Blake A. Bell is the retired Town Historian of Pelham, New York and spent forty years practicing law in New York City. He has served as a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Westchester County Historical Society, the Society of the National Shrine of the Bill of Rights at Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site, and the Pelham Preservation & Garden Society. He also served as Pelham Town Clerk for three years and as a member of the Pelham Town Board for eight years. He is the author of Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak.