Another was called Monday morning, Mrs. Mary Ellen Bell, widow of the late Thomas J. Bell. Mrs. Bell has lived at Ottawa most of the time for twenty-five years. Last winter she fell and suffered an injury to her hip. She never completely recovered, and her death occurred the first of this week.

She came to Kansas with her Husband from Illinois in the Spring of 1868.
Very few are left who came to Kansas in the sixties. Quite a number who were born here in that decade survive, but those who came here from the East to make their home would be well up toward ninety now and not many are left.
Funeral services will be held at an Ottawa funeral home Friday afternoon, at two o'clock. The Rev. W.A. Elliott, pastor of the Baptist church, will conduct the services. Interment will be in the Wellsville cemetery.
Mary Ellen Stonebraker was born in Mt. Morris Ill., March 5, 1848. She was the daughter of Michael and Catherine (Coffman) Stonebraker. One brother, Orville Stonebraker, of Lincoln Neb., survives.
She was married to Thomas J. Bell February 26, 1868, in Quincy, Ill., and very soon afterward they came to Kansas. For many years they lived on a farm three miles northeast of Wellsville, now owned by M.R. Redell. Mr. Bell's death occurred October 15, 1910. Since that time she had made her home, for most of the time, in Ottawa, with frequent visits to her children.
Three daughters, Mrs. Iva Hughes, and Mrs. Frankie Stockton, of Wellsville, and Mrs. Jean Sims, Riverside, Calif.; eighteen grandchildren and sixteen great children, survive Mrs. Bell.
She was a member of the Methodist church and was active in work of the Ladies Circle, an auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic.

Submitted by Jane Edson

Return to Ogle Co. Genealogy Site