The Zell family settled on the Tom Bean Ranch in the community of Farmington near the town of Tom Bean. Mr. Tom Bean sponsored their trip to America. The family was to work a certain period of time that would cover their travel expenses to America in Grayson County. After two years, that debt was satisfied and the family members were free to work and live where they chose. However, Zell and his wife chose to stay on the Tom Bean Ranch and work for Mr. Bean until Johann's death before 1900.  He is buried in the old Cottonwood Cemetery on Ida Road in Grayson County.

The only son and middle child of Johann Zell, John Christian, was born July 3, 1866 in Kelle, Mecklenburg, Scherwin, Germany. He was eighteen years old when his family arrived in the United States in 1884. By about 1890, John had joined the Sherman Germania Band, organized in 1888.

Six years later, John Christian Zell married Hannah McKinney on November 28, 1890 in Grayson County, Texas. Hannah was one of seven daughters and one son born to James B. McKinney and Diana Elizabeth Hanner.

Hannah McKinney Zell	John Christian Zell

John Christian Zell's petition for Naturalization, dated 1940, describes him as fair complexioned with blue eyes and light brown hair; standing at 5'8" and weighing 152 lbs. He had a prominent mole on the front of his right cheek.

Hannah died just nine years later and was buried in old Cottonwood Cemetery, Grayson County, with her father-in-law. After John Columbus Zell moved back to Texas from California, he received a phone call telling him that someone had bulldozed the tombstones in the Cottonwood Cemetery where his mother, Hannah McKinney Zell, was buried. He traveled to the location and found the tombstones pushed into a washed out area; Hannah's tombstone was found and taken to Parker County and set in Johnson Cemetery where her son, John Columbus Zell, would be buried in 1984.

Minnie Zell 1891 - 1902	John Columbus Zell 1893 - 1984

Almost two years after Hannah's death, John Christian Zell married Hettie Brumley in Brown County, Texas. In December 1902, John and Hannah's only daughter died and was buried in the Gunter Cemetery, Gunter, Grayson County, Texas.

John Christian and Hettie Brumley Zell had a child that was born and died in 1903 and another daughter that lived to adulthood. John moved to St. Louis, Missouri before the 1910 World's Fair in order to find work. The children stayed with family members while John was in Missouri. After the Fair, he returned to Oak Cliff, Texas, residing some time before he moved to Tarrant County where he remained until his death.