failed. Bell sold the ironworks to Anthony Wayne Van Leer, who was a member of a well known historical family in Pennsylvania and noted in the anti-slavery cause. The Narrows property was not sold during Bell's life but much was lost through looting, flooding, and the effects of time. The tunnel remains and part of the Tennessee State Park system. As early as 1835, Bell sent 50 of his freed slaves to Liberia. In 1853, he sent 50 more of them. He eventually emancipated 150 more of his slaves. Additionally, he hired a teacher from Philadelphia to teach them how to read and write, at a time when this was illegal. Death He died on April 1, 1855, in Dickson County, Tennessee which location became Cheatham County in 1856. He was buried near the Narrows property in a cemetery near his Bell View home Legacy He bequeathed $20,000 toward "the education of children not less than ten nor more than fourteen years old who are not able to support and educate themselves and whose parents are not able to do so." This was the foundational grant for the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. The Montgomery Bell State Park is named in his honor. The Montgomery Bell Bridge, over the Harpeth River above its confluence with the Cumberland River near Ashland City, Tennessee on Tennessee State Route 49, is also named in his honor. References Further reading Corlew, Robert E., A History of Dickson County (Nashville, 1956, reprinted 1980), Tennessee Historical Society 1769 births 1855 deaths American people of Scotch-Irish descent People from Chester County, Pennsylvania People from Cheatham County, Tennessee Businesspeople from Tennessee