Bell, David Charles

David Charles Bell, son of Alexander Bell (1790-1865) and Elizabeth Colville (d. 1856), was born in Saint Andrews, Fife, Scotland on 4 May 1817. He married Ellen Adine Hyland on 19 October 1840 in Perth, Scotland. They had eleven children: Alexander Bell (1841-1843); Robert Bell (1842-1849); Esther Alicia Bell (1844-1850); Laura Jane Bell (1853-1949); Lewis Knox Bell (1857-1909); Charles James Bell (1858-1929); Sophie Bell; William Bell; Aileen Bell; Elizabeth Bell; and Chichester Bell. David Charles Bell became a Professor of Englsih Literature and Elocution at Dublin University in Ireland where he taught George Bernard Shaw. In [date] he followed his brother Melville Bell and immigrated to Brantford, Ontario, Canada, with his wife Ellen and four of their children.

On 3 August 1876, Professor Charles Bell paticipated in the first successful test of his nephew Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. From the Brantford telegraph office, he receited lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet to his nephew, who was waiting at the A Wallis Ellis store in the neighbouring town of Mount Pleasant, Ontario, Canada. Alexander Graham Bell was able to hear his uncle's voice emanating from his receiver housed in a metal box. Thus, David Charles Bell was the first voice to be heard over a telephone. In 1880, David Charles Bell and his family immigrated a second time, from Ontario to the United States. David Charles Bell died on 28 October 1902 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America. He was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, District of Columbia.

Saint Andrew, Fife, Scotland
Dublin University, Dublin, Ireland
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Washington DC, United States of America

Jennifer Lee, August 2018.