STOMBAUGH, GEORGE A .

KNADLER, STOMBAUGH

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/29/2009 at 12:35:38

~ Source: History of Dakota Territory, by George W Kingsbury, South Dakota Its History and Its People, edited by George Martin Smith, BA, AM, Vol I, 1915, pp 636-639.

George A. Stombaugh, who has been a resident of South Dakota for the past thirty-five years and is one of the foremost citizens of his section, is an agriculturist residing in Egan, where he has made his home since 1902. His landed holdings were formerly quite extensive, and he still owns a seventy-five acre tract near Egan and a quarter section in Hand county. His birth occurred in Seneca county, Ohio, on the 15th of June, 1845, his father being John Stombaugh. The mother passed away when our subject was but two years of age, and he therefore has no recollection of her. John Stobaugh was a native of Pennsylvania and subsequently removed with his father to Ohio. When his son George was four years of age he took up his abode in Dane county Wisconsin, and later established his home in Sauk county, that state, where he spent the remainder of his life.

George A. Stombaugh was reared in Wisconsin and acquired his education in the common schools. On the 15th of August, 1862, when seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company K, Thirty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, serving for three years and being discharged at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the 9th of August, 1865. He participated in eighteen engagements, was in the rifle pits at the siege of Vicksburg for forty-six days and fought in the battles of Tupelo, Coldwater, Nashville and Red River, and in the siege of Spanish Fort at Mobile, Alabama.

After being honorably discharged from the army Mr. Stombaugh returned to Wisconsin, but remained in that state for only about twenty days and then made his way to Hancock county, Iowa. He was there married on the 19th of August, 1866, to Miss Amelia Knadler, who was born in Germany and was brought to this country when but four years of age. Mr. Stombaugh devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in Hancock county for about thirteen years and in 1879 came to South Dakota, preempting one hundred and sixty acres of land. About a year later he bought a relinquishment on another quarter section which he filed on as a homestead. Subsequently he purchased about two hundred acres additional, but all of this land was later sold. He now owns seventy-five acres near Egan and a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in Hand county. It was in 1902 that he took up his abode in Egan, which has since remianed his home. In the conduct of his farming interests he has won a highly gratifying and well deserved measure of prosperity and has long been numbered among the substantial and representative citizens of his community.

To Mr. and Mrs. Stombaugh have been born six children, but two are deceased, one of whom, Mary Alice, born in October, 1869, was married November 15, 1887, to James Madison of Egan township, and died in October, 1901. Irving owns and operates a farm of two hundred and fifty-seven acrea adjoining Egan; Joseph A. owns and operates a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Moody county; Lottie is the wife of John Hay, an agriculturist who owns a farm of three hundred and sixty acres in Egan township, Moody county; and Millie May is the wife of Earl Henry Sherburne, of Egan.

Mr. Stombaugh gives his political allegiance to the republican party and during the years 1905 and 1906 served as mayor of Egan, giving the town a progressive and businesslike administration productive of much good. He was also a member of the school board for some years and the cause of education has ever found in him a stanch champion. He still maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in C. C. Washburn Post, No. 15, G. A. R., of Egan, and also belongs to Egan Lodge, No. 71, I. O. O. F. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Baptist church, to which his wife likewise belongs. Mr. Stombaugh enjoys an extensive acquaintance throughout the community which has so long been his home, and in all of his dealings with his fellowmen has demonstrated his right to their regard and confidence.

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