Joshua Fry Bell (November 26, 1811 – August 17, 1870) an American politician.

Bell was born in Danville, Kentucky, where he attended public schools and then Centre College, where he graduated in 1828.

He next studied law in Lexington, Kentucky, and travelled around Europe for several years before returning home and being admitted to the bar.

[3] In February 1861 he was sent by Kentucky as a commissioner to the Peace Conference held in Washington, D.C., in an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to stave off what became the American Civil War.

[4] Joshua Fry Bell died in 1870 in Danville at the age of 58 and was interred at Bellevue Cemetery.