To the
George Guntle/Ella Bell Warbinton Family
My maternal grandparents, George Guntle and Ella Bell
Warbinton were both born in Crawfordsville, IN. and they knew each other here
and possibly went to the same school.
Ella Bell was a small lady under five feet tall, but on
the heavy side, so most of her family called her "Toad". After her
family moved to Oswego she worked as a seamstress in Parsons, KS. Her Father
was the Superintendent of the "Labette County Poor Farm."
Ella Bell and her brother made one trip back to
Crawfordsville, but she says she didn't see George. All of their courtship was
carried on by correspondence. Ella Bell said she never saw him for ten years, until
he came to Oswego to marry her.
George ran a butcher shop in Oswego and later he too
became the Superintendent of the "Poor Farm", He was instrumental in
modernizing the farm and it's dwellings. After Ella Bell's death, George ran a
creamery in Oswego and later moved to Denver where he lived with one of his Daughters.
George was a tall thin man and wore a large mustache.
He liked his eggs soft boiled and he would get the egg yokes on his mustache, which
sent most of the Grandchildren into a fit of giggles. He died in Denver and is
buried in Oswego, KS with Ella Bell in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery.
Poor Farm Oswego, Labette Co., KS
Shown in the photo is George Guntle, his wife Ella Belle and their
daughter, my Mother, Mable.
List of Superintendents of the Poor Farm taken from the
History of Labette County published in 1901. T. B. Julian, from May 8, 1873, to
September 8, 1874; H. G. Newton, to October 3, 1876; W. H. Carico, to October 10, 1878;
Robert A. Hogue, to March 1. 1880; John Mc Caw, to November 6, 1881; J. H. Haggerty, to
March 1, 1885; J. A. Warbinton, to March 1, 1889; William Dudgeon, to March 1, 1891;
L. H. Summers, to March 1, 1892; William Dudgeon, to 1897; L. H. Summers, to 1901. George
Guntle was superintendent of the Poor Farm from 1901 to 1922. Ella Bell's father is the J.
A. Warbinton mentioned above and she died at the Poor Farm 2 April 1922. My mom, Mable was
18 in 1907 so that dates the photo of the Poor Farm above. Mable Guntle married my father,
Shoop Elliott in that house, 23 June 1920. My Cousin Linda Guntle visited that house this
spring, and it is still being lived in.-- Phyllis
George Guntle and Ella Belle Warbinton
�1997-2006 by Paul and Phyllis Dale
Date this page was last edited
10/15/2011
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