William Earl Stelle Biography This biography appears on pages 362-365 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm WILLIAM EARL STELLE. William Earl Stelle, who is engaged in general farming on two hundred and forty acres of land on section 29, Mellette township, Spink county, came to South Dakota in 1882 and thus for almost a third of a century has been identified with the state. However, at the time of his arrival he was scarcely able to take a very active part, as he has done in later years, in the work of progress and improvement, for he was then but two years of age, his birth having occurred in Benton county, Indiana, on the 5th of November, 1880. He is descended from French ancestry. The first representative of the family in this country was a Huguenot, who in the seventeenth century arrived in the new world. The great-grandfather of William E. Stelle fought for American independence in the Revolutionary war. The father, George D. Stelle, came to South Dakota with his family in 1882 and filed on eighty acres of the farm that is now being operated by his son, William Earl. The other part of the place was homesteaded by the maternal grandfather, Stephen Calhoon, who located upon the place in the spring of 1881, broke the sod and converted the tract into productive fields. He died in 1894 while on a trip to Iowa. Before coming to the northwest George D. Stelle had served as a soldier in the Civil war with the rank of corporal, thus protecting the Union which his grandfather had aided in establishing almost one hundred years before. He married Clara Calhoon and with their family they came to South Dakota in 1882, after which the father continued to conduct general agricultural pursuits in Spink county to the time of his death, which occurred in 1904, when he had reached the age of sixty-one years. He was a very industrious, energetic man and his diligence and persistency of purpose brought to him a substantial measure of success. His widow survives and makes her home upon the homestead. In their family were seven children: William Earl; Jennie, now the wife of Ernest Smith, a resident farmer of Spink county; Ruth, who married Lee Smith, a brother of Ernest and also a farmer of Spink county; and Opal, Vena, Blanche and Elsie, all at home. William E. Stelle, the eldest of the family, became a pupil in the district school near his father's home when in his seventh year and continued his studies to the age of sixteen, when his services were needed upon the farm and he then became the active assistant of his father and since his death has managed the property. He carries on general agricultural pursuits, raising corn, wheat and other cereals that are adapted to the soil and climatic conditions here. He likewise raises cattle, horses and hogs and is meeting with good success. He has helped to improve the farm in a substantial manner and it presents a neat and thrifty appearance, indicating the effectiveness of his work and his practical methods. Life has never been to him a holiday affair; on the contrary he has ever recognized and performed his duty and in the control and management of his business interests he is meeting with a measure of success which numbers him among the more substantial of the young farmers of his part of the state.