CHARLES JAMES BELL
BELL, CHARLES JAMES, banker, and general manager of the National Telephone Company in England from 1880-82, became president of the American Security and Trust Company of Washington, District of Columbia, in 1893, and still holds this position in 1905. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, April 12, 1858. His father, David Charles Bell, was a brother of Alexander Melville Bell (father of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone) an educator in Edinburgh, Scotland, who lectured upon speech and vocal physiology in London, and was author of a "Cure for Stammering." David Charles Bell followed the family profession of teaching, being a professor of literature in Dublin university. The grandsons of Alexander Bell have no doubt inherited from him their love of investigation, and to this owe something of their skill in utilizing electricity by means of the telephone and in other inventions, as well as the attention they have given to voice culture and the discovery of means to help the deaf. The early studies and lectures of Alexander Bell laid the foundation upon which rest the later scientific discoveries and developments of the photophone, the telephone and many kindred inventions.
Charles James Bell's mother was Ellen Adine Bell. His education was begun in Dublin, where he studied in Brown's school and Wesleyan college. His family removing to Canada, he became a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1877. Removing to Washington, District of Columbia, he has entered strongly into the business and civil life of the city. His influence is felt in many of the most important financial undertakings of the city, and in its philanthropic work. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Chevy Chase club; of the National Committee for the Promotion of the University of the United States; of the national committee to Change Date of Presidential Inauguration, and of the National Geographic Society. He is also a member of the Metropolitan and Cosmos clubs of Washington, District of Columbia. In politics he is a Republican. His religious affiliations are with the Episcopal church. He is fond of
