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About Us
It was March 24, 1922 when the late A.J. Bell, originally ushered his family
into the funeral services profession, opening an undertaking business in the family furniture store on
McCullam Street in Newcastle, New Brunswick. Advertising "funeral supplies, caskets, funeral wreaths and flowers,"
A.J. Bell and Sons was on its way to becoming an institution among the communities along the famed Miramichi
River which today make up the City of Miramichi. The business quickly expanded a short time later when Mr. Bell purchased
the funeral business of Thomas Maltby and Sons from Margaret Maltby and Mary Gough.
Mr. Bell's sons Boyd, Wilson and
Sterling joined their father in the funeral profession and established the family tradition that his family proudly maintain
today at Bell's. Sterling Bell was responsible for a number of significant changes in the business over the
years, building a new funeral home on the Old King George Highway in 1965 and then overseeing a second move when he, and son-in-law
Sandy Jardine, purchased the current Bell's location on King George Highway in 1981.
Today Sterling's son-in-law Roy
Walsh and daughter Bonnie Roy strive to maintain both the important traditions and the very high standards passed on by the
earlier generations of Bell's. "We've been here for more than 75 years," said Bonnie," not just as a business,
but as a family, and we have very strong ties with the people we serve. As a result the service we offer is very personal
and we're often able to provide a great deal of moral and emotional support as well as our professional services."
Bell's
local business stature was secured when the funeral home became associated with the Brenan Group - a Saint
John-based family owned firm - in 1996. Local ties were strengthened in 2003 when Roy Walsh returned to the business as the
local owner-operator and President of the firm which now also encompasses Meadows Funeral Home in Sunny Corner.
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