Settlement began on the Lampasas River in 1847. The county was created on January 22 and organized on August 1, 1850. It was named for Peter Hansbrough Bell, a native of Virginia who was a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, served in the Somervell expedition to stop Mexico's raids into Texas, was an officer in the Mexican War, Governor of Texas from 1849 to 1853, and a U.S. Congressman from 1853 to 1857. The first county seat was Nolanville, then it moved to Belton on December 16, 1851. By 1860 the population was 4,799. During the Civil War, the county sent 12 troop companies and furnished goods from flour mills, a hat factory, a tanyard, leather works, blacksmith shops, a cabinet shop, and beef slaughter pens.