PITTSBORO — The year was 1918.
Across the world, fighting was winding down in World War I, the war President Woodrow Wilson said was the “war to end all wars,” the same one he said “would make the world safe for democracy” when, in 1917, he asked Congress to involve the United States.
In that year of 1918, on July 9, just a few months before the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” when the Allies and Germany signed a pact ending hostilities, a baby boy was born in rural Chatham County.
No one knew it at the time but that baby — born to the late Connie and Peter Bell Sr. — would grow up to become involved in several different battles and wars during his lifetime.
That lifetime ended a week ago when, on Sept. 22, the Rev. Dr. Peter Bell Jr., a pastor and an involved community member and volunteer, breathed his last in the arms of his son Tim as the younger man was taking his father to a vehicle for a trip to a nearby hospital.
Rev. Dr. Peter Bell Jr. was 102 years old.
“He was definitely an outstanding man,” said longtime friend Mary Nettles. “He was active in the community and in politics but I knew him before that. He was our youth leader at Hamlet’s Chapel. His whole family was involved in church.”
It was at Hamlet’s Chapel C.M.E. Church, his home church, that he felt a call to ministry. Prior to that as a layman, he had helped begin the youth church, taught the Young Men’s Sunday School class, was a member of the Male Chorus and the Usher Board and worked with weekly praise and Bible study sessions.
There’s some disagreement as to how many years he was a pastor, though; an obituary on the Knotts Funeral Home site credits his length of service at 47 years, but his wife Alice said it was more.
“When we met, he’d been a pastor for 15 years,” she said, “and we were married for 46 years. So, it may be more like 60-some years.”
Bell officially retired from Pittsboro Church of God in 2012 when he was 94 years old. He was a graduate of Horton High School in Pittsboro, and after completing school, Uncle Sam called and Bell served in the Army during World War II, spending part of his tour of duty in Germany on the same continent where the war of his birth year played out and wasn’t the war to end all wars.
When he returned home, he was employed by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. in Durham, where he worked until his retirement. When he was discharged from the Army, he married Junior “June” Gray Hadley. The couple had a daughter, Debrah (Bell) Reed. She and her husband Will had a son, Jordan. Several years after the passing of June, he met and married Alice Rochelle. They were married 46 years and had a son, Timothy. He and his wife Avis had two daughters, Jessica and Natalie, and are the grandparents of grandson Nicholas.
Regardless of the exact number of years of ministry, Bell and the Pittsboro Church of God were active in their efforts.
“He sort of married into the church family,” Nettles said. “The Hadley family was instrumental in starting the church on Milliken Road.”
As the church grew, it was active in ministry and service not only to the congregation and community but also to the incarcerated and to an outreach ministry at The Laurels of Chatham care center in Pittsboro. In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate and so became “Rev. Dr. Peter Bell.” Friends and family members say he was proud of that honor.
“He loved the church and the people,” Alice Bell said. “He loved the camp meetings we went to in Pennsylvania. He just loved preaching the Word of God.”
Community involvement was also something that appealed to Bell.
“In 1957,” Nettles said, “he was one of the primary African-American figures in the county who felt a need to organize a second branch of the NAACP for people in east Chatham. A group gathered at Bell Mount AME Zion Church on U.S. 15-501 north of Pittsboro and chartered NAACP Branch #5377. He was the first treasurer of the organization and served in that role for many years. The church has since been demolished after falling into disrepair.”
Nettles said Bell worked hard to eliminate barriers to voter registration and to eliminate colored restrooms, water fountains and designated seating on buses.
“He was also a worker to eliminate so-called separate but equal schools and second-hand books for colored children in Chatham,” she said. “His efforts are well-known.”
A retired long-time Chatham County educator echoes that effort. Addie Laws was a teacher during some of those years at Horton High School, later Horton Middle School, as well as at Moncure School.
“He was a well-known man who promoted justice and equality,” she said.
Bell’s efforts were also wide and varied. He was involved with JOCCA (Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action), the Salvation Army, county Democrat Party, the CORA (Chatham Outreach Alliance) Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity.
Despite his busy schedule, life was not all work and service for him. He and a younger friend Wesley Andrews often visited and talked about their days as military veterans.
“I was in Vietnam,” Andrews said, “and he was in World War II but we talked a lot. He was a funny man and we did some fun things together.
“One time we were on top of Hamlet’s Chapel with a carpenter who was doing some work with his two sons. The carpenter made $3 an hour and I said, ‘Nobody makes that kind of money.’ Rev. Bell said, ‘I make $3.25 an hour at Liggett & Myers.’ And he loved to play baseball. Most of the time he played in the outfield. One time he hit a home run. He didn’t hit many but he did that day and he said, ‘I hit it a long way and ran a long way.’”
In addition to sports, Andrews said, Bell had another love.
“He loved his garden and he loved his tractor,” he said. “Even when he was 101, he’d be on his tractor or his lawnmower.”
Rev. Bell’s wife agrees with that sentiment. “He loved his garden and his tractor,” she said, “and did what he could as long as he could. He especially loved hearing preaching on the computer. He’d quit television long ago but he loved sermons on the computer, even before he got down. He said that was his church since he couldn’t get out and go.
“But he had a heart problem,” she said, “and had begun to take to his bed more and more. The doctors at the VA Hospital said that was part of dying.
She continued: “He had gotten to where he didn’t eat much but one morning I found him sitting on his bed asking for a big breakfast. So, I fixed him one — eggs, molasses, weenies. I called his daughter (during those days) and told her if she wanted to see her daddy she should come. So, she came and stayed several days. He ate well for several days but then began to grow weaker. He started talking about planning his funeral and being buried. I asked him where he wanted to be buried and he said Church of God.”
She told him to not worry — it would be taken care of, she said.
“But at the last, he fell several times and the last few days he didn’t get out of bed,” she said. “I called Tim and told him so he came and was carrying him out to Tim’s truck to go to the hospital. That’s where he breathed his last.”
An obituary on the funeral home website noted: “He was a very humble man who loved and honored God and his family. He loved telling his family stories from his youth and about his experiences in Europe during World War II. He was loved and he will be missed.”
For her part, Alice Bell is grateful for her years with her husband but feels God answered her prayer.
“I prayed,” she said,” that God wouldn’t let him get down. That was answered. A lot of people will miss him.”
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