Stephen Bennett Bell (1844-1896) was born in Decatur County, Georgia, to Margaretta Moore and Larkin Bell. Stephen attended medical school in Philadelphia, it is believed at one of the Eclectic Medical Schools that existed during the antebellum period. During the Civil War, Bell enlisted in the Confederate army, transferred to the Fifth Florida Cavalry, and was paroled as a sergeant at Tallahassee in 1865. He married Rebecca Caroline “Carrie” Cromartie (1844-1892) of Leon County in 1869.
Bell owned more than 400 acres in Leon County and was among the first to plant tobacco there. About 1880 he began to acquire property in Brevard County and Dade County, part of which became Palm Beach County in 1909. Bell came to the area to help an asthmatic condition and wrote to his daughter, Maggie, that his health had improved. He continued to care for former patients through correspondence. Bell sent prescriptions through his daughter and had her send him medical supplies, mentioning that he had borrowed a syringe from Dr. Richard Potter, the first physician on Lake Worth.
In the 1890s Bell grew fruits and vegetables in Jupiter and Hobe Sound. On Singer Island, he purchased 600 feet of property that ran from the ocean to the lake. The next generation, as required by the City of Riviera Beach, filled in the lakeside, which became Yacht Harbor Estates. The ocean side was sold for a hotel. Other property owned by Bell was sold by his daughter, Maggie, to Harry S. Kelsey, and it became part of Kelsey City, renamed Lake Park.
Charles Walter Bell (1874-1945), one of the Bells’ six children, served on the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners in the 1920s and owned a ranch in Pahokee with Richard G. Johnson, Sr., where he lived with his wife and seven children (see Johnson).