The Fell Collection includes information about the lives of brothers Jesse W. Fell, Kersey Fell, and Robert Fell, and their spouses. The family’s history has been traced from England (1660s) to Pennsylvania (1690s) to Bloomington, Illinois in the 1830s. This prominent family may be best known for the numerous contributions of Jessie W. Fell, the community builder who helped found Illinois State University, and the towns of Normal, Towanda, Dwight and others.
The collection spans includes newspaper and magazine articles, booklets, obituaries, Fannie Fell’s diary, 1888-1889, and biographical sketches, as well as genealogical records, an Evergreen Cemetery (Bloomington) map of Fell plots, and information about the no-longer-standing Jesse Fell House.