Frederick Stembel

John Stembel

Theophilus Stembel

THEOPHILUS STEMBEL (1813 - 1902)

Theophilus was born December 9, 1813, in Middletown, Maryland.

When he was about 18 years old his family moved to Ohio. Soon after the move, he enrolled at the Ohio Medical College (or the Cincinnati Medical College depending on the source⁽¹⁾) where he graduated in 1837 with a degree in medicine.⁽²⁾ Theophilus first practiced medicine in Dayton, Ohio.⁽³⁾ A biographical sketch in a newspaper says he soon moved to Independence (Warren County), Indiana, where he taught school.⁽⁴⁾ In 1842 he moved to Rainsville, Indiana, where he again practiced medicine. Four or five years later he moved to Oxford where he became the first resident doctor in Benton County.⁽⁵⁾

Theophilus had many interests besides medicine. He served a term as a County Commissioner in 1849.⁽⁶⁾ He also took great pride in breeding cattle, and even more pride in his horses. Many were prize winners. In 1855, he was appointed Treasurer of the newly formed Benton County Agriculture Society.⁽⁷⁾ As more physicians arrived in the area in the 1850s, Theophilus decided to retire from medicine and devote his full energies to the farm and his livestock herds.

When the Civil War broke out, there was no bank in Oxford so Theophilus agreed to act as a bank for the area's men who left to fight to preserve the Union. They sent their money to him and he kept an exact accounting of their funds. He even paid interest on these sums when they returned.⁽⁸⁾ After the war, the people of Oxford opened the Oxford Academy, the first college in northern Indiana (Purdue didn't open until 1874). Theophilus provided financial support and was one of its first Directors.⁽⁹⁾

Theophilus was a slight man who stood about 5 foot 6 inches and weighed about 160 pounds.⁽¹⁰⁾ He was a compassionate man who hated any kind of cruelty to humans or animals. He loved the outdoors and went to great lengths to preserve the grove of trees on his farm. He was also unpretentious. Older family members tell me he would not allow anyone to take a photograph of him. An article about him in the local newspaper written about 1899 reported that Theophilus was a lifelong Democrat, but was not a church member.⁽¹¹⁾

In 1845 Theophilus married Martha Ann Justus, daughter of one of the most influential men in Oxford. Theophilus was 31 years old. Martha had just turned 17. In 1846, Theophilus purchased a farm and built a house for the family. They had twelve children in all. Of those, two died of typhoid fever, including their first born, Eleanor, who died at the age of 18. Of the ten who reached adulthood, eight married. In the 1900 census, four of their children, Walter, Isabelle, Perry, and Olive, were still living at home (though Isabelle had married and left the household, but moved back after her marriage broke up⁽¹²⁾).

Theophilus died in 1902, just three weeks shy of his 89^th birthday. He had lost his sight many years before his death. Because of his blindness, the family continued to live in the house he had built years earlier because he could easily get around the house, even though it was old and needed work. After his death, Martha had a new house built which still stands.

Martha died three years after Theophilus. Walter and Isabelle continued to live on the farm until Walter's death in 1936. Isabelle died a year later. Perry had moved into town sometime after 1900, but moved back to the farm after Walter's death. He lived there, working the farm until his death in 1947, after which the farm was sold. ⁽¹³⁾ It had been in the family for over 100 years.

Theophilus and Martha's children:

A. Eleanor. Eleanor was born April 26, 1846. She died in 1864 at the age of 18 of typhoid fever.

B. Jane. Jane was born September 20, 1848. She married Henry Clay Harris and had three known children: Henry (born 1869), Blanche (1872) and Bertha (1873 or 1874). I'm told there was a fourth child, Herschel, but I have found no evidence of his existence.

Jane died August 20, 1897. Henry last appeared in the 1910 census. He was living in Morocco, Indiana.

Both of their daughters married. Blanche married Wallace Evans. They had no known children. Bertha married Amon Mauzy. They had two children, Harris and Rosalie. Both sisters were eventually widowed. Later in life they lived in the Los Angeles area.

C. Austin. Austin was born June 11, 1851. Like his older sister, he died in 1864 of typhoid fever. He was 13.

D. Mary. Mary was born May 11, 1853, near Oxford, Indiana. Sometime after 1880 she married George Washington Halstead.⁽¹⁴⁾ Anecdotal evidence leads us to believe George was previously married. George fought in the Civil War, possibly as an irregular soldier due to bad ankles. In 1890, Mary gave birth to a son, which they named Theophilus, after Mary's father.

In 1919, Mary and George moved to Norfolk, Virginia. George was about 76 years old at the time, and Mary was 66. It's possible they moved to Virginia to live with, or near, their son, for it appears Theophilus was living in Virginia at the time.

Four years after the move, Mary died. She was 70 years old. George died on his birthday in 1930. He was 87.

Mary and George Halstead's child:

1. Theophilus Stembel. "Theo," as he was known, was born January 3, 1890, in Oxford, Indiana. On May 15, 1915, he married Elsie Mae Sullivan. Theo was 25; Elsie was 18. They were married in Virginia, possibly Norfolk. We don't know what brought Theo to Virginia, but suspect he was in the Army at the time, stationed in Virginia.


Theo and Elsie had a son, George Walter, in 1916. A year later the United States entered WWI and Theo was sent overseas. He was not present when his second child, a daughter named Marguerite Elizabeth, was born--and he was still overseas when she died six months later.

After the war, Theo remained in the Army and made it his career. He and Elsie had three more children between 1920 and 1927.

Two days after Christmas, 1941, Elsie died. This was just three weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Theo may have received orders to report to a new post in preparation for the coming war.

Theo remarried sometime during the war, but little is known about this marriage. Evidently it didn't last very long. Theo married again in 1946, to Alice Stackhouse, an Army nurse. There were no children of this marriage.

Theo retired from the Army as a Colonel. He and Alice moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, soon after their marriage. Theo died there in 1977 at the age of 87. Alice died in 1988.

Theo and Elsie's children:

a. George Walter. George was born July 29, 1916. At some point he moved to the Washington, D.C. area, either with his family, or later, on his own. In 1937 he married Eileen June Hall (who went by "June") in Washington, D.C. George began his career as a steam-fitter, but at some point he entered college and got a business degree.


He and June had four children: William Garland, James Frederick, John Stephen, and Adria Dagny (Adria is a Halstead family historian. She is the source for the information on the Halstead line).

George retired as an administrator for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1971 and moved the family to Seminole, Florida, and later, St. Petersburg.

June died in 1977. She was 60 years old. George married Joan Noga in 1990 and moved to Largo, Florida where they currently reside.

b. Marguerite Elizabeth. Marguerite was born February 9, 1918. She died six months later--a victim of the influenza epidemic that swept the country in 1918 and 1919. Her father, Theo, was overseas at the time and never got to see her.
c. Richard Stembel. Richard, known as Dick, was born October 16, 1920. On January 26, 1942, he married Genevieve Annette Fiesel in the Bronx, New York. Soon after their marriage, Dick served in the armed forces during WWII. After the war, he returned to New York where he and Genevieve lived until they moved to Florida later in life.


Dick and Genevieve had six children: Richard Stembel, Jr., Peter Allen, Sharon Lee, James Randolph, Robert Scott, and Carol.

d. Mary Francis. Mary was born June 11, 1923. On January 27, 1923, she married Clytus Allen Freeman, Jr. They had three children: Robert Allen, Steven Douglas, and William Brewster. Mary died in 1973. She was 50.
e. Robert Ogden. Robert was born September 15, 1927. He attended Fork Union (Virginia) Military Academy. After graduation he saw action in WWII. He was discharged in 1948. Tragedy soon struck, however, as Robert was hit by an automobile and killed on May 1, 1950. He was just 23. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

E. Frank Holton. Frank was born July 9, 1854. He worked on his father's farm until he was 18, then went to work on his brother-in-law's (Clay Harris) farm for a few years. In 1878, he moved to a 160-acre farm in Oak Grove Township, Benton County. Two years later he married Ida Jane Runner. Eventually he purchased a second farm in Grant Township, Benton County.

Frank and Ida had two sons and a daughter. Sometime between the 1910 and 1920 federal censuses, they got a divorce, although in the 1920 census they were living next to each other.

Frank died December 12, 1920; Ida died in 1929. Both are buried in Oxford's Justus Cemetery.

Frank and Ida Stembel's children:

1. Charles. Charles was born in 1881. He married Ruth Baldwin in 1904. Ruth wrote a book about her Baldwin family.⁽¹⁵⁾ It contains a chapter about her life with Charles (a copy can be found in the Library of Congress).


Charles and Ruth had four children. Their first born, a son named Kenneth, died two days after his birth. A year later they had a daughter, Esther Lois, followed by Audrey Lenore, and later, another son, Donald Willis. Audrey was the source of much of the information about Theophilus' descendants.

Charles and Ruth moved to Texas in 1912 and tried farming, but there was little market for their produce, so two years later they returned to their farm in Benton County.

Ruth was an avid gardener and every year she had a huge display of peonies, over 200 varieties. People would drive by the house every year to admire the peony display.

Charles died in 1967 at the age of 86. Ruth died in 1974. She was 90.

2. Mary Edna. Mary Edna was born October 21, 1884. Edna, as she was known all her life, graduated from the Oxford Academy and went on to get a degree at Indiana University. She married George Roby in 1931. They had no children, but after the death of her sister-in-law in 1933, she raised her nephew Kingston (see below). I don't know whether the first marriage ended in death or divorce, but in 1952 she married again, to Dr. Daniel Miller.


Mary was Editor, Secretary-Treasurer, and Manager of the Benton Review Publishing Company.

Mary died in 1982 at the age of 97.

3. Ralph. Ralph was born in 1886. He married Edna Waldrip sometime around 1911. They had three children, all boys, but the oldest died in infancy. Ralph was a farmer and worked as a printer for the Benton Review Publishing Company. According to his granddaughter, Judy Thomas, Ralph loved horses. He also loved his wife Edna very much. Edna died in 1933. She was just 44 years old. Ralph was devastated and never remarried. He died after a short illness in 1961. Both are buried in the Justus Cemetery, Oxford.


Ralph and Edna Stembel's children:

a. Glen. Glen was born in 1913. He died as a baby.
b. Byron. Byron was born in 1915. Sometime around 1932 he married Margaritte (surname Brantley?). They had one child, Adrian Jan (Sr.). Byron married three more times and had two more children, Judy Lee and Kay Zoe. At one time he owned Stembel Wool company and later owned a polled Hereford Cattle business. For the 24 years prior to his death, he owned Stembel Antiques. Byron died in 1992 in Gibson City, IL.⁽¹⁶⁾
c. Kingston. Kingston was born in 1921. After his mother's death, he was raised by his aunt Edna. In 1944 he married Anna Maxine Nichols, who goes by Maxine. They had a son, Charles Kent. King, as he was known, attended Indiana University. He also served in the Army during World War II, where he earned a battlefield commission. He later saw action in the Korean Conflict. In civilian life, he was a farmer, a musician (drummer), and a newspaper editor. He wrote a popular weekly column called "King's Komments" in the Benton Review. King suffered from diabetes which contributed to his death in 1991.

F. Elbert. Elbert was born in 1856. At the age of 27 he moved west, first to Missouri, then Kansas, and later Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). He married Anna Strite in 1886. They had five children, including a set of twins. Elbert's son, Clarence, told me that once while they were living in the Indian Territory, a U.S. Marshal came to his door and said he had just shot two horse thieves on Elbert's land and needed some help. When they reached the two men, one had already died. Elbert helped the Marshal take the remaining man into town for medical attention (and jail).

Sometime before 1910 he moved the family back to Indiana.⁽¹⁷⁾ Anna died in 1946. Elbert lived until 1953. He was 97 years old at the time of his death.

Elbert and Anna's children:

1. Elbert Harris. Harris (he always went by his middle name) was born in 1890, in Missouri. He married Clara Lindsey sometime around 1914. They had no children (although they raised a nephew of Harris's; see below). Elbert died in 1974, Clara died in 1981.
2. Walter. Walter was born in 1892 in Clayton, Missouri. He never married. He died in 1982 at the age of 90.
3. Howard Earl. Earl, as he was known, was born in 1899 in LaFountaine, Kansas. He served in the U.S. Army during WW I and WW II (18.) Sometime around 1926 he married Beryl Gregory. They had two children, Joseph and Barbara. Beryl died in 1938 at the age of 32; her children were 8 and 6 at the time of her death. After their mother's death, Joseph went to live with his Uncle Harris and Aunt Clara; Barbara went to live with a sister of her mother's. Earl never remarried. He died in 1994 in San Diego where he was living with Barbara. He was 95.


Earl was a Civil War buff. He read Civil War magazines and enjoyed discussing the war with his grandchildren according to his grandson, Robert Hagee.

4. & 5. Emmett and Clarence Jerome (twins). They were born August 14, 1902, near the Hominy Trading Post in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Emmett died as a child.


Clarence's family returned to Indiana sometime before 1910. He graduated from Oxford High School in 1920,⁽¹⁹⁾ and attended Butler University. He went on to Indiana University where he did graduate work. Clarence taught high school and was later a vice principal.⁽²⁰⁾

Clarence was known to everyone as C.J. In 1928 he married Anna Erwin. They had one child, Mary Alice. Anna died in 1936. She was just 33 years old. In 1937, Clarence married Ethel Larm. They had a son, John. Ethel was a graduate of Indiana University where she was the first woman editor of the student newspaper.

Clarence died in 1990 at the age of 88. Ethel died in 1996. She was 100 years old.

G. Isabella. Isabella was born May 27, 1858. In 1881 she married William Phares. William was born in Ohio in 1853. Three years after his birth his family moved to Oxford, Indiana.

Isabella and William had two children. William sold shoes in Oxford. Evidently, the marriage ended in divorce, for at the time of the 1900 federal census Isabella was living with her parents, her marital status listed as divorced. In the 1910 census, however, she is living with her brother Walter, and her marital status was changed to "widowed" even though her former husband was still living. Whatever the case, she ever remarried.

William died in 1926. His obituary indicates he had remarried in 1898.

Isabella lived with her younger brother, Walter, in the Stembel house until Walter's death in 1936. Isabella died April 1, 1937, just three months after Walter. She was 78.

Isabella and William Phares's children:

1. Perry S. Perry was born July 28, 1883, at Boswell, Indiana. In the 1900 census he was living in Oxford, Indiana, with his father and step-mother. On June 10, 1903, he married Laura Perigo. At some point, Perry and Laura moved to Lafayette, Indiana, where he opened a shoe store.


Perry and Laura had two children, Eleanor and Esther.

In the late summer of 1932, Perry developed an inflamation of the gallbladder. He was taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital where they operated for gallstones. Sometime after the surgery, he developed a pulmonary embolus (a clot in his lung). There was nothing the doctors could do to save him. Perry, who was conscious the whole time, and his family could only wait for death. A few days later, on September 4, Perry succumbed.

Laura lived almost 15 more years. Three days after her brother, Frank, died, Laura - returning from the funeral with her two daughters and a son-in-law - leaned over to take off her boots and collapsed to the ground. The family quickly carried her to the couch where she began to vomit blood. An ambulance was called, but it took a long time to arrive. When it arrived, Laura was in a coma. She never regained consciousness and died at 8:00 on the evening of April 29, 1947.

Perry and Laura's two children:

a. Esther Marion. Esther was born in Lebanon, Indiana, on November 12, 1907. She attended Purdue University, graduating in 1929. She went on to earn a second degree in Library Science at the University of Illinois. While working at the university library, she met Hazen Whalin who also worked at the library. They fell in love, but could not get married because one of them would have to quit their job (during the Depression the library had a rule that only one family member could work there). In the end, they were forced to elope. Unfortunately, Esther's father died before they could reveal their secret.


Esther and Hazen had one child, Barbara Ruth, who was born May 26, 1935, in Champaign, Illinois.

After graduation from the University of Illinois, Hazen worked for the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis. He worked there for 38 years before retirement. Hazen died in 1996. Esther died November 17, 2002, in Jacksonville, Illinois.

b. Eleanor Ruth. Eleanor was born in Lafayette, Indiana, on March 14, 1913. Eleanor married William Wells McNeil (known as "Wells") in the 1930s. They had one child, Don Wells, who was born on May 19, 1939.


Wells and Eleanor divorced later in life. Eleanor then married Lon Stivers.

Eleanor died on May 12, 1987.

[Information about Perry & Laura Phares, Esther & Hazen Whalin, and Eleanor & Wells McNeil came from Esther's daughter, Barbara Whalin Makant, Tallahassee, Florida.]

2. Viola Ruth. Viola was born November 10, 1886, probably at Boswell, Indiana. She married Elmer Atkinson. They had two children, Harriet (McDonald), and Olive Rosamond (Roberts). I don't know when or where Viola or Elmer died.

H. Jerome. Jerome was born in 1860. In 1883 he reportedly went west with his older brother, Elbert. In 1886 he married Addie Potter. Jerome and Addie had four children, all boys. Judging from where their sons were born (Grant, Colorado; Salt Lake City; Los Angeles; and Vernon County, Missouri), it appears that Jerome and Addie moved around a lot. According to family members, Jerome was a prospector.⁽²¹⁾ Eventually they moved to Denver. He first appeared in the Denver city directory in 1918. They were living at 3258 Tejon Street. Jerome's occupation was "grocer." Two years later the directory shows they moved to 3343 Tejon. This time his occupation was "mining." His family was listed in the city directory every year until 1932 when Jerome was absent and Addie was shown living with her two sons, Perry and Theo. Family members have told me that Jerome owned a silver mine in the mountains, near Lawson, Colorado, and lived there year around until his death in 1941. Addie continued to be listed in the city directory until her death in 1950.

Jerome and Addie's four sons:

1. John H. John was born June 22, 1889, at Grant, Colorado. I'm told he was killed in a train wreck on August 12, 1912, near Keechlus, Washington. John was just 23 at the time of his death. He is buried at Fort Scott, Kansas. He was not married.
2. Theophilus. Theo, as he was known, was born September 7, 1894, at Salt Lake City, Utah. He was also known as "Silver." He never married. According to the Denver city directory he worked for the Shaeffer Tent & Awning Company in 1920. He continued to work there until at least 1932 (the Library of Congress doesn't have copies of the Denver city directories for the years 1933 through 1944 - they may not have been published). In the 1945 directory, Theo was a manager at the Acme Sun Tent and Awning Company. In 1947 he was Secretary-Treasure of the same company. He evidently held that position until his retirement. He died in 1969 in Hawaii. He is buried there.
3. Jerome, Jr. Jerome was born July 25, 1898. He saw service in the U.S. Navy during WWI. At one point he was an Electrician 1st Class on the U.S.S. Maumee. He was discharged in 1919.


Jerome died at Silverton, Colorado, after a tonsillectomy when he was just 25 years old. He is buried in Denver. He never married.

4. Perry. Perry was born September 1, 1903, in Vernon County, Missouri, (which is in the western part of the state between Joplin and Kansas City). Perry was about 15 when his family first appeared in the Denver city directory. The 1920 city directory shows he was employed by the Denver Rock Drill Manufacturing Company. In 1926, Perry married Lucille Ehlinger at Golden, Colorado. They had two children.

By 1932, Perry was a presser in a dry-cleaning establishment. At the time the 1945 city directory was published, he was manager of a dyeing and cleaning firm, and by 1960 he owned his own establishment, Perry's Cleaners.

Perry died on June 17, 1972. He is buried in Denver's Crown Hill Cemetery. Lucille still lives in Denver.

Perry and Lucille's two children:

a. Nona Marie. Nona was born on Christmas Eve, 1937, at Denver. In 1960 she marriedGermán Rivera in Oaxaca, Mexico. She was working for the Denver Board of Education at the time.

Nona and Germán had four children: Julieta (Julie), Jorge, Jacquelina (Jackie), and Germán, Jr. (Gerry). All four were born in Mexico. Jorge died in infancy. Julie and Jackie are married and live near Denver where Nona works for the federal government. Gerry died in 1998 of injuries suffered in an auto accident.

b. Paul Jerome. Paul was born December 15, 1943, at Denver. After duty in the U.S. Army, Paul married Barbara Deslongchamp on November 4, 1967. They had two children, Troy and Traci. Paul and Barbara divorced in 1983. Later Paul married Gail Schad.


Paul was a detective for the Aurora, Colorado, Police Department. He and his wife live near Denver

I. Perry. Perry was born September 2, 1862, probably near Oxford, Indiana. As an adult he worked at a bank in nearby Fowler. The 1910 census shows that Perry was living in Fowler.

Perry was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.), a men's social organization that was particularly popular in small towns in that era.

At some point Perry moved back to the Stembel farm. Perry's brother, Walter, and sister, Isabella, had been living there, but they passed away in 1836 and 1937 respectively. I don't know if Perry moved back to the farm before or after their deaths.

According to a nephew, Perry inherited his father's love of horses--it was his passion in life, for he never married. A relative who visited Perry in 1940--he was living alone by then--recalls watching Perry drive his 25 horses to pasture one morning and still remembered, 45 years later, what a beautiful sight it was. They were extraordinary animals.

As he grew older, Perry became severely crippled by arthritis, to the point where he could no longer spend time with his horses. He became so despondent that he eventually took his life with a revolver on July 17, 1947, just a month after his youngest brother, Basil, died.

J. Walter. Walter was born on October 10, 1864. He never married. He lived with his father and mother on the family farm. Walter worked on the farm with his father. As his father grew older, Walter took over most of the farming responsibilities. After his parent's death, Walter and his sister, Isabelle, lived on the farm until their deaths. Walter died on New Years Eve, 1936.

K. Basil Justus. Basil was born January 19, 1867, near Oxford. He evidently went to college, for he was a dentist. He set up a practice in Indianapolis. My information about Basil is a bit sketchy. He married Frances Robinson sometime around 1912. They had no children, but they adopted a son, Howard, who has the Stembel name (Howard also has a son named Howard).

Oddly, Basil's stated age in the 1900 census and beyond were always 5-6 years younger than his real age.

Basil died on June 16, 1947, in Indianapolis. He had his ashes spread over the Stembel family's cemetery plot in Oxford.

L. Olive. Olive was born November 21, 1868. She was the youngest child of the family. At the time of the 1900 federal census she was 31 years old, single, and living with her parents. Seven years later she married Joseph Morse. The 1910 census showed them living on a farm in Wabash County. I'm told Olive and Joseph had two children, both of whom died young. Strangely I can find no record of Olive or Joseph in the 1920 and 1930 censuses. I'm told Olive moved back to Benton County shortly before her death in November of 1934. She is buried in Oxford's Justus Cemetery.