Samuel Willis Gabriel, son of house carpenter Emanuel Gabriel (c.1787-1859) and Caroline Willis (1815-1878), was born in Beaufort on February 17, 1848. Samuel's great-grandfather Richard (1727-1775) was born in Nantucket, and died in Carteret County.
On January 28, 1875 Samuel married Sarah M. Haskitt, Samuel's childhood neighbor and daughter of brick mason Borden Haskitt. The 1880 census recorded Samuel Gabriel, a drygoods merchant, living in this house on Ann Street with his wife, four-year-old daughter Minnie Coral Gabriel and Samuel's sister Caroline W. Gabriel. Neighbors at the time were Mary Canaday Howland, widow of Samuel Howland, along with some of her children and grandchildren; decades later, local historian Rebecca W. Sanders found the Samuel Howland Bible in the Gabriel House.
About 1896, Samuel and Sarah's daughter Minnie Coral Gabriel (1876-1947) married her penmanship teacher Claudius Franklin Bland (1871-1936). The couple moved to Washington, Beaufort County, NC and became parents of four daughters and two sons.
The next known owners were Eugene Josiah Bell (1849–1901) and Emma Julia Bell (1848–1922), married in 1869. Eugene was the son of Josiah Fisher Bell and Susan Leecraft Bell, the daughter of Benjamin Leecraft II and Mary "Polly" Fuller. Eugene's father Josiah, customs collector, was an agent in the Confederate Secret Service during the Civil War; he was responsible for blowing up the lighthouses at Cape Lookout. Emma Julia Bell was born in Wildwood, Carteret County, the daughter of David F. and Margarell Bell.
After their marriage, Eugene and Emma Bell lived in New Bern. By 1900 they had moved back to Beaufort and purchased the house. Living with them at that time were children Kenneth A., Emma Julia and Mary, as well as Mary's husband Charles Sylvester Carrow and son Eugene J. Carrow. On the 1900 census Charles Carrow was noted as a seaman on a merchant vessel.
In the 1930 census, fifty-eight-year-old Charles Carrow was a boatman on a pleasure boat and lived alone in the house. Carrow was the son of Nathan L. Carrow, the old Civil War soldier that Neal Willis remembered sitting on the porch of the former 1796 courthouse at 401 Ann, then the home of "Nat"Carrow's daughter, "Miss Delight" and her husband Samuel Thomas. Charles Carrow died in 1960 at Crab Point, Carteret County.
About 1900 Eugene and Emma Julia Bell’s daughter Emma Julia Bell, born in 1880, married Alexander Brogden Stewart (1875–1955). Their son James William Stewart (1904–1969) married Ethel Morgan Bell (1909–1943) daughter of Rufus Robert Bell and Annie Elizabeth Jones. Their son Morgan Bell Stewart, born in 1938, lived in the home until his death in March 2009.
Part of Morgan Bell Stewart's obituary read, "A descendant of Scottish immigrants who settled in Straits and Gloucester in the mid-1700s, Morgan Stewart graduated from Beaufort High School and went to work in the local construction industry. During the Cold War, he enlisted in the United States Army and served in Germany. Stationed in Munich, Mr. Stewart became fluent in German and maintained an amazing degree of proficiency with the language throughout his life. Mr. Stewart had an excellent memory and could recall names, places, and events that most other people had long since forgotten. Fiercely proud and independent, Mr. Stewart was also loyal to his family and friends, sometimes beyond words. A fixture in Beaufort for decades, Mr. Stewart will be remembered fondly by those who knew him."
Members of the Stewart family have inherited the home and hope to restore what has been home to the Bell-Carrow-Stewart family for over a century.
The 1997 Ruth Little Survey noted this house as a rare Beaufort example of the Italianate Revival style. The two-story gable and wing house was built perpendicular to Ann Street. It has boxed eaves with returns, ornate cornice brackets, 6/6 single and 4/4 paired sash with segmentally-arched openings with decorative lintels and caps. Two-story porch with boxed posts and solid replacement railing. Front double door with side lights and transom. Appears on Gray’s 1882 map.
