Isbell Work, great-granddaughter of his second cousin John Lewis Isbell II, said this of him: "The little town of Isbell, Alabama was never going to hold him. He followed his cousin Ellis Isbell O'Reilley to the Oklahoma Indian Territory before 1900 and worked as a clerk and stenographer in a bank. He married Mary Elizabeth Sorbe, a German-Creek Indian in 1900. He was honorably discharged from Co 1 of the Philippine Constabulary at the end of the Philippine War circa 1906. He was commissioned Capt of the OK Indian Police. From 1912 to 1917 together with his family, he lived and worked in South America, working for the Panama RR Co and as a construction engineer for the Guayaquil & Quito RR in Ecuador. Returning to the US in 1917, he joined the US Army, and in Jan 1918 he left for France with the American Expeditionary Force. After his discharge from the Army in 1919, he became an adviser to the White Russians in Lithuania during the counter revolution against the Communists. Returning to the US in August 1920, his first marriage ended, and he returned to Ecuador, resuming his work with the G&Q RR. He explored the Amazon River and lived seven months with the Jibaro Indians. He married a second time, to Victoria Diaz, and at some time he worked in Honduras for a mining company. He brought Victoria back to America in 1925, so their children could be born in the US, working as a civil engineer in Alabama and Missouri. After her tragic death in 1930, he returned to Ecuador with his three children, continuing his RR work, and managing a large banana plantation belonging to his father-in-law. He became an esteemed resident of Guayaquil, Ecuador and died there in 1946. His life was truly an amazing, great adventure."
Contributor: Ray Isbell (47188697) • [email protected]