John B. Bartell, Jr., was born around 1844 in New York to immigrants John and Augusta Bartell. The family moved to Ganges, Michigan, sometime in the 1850s, and his father worked as a shoemaker there. Bartell enlisted in the Union army on August 6, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company G of the 6th Michigan Infantry on August 20. The army stationed the men in Louisiana and Mississippi, and they took part in the Battle of Baton Rouge and the siege of Port Hudson. In July 1863, army officials converted the regiment into the 6th Michigan Heavy Artillery. Bartell mustered out in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 20, 1865.
He returned to Michigan after the war, and he married Louisa M. Weed there on April 21, 1866. They had at least seven children, including Lilly, born around 1867; Bertie, born around 1870; Emmett, born around 1873; Winnie, born around 1881; and Clara, born around 1884. He worked as a farmer in Ganges, and the family owned $400 of personal property by 1870. They moved to Lincoln County, Kansas, in the early 1870s. He applied for a federal pension in May 1880 and eventually secured one. By 1900, the family was living in Jackson, Arkansas. They eventually moved to Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, and Bartell died there on July 5, 1909.