Dear Cousins,
This character sketch was written originally for John Thomas Stell by Nancy Rebecka Stell, daughter of Robert Hamilton, and the aunt who reared him after his mother's early death. I inherited the information after the death of Aunt Pauline in 2000, John's wife.
Your Grandfather, Robert Hamilton Stell, son of Thomas Jones Stell and Rebecka Cook Stell, was born in Georgia in 1830. Married Malissa Johnson in Florida in 1853. To them were born four daughters; Henrietta, Lennie, Annie and Nancy Stell. four sons: Thomas Matthew, Jefferson Davis, Robert Hamilton and John Milton Stell. Robert was just a lad when his father, Thomas Jones Stell, moved to Florida, and sent him back to Georgia to complete his education. Of courtly, unassumed manners, he readily fitted in all social functions. Considered very handsome, and because of his voice (a natural), noted for its power, pitch and melody, he was much in demand for sing-songs. Rev. John Gillette, father of Dr. Wm. Gillette, of Cuero, Texas, always requested his services as song leader in his gospel itinerary. Born and reared on a typical southern plantation, farming was his life occupation. On account of his physical disability, he was classed as unsuited for military service in the Confederate war, but served in the home guard. The door of his home stood open as an invitation of welcome entrance to one and all. At the close of the Civil War when our southland lay ravished and crushed, he shared what little was left him with those, if possible, more unfortuante than he, giving his time and counsel in an effot to readjust the poor bewildered slaves to their new cirucmstances, and all of them, next to the God, still loved and honored "Mossa Robert." He ranked high in Masonry, an Order in which the Stell generation has ever been noted for their loyal support. A literal keeper of the Commandment, "thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother", and applying the same to his wife and children, in early manhood he united with he Methodist Church, in which he always held an official position. He lived and died in that faith at Concrete, DeWitt County, Texas, 1870, leaving as a lasting memorial, his deeds of kindness.