Otis Bell moved with his family, from Ohio to Eskridge, Kansas in 1867
     at the age of two. In 1889 he married Annie Robinson, who also was born in 
     Ohio, and had moved, with her family, to Eskridge in 1877.
          Otis and Annie lived on a farm near Eskridge. Here their four children
     James R. (Bob), Delano Ray, Jessie Louella Marie, and Hester Muriel were born.
          Jessie had asthma and her parents began looking for a drier climate.
     Otis' sister, Lyde Murray, lived in Isabel and suggested they come there to
     live.
          In 1908, the family moved to Isabel. The town had no meat market and
     Otis decided this would be a good business. He built a market where the
     present post office stands.
          Otis sold fresh meat and vegetables. The business grew quite rapidly and
     soon he was making meat deliveries all over town twice a day. He also 
     delivered meat to St. Leo on Sundays. He would park his meat truck by the
     back door of the church and as the people left the church, they would stop 
     and buy meat from him.
          Otis' son, Ray, after finishing high school, went into business with
     him. They called the Store Otis Bell & Son Meat Market. They later added a
     store in Sawyer and Ray managed it. When Ray went into the armed forces in
     World War I, the Sawyer store was closed. Otis then changed the name to
     Bell's Market and stocked groceries of all kinds.
          In January, 1931, Otis became ill while attending a fiddler's contest
     at the Larabee Opera House. He died at his home early the next day. Their
     son, Bob, returned home from Oklahoma, where he had been working, and took 
     over the grocery store.
          Annie continued living in Isabel until her death in May 1942.
                 
     Source: Isabel, Kansas - The First 100 Years, 1887 - 1987,  pg. 42 
     
     Submitted by: Rosalie Brown