George D. Stelle, one of the prominent and popular farmers and pioneers of Spink County, is one of the brave “boys in blue” who went forth in defense of the Union when its integrity was in jeopardy through the armed rebellion of the Confederacy. He was born in New York City on the 8th of April, 1843, and is a son of Jeremiah D. Stelle, who was likewise born in that city. George enlisted in the Twenty-eighth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry in August 1862 and served in various battles, including Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. After the war, he pursued farming in different states before settling in South Dakota in 1881. He married Adelaide Calhoon, and they had eight children: Florence Lillian (deceased), William Earl, Jennie Weltha, Ruth Elizabeth, Agnes Opal, Vena E., Blanche, and Margaret E.
GEORGE D. STELLE, one of the prominent and popular farmers and pioneers of Spink county, is one of the brave “boys in blue” who went forth in defense of the Union when its integrity was in jeopardy through the armed rebellion of the Confederacy, while his is the distinction of being a native of the national metropolis. He was born in New York City, on the 8th of April, 1843, and is a son of Jeremiah D. Stelle, who was likewise born in that city, where he was reared and educated and where he remained until the latter part of 1843, when he removed to Middlesex County, New Jersey, where he followed agricultural pursuits during the remainder of his life. Our subject was an infant of about six months at the time of his parents’ removal to New Jersey, and there he was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, receiving his educational training in the common schools of the locality. In August 1862, at the age of nineteen years, he enlisted as a private in Company C, Twenty-eighth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel M. N. Wisewell. He proceeded with his regiment to the city of Washington, and for three months, the command was assigned to duty in the guarding of bridges which afforded access to the national capital. They then proceeded into Virginia and took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg, where Mr. Stelle was wounded. He was sent back to Washington and placed in the hospital, while he was assigned to the invalid corps. He began to recuperate his energies and made a strenuous protest against being kept away from his regiment, the result being that he was permitted to return to the front, joining his command in time to take part in the memorable Battle of Chancellorsville, and thence following in pursuit of Lee and participating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Thereafter the regiment remained for some time at Harper’s Ferry, and then returned to Washington, where Mr. Stelle was taken ill, receiving his honorable discharge in July 1864. He then returned to his home in New Jersey, where he remained a short time and then removed to Illinois, where he was engaged in farming for the ensuing three years, at the expiration of which he became interested in lumbering in Michigan, where he passed four years. He then spent one year in Illinois, from which state he removed to Benton County, Indiana, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1881, when he came to South Dakota and took up government land six miles southeast of Mellette, Spink County, adjoining that of William Bird, who is mentioned on other pages of this work, and here he now cultivates a farm of two hundred and forty acres, devoted to diversified agriculture and to the raising of high-grade livestock. He is a Republican in his political proclivities and fraternally is identified with the Grand Army of the Republic.
On the 15th of January 1879, Mr. Stelle was united in marriage to Miss Adelaide Calhoon, who was born and raised in Will County, Illinois, being a daughter of Stephen Calhoon, one of the early settlers in Michigan and later a pioneer of South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Stelle became the parents of eight children, namely: Florence Lillian (deceased), William Earl, Jennie Weltha, Ruth Elizabeth, Agnes Opal, Vena E., Blanche, and Margaret E.