Page 61 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
BELL & BRO'S.—Diamonds, Watches, Jewelry, Silver and Plated-ware,
Cutlery, Etc.; 283 Commerce Street.
In writing the commercial history of cities, it is with feelings of gen-
uine pleasure and interest that the statistician takes up the data of houses
whose origination dates away back in the early history of a city, a pioneer
house, not only in the special line of trade carried on, but in establishment,
business enterprise, commercial progress and in-
dustrial endeavor. The biography of these staunch
old houses makes the material for the history of
cities, landmarks, are they, in the book of time,
connecting links in the chain of events, uniting
the present with the past, illustrating the gradual
growth and progress of mercantile interests, from
the struggling, contracted limits of village trade
to the extensive, energetic, enterprising business
of a large, ambitious and growing city—weakly,
tottering childhood, and lusty, vigorous prime.
Such a biography has the firm of Bell & Bro's.
Jewelers, Watchmakers and Opticians, establish-
ed in 1852—a third of a century ago—when the
population of San Antonio was but very small.
J. G. and D. Bell moved here in that year from their home in Tennessee,
and started business. Their capital, financially, was small, but they had a
strong reserve fund of practical knowledge, having been taught their bus-
iness by their father, (one of the old-school gentlemen of upright business
habits and uncompromising integrity,) industrious application and honor-
able principles. That they succeeded, the history of the city tells in stronger
language than can we with pen and paper.The art of the jeweler and
worker in precious metals dates back as far as the-records of the human
race. Ornaments found in Egyptian tombs, as well as in the _buried cities
of Assyria, are designed and executed with a skill which is surpassed by
modern art. Coming down to a later period we find the goldsmith's craft
flourishing in the Middle Ages, when other branches of industry were for-
gotten, and the work of the mediaeval goldsmith, are precious heirlooms
and relics, which are becoming fashionable again in our day. The clock-
maker came with the eleventh century, the watchmaker with the four-
teenth. Every city can boast one extensive jewelry establishment, one
which is "sui generis," especially prominent. New York has Tiffany's,
St. Louis Jaccard's, in San Antonio unquestionably the highest rank is
occupied by Bell & Bro's. Their store, which is situated in Kampmann's
building, the handsomest edifice in the city, is, as well, the handsomest
store room in the city. It is 25 by 100 feet in size, elegantly furnished
with elaborate show cases and cabinets and counters. Their stock, which
is very varied and comprehensive, includes clocks and watches from the
most celebrated makers—native and foreign—costly and the more inex-