Howard-Ripley-Decatur County IN Archives Biographies.....Stahl, George 1839 - 1904
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 21, 2006, 3:44 pm

Author: Jackson Morrow

GEORGE STAHL.

    It is with no small degree of satisfaction that the biographer now essays to
set before the reader the salient facts in the life history of the estimable
gentleman now deceased whose name initiates this paragraph, for his life was one
singularly full of good deeds and of the most pronounced success, and his
influence was ever wholesome and ameliorating, so that today he is remembered as
a man who was held in the highest respect and admiration of his many friends and
acquaintances.

    George Stahl was born in Lamburgh, Bavaria, Germany, February 3, 1839, the
son of Jacob and Katherine (Griner) Stahl. Jacob Stahl was formerly a
stonemason, but after coming to this country followed farming, having bought a
farm near Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana, on which he lived until his death at
the age of sixty-seven years. He and his wife were parents of thirteen children,
seven of whom grew to maturity, George Stahl being the fourth in order of birth.
His mother lived to be eighty years old. George Stahl had a good German
education and worked for his father on the farm until he was twenty-one years
old, then worked out at whatever he could find to do.

    The father bought eighty acres of land and he and his sons worked hard and
soon paid for it. The father sold this land to George and Henry. This land was
at once divided, each taking forty acres. George Stahl owned his forty acres for
seven years, when he sold it and did various kinds of work for several years. In
October, 1872, accompanied by his young wife and three small children he came to
Howard county and joined his brother Adam, who had preceded him about three years.

    George and Adam Stahl bought thirty acres on which they built a tile factory
in 1875, later ten acres more were added. The tile factory was successfully
operated by the Stahls for fourteen years, at the end of which time they
dissolved partnership, and the land was equally divided, twenty acres falling to
George Stahl, who had previously bought forty acres in 1881. In about 1887 he
bought another eighty acres of improved land in Taylor township, which is a part
of the present homestead, in addition to the sixty acres which he originally
owned. Another eighty-acre tract was purchased in 1901, making him two hundred
and twenty acres in all. In 1870 he purchased two hundred and fifty acres of
timber land in Lawrence county, Tennessee. This was sold about 1892.

    He was a hard-working man and soon improved the place and brought it to a
high state of productiveness. All of the one hundred' and sixty acres now
comprising this excellent farm are well drained and all under the plow but
twenty acres which is in blue grass pasture, all under a fine system of wire
fencing. Mr. Stahl underwent all the usual hardships incident to a life in an
unimproved country, having like the early pioneers cleared the heavy timber and
developed a farm. He had a number of substantial and convenient buildings
erected and had amassed a comfortable competency for his family when he was
called from his earthly labors by the "grim reaper," March 8, 1904, at the age
of sixty-five years, after having spent his entire life in the Roman Catholic
church, and having gained a reputation among his fellow men as a staunch citizen
of exemplary character and liberal to all who needed help, being strictly
upright in all his dealings with his fellow men and was admired and much
respected by all who knew him.

    Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stahl as follows: John, born in 1867,
at Millhousen, this state, is living on the old sixty-acre place, married and
has four children; Catherine was born January 18, 1869, at Napoleon, Indiana,
and died November 29, 1872; Anna Mary was born at Napoleon, December 4, 1870,
and died September 21, 1871 ; Anna Catherine, born August 9, 1872, is the wife
of James Kirby, and the mother of four children; Adam John, born June 25, 1875,
died March 17, 1879; Margaret Rosa, born November 8, 1877, is the wife of J. A.
Coyle, and the mother of four children: Henry Thomas was born December 21, 1879,
is single and living at home; Mary Theresa, born March 23, 1882, is at home with
her mother; Joseph Anthony, born August 8, 1884, is living at home; Leo Francis,
born July 6, 1887, is in the Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, 1908.

    George Stahl was united in marriage June 14, 1866, at Millhousen, Indiana,
to Anna Mary Hessler, a native of Decatur county, Indiana. Her father and mother
both came from Germany to America in 1850, first settling in Indiana, then went
to Cincinnati for a short time, but later returned to the Hoosier state, where
they raised a family. The father was born in 1804 and died in 1873, and the
mother was born in 1807 and died in November, 1880. John Hessler, a brother of
Mrs. Stahl, was a soldier in the Federal ranks, having been in an Indiana
regiment. He died June 11, 1908. The subject was a loyal Democrat and while he
took considerable interest in local politics, never sought public office.
However, he was regarded as a public-spirited man and always could be counted on
to support the right side of any issue.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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