Biography of Miles L. Stell - Conway Co, AR

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Submitted by: Cathy Barnes <bbarnes@cswnet.com>
        Date: 21 Jun 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

page 114

Miles L. Stell, senior member of the firm of Stell, Willbanks & Co.,
general merchants at Springfield, was born in Guimmwick County,
Georgia, April 29, 1831; son of Judge Robert and Winnie (Gentry)
Stell, natives of Georgia and South Carolina respectively, who lived
in Georgia till 1835, and then came to Arkansas, and located in Conway
County, on a small improvement on Cypress Creek, two miles from the
present site of Springfield, where they spent the remainder of their
lives, Mr. Stell dying March 6, 1860, and his wife was called to her
long home three years before, in 1857. Both had been for a time
members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Stell and brother, Dennis Q.
Stell, were the first settlers in that vicinity, and through their
influence many others came from Georgia, and the neighborhood became
known as the "Georgia Settlement," a name that clings to it to the
present time. Judge Stell was a prominent farmer and blacksmith, and
from 1854-56 served as County Judge. He was a son of Dennis Stell, a
Georgia farmer. Our subject is the youngest of eight children, four
sons and four daughters. He was reared on the farm, in the then thinly
settled regions of Conway County. School facilities were very poor,
and his education was mainly secured at home. In 1852, was married to
Lucinda, daughter of Hiram Willbanks, whose sketch appears on another
page of this book. She was born in Georgia, and died after a wedded
life of ten years, leaving four children, of whom three are now
living, Dr. Christopher C. Stell, Fidelia, wife of J. W. Bolton, and
Robert B. Stell. Our subject married the second time to Elizabeth,
daughter of Samuel and Mary Moses, early settlers of Pulaski County,
where Mr. Moses died a good many years ago. His widow married again
and removed to Conway County and died. Mrs. Stell was born in Pulaski
County and is the mother of ten children, nine of whom are living. Mr.
Stell has since lived in the neighborhood where his father first
settled, and is the owner of the old homestead, and owns over 700
acres of good land, all accumulated by his own labor and industry.
From about 1873 he has run a grist mill and cotton gin on his farm.
Soon after the war, he and a brother engaged in commercial business at
the mouth of the Cadron Creek, and again, about 1879-80-81, he was
merchandising at Springfield. His present business was established
about 1887, and has since grown into a very profitable trade. They
carry a full stock of general merchandise and do an annual trade of
about $15,000. In 1861, Mr. Stell joined Company I, Tenth Arkansas
Infantry; was in the battle of Shiloh and other engagements; was in
Port Hudson during the siege, when he was captured and paroled, and
then came home. In politics he is a consistent Democrat, and has been
all his life. He joined the Order of A. F. and A. M. in 1861,
Springfield Lodge, No. 127. Family have been members of the M. E.
Church for many years. The subject of this sketch is a member of one
of the oldest families in Conway County, Mr. Stell, Sr., coming here
when this section was a veritable wilderness. Many changes mark the
course of the years from that day down to the present time, and the
descendants of those old pioneers may take this satisfaction to their
hearts, that their ancestors laid the foundation of the present
prosperity here by their good example, peaceful ways and industrious
lives.