedale and appropriated $24,000 for a hospital dispensary and laboratory. The Kansas Medical College in Topeka merged with the University of Kansas. The third building was completed in 1915 and the first two floors were used for an outpatient clinic. The second floor housed the clinical laboratories.

The post-war mood in Kansas brought a change in fortune to the medical school. In 1919 the legislature voted $200,000 for a new hospital building and left its location to a committee headed by Governor Henry Allen. It had become increasingly clear to university and state officials that the original site was impossible for further development. The campus was called "goat hill" and it was said that only healthy medical students and goats could climb it! The campus did not have ample space for expansion. Months of consideration and many offers followed. Finally the City of Rosedale in 1920 voted a bond issue of $35,000 to help with the purchase of a site. A campaign to raise an additional $35,000 was started by gifts from alumni, faculty, friends and public subscription.

The decision was made to buy the Kerns truck farm at 39th and Rainbow at a cost of $65,000. Construction of the Bell Memorial Hospital was completed in 1924 and the move to the new building on the top of the hill" began. Rosedale was annexed by Kansas City, Kansas in 1922. The original building continued in use for many more years. First the Eleanor Taylor Building became a nurses home, then a civic and communicable disease hospital. At one time the campus provided a community center for families unable to pay rent during the depression years (nine families lived there). It was a county home; a tuberculosis hospital; a psychiatric hospital. The last patients were moved up the hill in 1956. In the late 1950's a virus research center of national renown operated by the University moved in. In the 1960's it provided headquarters for a leukemia research group from the medical school.

The Kansas City, Kansas Urban Renewal Agency purchased the two remaining red brick structures (the original building was razed in 1937). The Rosedale landmark passed from the scene in 1972 when the buildings were demolished. Plans were to build a high-rise apartment complex on the site. These plans did not materialize.

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Today, all that remains of the predecessor of the University of Kansas Medical Center is a grass covered knoll with a few broken red bricks one short block off the southeast corner of Southwest Boulevard and 7th street Trafficway.

Simeon Bishop Bell's dream for a hospital and a medical school did come true! And then some!

Since the facility he established began to move "up the hill" in 1924 progress has been continuous. The institution has become a multi-faceted health sciences center comprised of a College of Health Sciences and a University Hospital. The College includes three schools - medicine, nursing and allied health. The present campus in Kansas City covers fifty acres and includes over fifty buildings. A school of Medicine - Wichita has been in operation for clinical training in recent years.

The annual operating budget is over $100,000,000. Research programs total over $15,000,000. Nearly one-third of a million patients are treated annually in the hospital and in the clinics by over 5,000 faculty and staff members. The emergency area handles some 30,000 patients each year; over 400,000 meals are prepared. Nearly 6,000 physicians and 3,000 nurses, plus thousands of allied health technicians, technologists, therapists, etc., have received their training within its walls. Over 3,000 have completed graduate medical education in specialties and sub-specialties of medicine and health sciences. Over 500 a year now complete degree or certificate programs.

Through Outreach, a commitment of the University of Kansas, the College and Hospital take their educational and health care programs to the service of people all over the state. Some of these programs are nearly as old as the University's medical school itself; others are quite new. Old or new, they are continuously reevaluated and revised to better achieve their objectives of meeting the health care needs of the citizens of Kansas.

Published by
The University of Kansas Medical Center
Rainbow Boulevard at 39th
Kansas City, Kansas 66103

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This page created and maintained by
Janis S. Stone

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