Born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Samuel Bell (1798–1882) began his employment in metalworking there at age fourteen, crafting swords for the War of 1812. In 1821 he moved south to Knoxville, Tennessee, and began a long career as a silversmith and retailer. Bell served as mayor of Knoxville for two terms (1840–41, 1844–45) before debt issues forced him to sell his business and move his family to Texas in 1851. Of his thirteen children, all born in Tennessee, five are known to have taken up their father’s trade in San Antonio. In San Antonio, the Bell firm was initially established by Bell’s sons James G. and David, becoming J. G. & D. Bell; in 1860 the partnership’s name changed to Bell & Brothers. This shift made younger sons Powhattan and James M. Bell partners with David and removed James G. Bell’s name from the firm. James G. Bell left San Antonio in 1854 on a cattle drive to California, where he joined Edward C. Bell, likely an older brother, who worked as a jeweler in Mariposa, California. The Bells produced and retailed a wide variety of wares in San Antonio. An 1855 advertisement listed the firm as “manufacturers of all articles in their line. Dentists Plates prepared and Jewelry repaired...Saddles, Bridles, and Walking Canes mounted with gold and silver in the best style.” On the same page, a separate advertisement listed articles newly arrived for retail, including pens, spectacles, French clocks with glass shades, and assorted jewelry and fancy goods. Through all of the Bells’ iterations, advertisements offered essentially these same wares and services. The best-known silver forms produced by the Bell family include knives, cups, and flatware. In the 1890s the firm failed and was sold out of the Bell family. Renamed the Bell Jewelry Company in 1895, this final phase of the Bell family’s business legacy remained in operation until 1961.

Physician Robert E. Lee Withers (1869–1927) was born on July 20, 1869 in San Antonio to John Withers and Anita Dwyer; his godmother was Annette Dwyer. John Withers was a West Point graduate who served as Adjutant-General of the United States Army’s Department of Texas for most of the period from 1857 through 1860. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he worked briefly in the office of the Adjutant General in Washington, D. C.; he sided with the Confederacy during the war, continuing as Assistant Adjutant General in the Confederate Army.